Eardley Wilmot. Another, but smaller, bar of iron had been rolled, cut up and piled, and again rolled into a long bar of small section. One of the ends cut off from this bar, showing the overlapping of some parts of the pile, has fortunately been preserved, and is now in the glass-case of old specimens which I presented some years ago to the Iron and Steel Institute. I also exhibited a large mass of fractured decarburised iron of silvery whiteness, and some broken ingots of malleable, iron, etc.

The first person to rise after the reading of the paper was the late Mr. James Nasmyth, who occupied a seat near me on the platform. He held up between his thumb and finger a small fragment of wholly decarburised iron, and enthusiastically exclaimed, "Gentlemen, this is a true British nugget." Then in glowing terms he referred to the novelty of the process, the rapid conversion into malleable iron of the molten iron as it came direct from the blast furnace, the power the process afforded of dealing with immense masses, the absence of all skilled labour, and the non-employment of fuel. All this, he said, pointed to results so vast and so commercially important, that it was impossible to grasp the full effect it must have both on the iron and engineering interests of this and of every other country. This paper had come upon him quite unexpectedly, and the true instinct of the engineer and man of science rose above all other considerations. He forgot how his own personal interests might be affected by it, and in his enthusiasm he said: "I am not going in any way to claim priority of thought or action, but I cannot forget that a few years ago I patented, in the puddling process, the use of steam, which was blown through the bar or 'rabble' with which the puddling operations are carried on. This might be called a first step on the same road; but Mr. Bessemer has gone miles beyond it, and I do not hesitate to say that I may go home from this meeting and tear up my now useless patent." Mr. Nasmyth resumed his seat amid a storm of cheers. Surely all who heard that noble speech, however much they might have honoured Mr. Nasmyth as an improver of the puddling process, must have honoured him infinitely more for thus throwing over his own production, and fearlessly advocating an invention that so utterly destroyed the value of his own.

I must not forget to mention that Mr. Budd -- who may be well excused for the feeling of ridicule inspired by the extraordinary title of my paper -- was the next to rise at the meeting. He said he had listened with deep interest to the important details of this invention, and if Mr. Bessemer desired an opportunity of commercially testing it, he should be most happy to afford him every possible facility. His ironworks were entirely at Mr. Bessemer's disposal, and if he liked to avail himself of this offer, it should not cost him a penny. This generous proposal made ample amends for the little joke at the breakfast table, and was received with hearty cheers; after some further discussion, and the reading of some other papers, the meeting broke up. As I was about to leave, The Times reporter was introduced to me, and he told me that he had not paid sufficient attention to the first part of my paper, as the ironmasters present seemed to treat it rather as a good joke than as a reality, and, taking his cue from them, he had not made so full a report as he desired. But the enthusiastic way in which the latter part of my paper was received on all sides, made him desirous of giving a much fuller report than he had done. He further said: "If you will be kind enough to lend me your paper, I will promise you that every word of it shall appear in The Times to-morrow." I was much pleased with his proposal, and at once handed him my paper, which duly appeared in extenso on the following morning as promised, and from The Times report of August 14th, 1856, the copy just given is reproduced. It is impossible to gauge with any degree of accuracy the effect, social or political, of the hundreds of articles that, from time to time, have appeared in that influential and widely-circulated journal, but when we view the publication of this particular paper from a national point of view, it simply defies any estimate of the magnitude of the interests involved.

And yet this high appreciation of my invention by Mr. George Rennie, and the announcement of it to the whole world through the columns of The Times, was like a two-edged sword; for, while on the one hand it was the direct cause of bringing to my aid the sinews of war, and assisted me in fighting the great battle of vested interests arrayed against me, on the other hand it had a fearful disadvantage, which might have wrecked all. In listening to the kind words of Mr. George Rennie, I too readily allowed myself to bring my invention under public notice. I should not have done so until all the details of the process had been worked out, and I had made it a great commercial (and not merely a scientific) fact. My premature disclosure brought down upon me a wild pack of hungry wolves, fighting with me, and with each other, for a share of what was to be made by this new discovery. To these eager adventurers,