we had no means at hand even to move it. But I saw that there was one proof possible to which I could subject the ingot where it stood, and calling for an ordinary carpenter's axe, I dealt it three severe blows on the sharp angle of the prism. The cutting edge of the axe penetrated far into the soft metal, bulging the piece forward but not separating it, as shown in the sketch, Fig. 48. Had it been cast iron those angle-pieces would have been scattered all over the place in red-hot fragments, but their standing firm and undetachable assured me that the metal was malleable.

Notwithstanding the strong views I entertained of the value of my invention, I desired to obtain the unbiassed opinion of some eminent engineer, who might possibly take a very different view from my own. I did not wish to live in a fool's paradise, and was most anxious to know how my ideas would be received by others. I knew Mr. George Rennie very well by reputation, and I invited him to a private view of the process, as carried on in the upright converter. He kindly consented to give me his opinion, came to Baxter House and saw the process, with the result that he took a very deep interest in it. While discussing the subject, after the blow, he said: "This is such an important invention that you ought not to keep the secret another day." "Well," I said, "it is not yet quite a commercial success, and I think I had better perfect it before allowing it to be seen." "Oh," he said, "all the little details requisite will come naturally to the ironmaster; your great principle is an unquestioned success; no fuel, no manipulation, no puddle-balls, no piling and welding; huge masses of any shape made in a few minutes." This truly great engineer was fairly taken by surprise, and his enthusiasm was as great and as genuine as it could have been had he himself been the inventor. All at once he said: "The British Association meets next week at Cheltenham, and I advise you strongly to read a paper on that occasion. I am President this year of the Mechanical Section. I wish I had known of this invention earlier. All our papers are now arranged for the meeting, and yours would be at the bottom of the long list, and it might simply be taken as read and would not be heard at all. But so important is this new process to all engineers that, if you will write a paper, I will take upon myself the responsibility of putting it first on the list." I could not withstand so handsome an offer from so distinguished a source. I told him that I much doubted my ability to write a paper in any way worthy of being read before the British Association, as I had never written or read a paper before any learned society. "Do not fear that," he said. "If you will only put on paper just such a clear and simple account of your process as you have given verbally to me, you will have nothing to fear." Soon after this he took his departure, with many words of encouragement, and I was left face to face with a task that I had not bargained for. I, however, at once set to work, and, having completed my paper in a few days, I left London on Tuesday, the 12th August, 1856, for Cheltenham.

On the following morning, while finishing my breakfast at the hotel, I was sitting next to Mr. Clay, the manager of the Mersey Forge, at Liverpool, to whom I was well known, when a gentleman who turned out to be Mr. Budd, a well-known Welsh ironmaker, came up to the breakfast-table, and, seating himself opposite my friend, said to him; "Clay, I want you to come with me into one of the Sections this morning, for we shall have some good fun." The reply was: "I am sorry that I am specially engaged this morning, or I would have done so with pleasure." "Oh, you must come, Clay," said Mr. Budd. "Do you know, that there is actually a fellow come down from London to read a paper on the manufacture of malleable iron without fuel? Ha, ha, ha!" "Oh," said Mr. Clay, "that's just where this gentleman and I are going." "Come along, then" said Mr. Budd, and we all rose from the table and proceeded towards the rooms occupied by the Mechanical Section. It was getting rather late, the room was well filled, and I, dropping the arm of my friend, ascended the raised platform and was cordially received by the President. Soon after, when the general bustle had subsided, Mr. George Rennie stood up, and in a few appropriate words explained that, at the eleventh hour, he had become acquainted with the fact that a most important discovery had been made in the manufacture of iron and steel, and he had considered it desirable that a paper describing the invention should be read at that meeting. As the papers for that section had already been arranged, he had ventured on a step which he hoped would be excused by all those gentlemen who had favoured them by preparing papers for that occasion. He considered that the paper about to be read was too important to be put at the tail end of the list, and, as the only alternative, he had ventured to put it at the head. He had great pleasure in introducing to the meeting the inventor, Mr. Henry Bessemer, who would now read his Paper on "The Manufacture of Iron Without Fuel."