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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
108
Before
the
introduction
of
this
furnace,
attempts
had
been
made
to
produce
cast-steel
without
the
use
of
a
crucible--that
is
to
say,
on
the
'open
hearth'
of
the
furnace.
Reaumur
was
probably
the
first
to
show
that
steel
could
be
made
by
fusing
malleable
iron
with
cast-iron.
Heath
patented
the
process
in
1845;
and
a
quantity
of
cast-steel
was
actually
prepared
in
this
way,
on
the
bed
of
a
reverberatory
furnace,
by
Sudre,
in
France,
during
the
year
1860.
But
the
furnace
was
destroyed
in
the
act;
and
it
remained
for
Siemens,
with
his
regenerative
furnace,
to
realise
the
object.
In
1862
Mr.
Charles
Atwood,
of
Tow
Law,
agreed
to
erect
such
a
furnace,
and
give
the
process
a
fair
trial;
but
although
successful
in
producing
the
steel,
he
was
afraid
its
temper
was
not
satisfactory,
and
discontinued
the
experiment.
Next
year,
however,
Siemens,
who
was
not
to
be
disheartened,
made
another
attempt
with
a
large
furnace
erected
at
the
Montlucon
Works,
in
France,
where
he
was
assisted
by
the
late
M.
le
Chatellier,
Inspecteur-General
des
Mines.
Some
charges
of
steel
were
produced;
but
here
again
the
roof
of
the
furnace
melted
down,
and
the
company
which
had
undertaken
the
trials
gave
them
up.
The
temperature
required
for
the
manufacture
of
the
steel
was
higher
than
the
melting
point
of
most
fire-bricks.
Further
endeavours
also
led
to
disappointments;
but
in
the
end
the
inventor
was
successful.
He
erected
experimental
works
at
Birmingham,
and
gradually
matured
his
process
until
it
was
so
far
advanced
that
it
could
be
trusted
to
the
hands
of
others.
Siemens
used
a
mixture
of
cast-steel
and
iron
ore
to
make
the
steel;
but
another
manufacturer,
M.
Martin,
of
Sireuil,
in
France,
developed
the
older
plan
of
mixing
the
cast-iron
with
wrought-iron
scrap.
While
Siemens
was
improving
his
means
at
Birmingham,
Martin
was
obtaining
satisfactory
results
with
a
regenerative
furnace
of
his
own
design;
and
at
the
Paris
Exhibition
of
1867
samples
of
good
open-hearth
steel
were
shown
by
both
manufacturers.
In
England
the
process
is
now
generally
known
as
the
'Siemens-Martin,'
and
on
the
Continent
as
the
'Martin-Siemens'
process.
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