Here was the remedy I was in search of, clearly pointed out; experienced Sheffield steel-makers had testified on oath that the use of carburet of manganese, added to the cast steel, enabled the latter to produce welding cast steel suitable for the manufacture of cutlery from low-priced British iron, which had never before been done. No sooner had I ascertained these facts than I commenced experiments on the production of Heath's carburet of manganese in crucibles, using the air-furnace which I had many years previously successfully employed to produce all the various alloys of metal required in my bronze- powder manufactory at Baxter House.

I well remember how much trouble I had with the first few experiments, in which I used charcoal and black oxide of manganese, the charcoal, ground to a very fine powder, being much in excess of the quantity actually required. This was a great mistake, as the reduced oxide remained in minute metallic particles, intermixed with the overdose of charcoal powder. This mistake was afterwards remedied, coarse granular charcoal in suitable proportion being used. I have never publicly referred to these early experiments, simply because I was unaware that I had, or could show, any evidence of the fact; and, as is my rule in all such cases, I preferred to remain absolutely silent, not only in reference to these early experiments to produce carburet of manganese, but also as to my initiation of the manufacture of alloys of iron rich in manganese, which are now so well known under the name of ferro-manganese. But a purely accidental circumstance has, within the last few years, furnished me with such conclusive evidence of the fact as to make me no longer hesitate to show how far I was instrumental in the production of that valuable alloy, ferro-manganese.

In searching through the contents of an old box I had brought to Denmark Hill from Queen Street Place on my retirement from business, I came upon six old pocket-memorandum books, in which I, from time to time, had recorded many experiments on alloys, mechanical contrivances, suggestions for new patents, etc. In one of these old books, bearing on its flyleaf the date January 8th, 1852, written forty-five years ago by my deceased partner Longsdon, I found several memoranda relating to my first attempt to make Heath's carburet of manganese, which were the direct outcome of the information I had obtained from Dr. Ure's book. These researches were made about a month before any one of Mr. Mushet's patents was published or could possibly be known to the world. It will be seen that these memoranda were roughly made on the spur of the moment, and were simply for my own guidance, or to prevent ideas and experiments from being forgotten.

I give a facsimile of some of them in Fig. 78, page 284.
It will be remembered by many members of the Iron and Steel Institute that it was in one of these old memorandum books that I came upon my notes relative to the manufacture of what were designated "Meteoric Guns," to be made by alloying malleable iron or steel with 3 per cent. of nickel; a photograph of these notes was communicated by me to the Institute, and published in their Journal, Vol. 18. Had it not been for this accidental discovery of memoranda made at the time, and the existence of which had been entirely forgotten, I should never have reverted to this subject, since the mere adoption of Heath's process could in no way add to whatever credit I may be entitled to for the discovery and development of the Bessemer process.

These old records of experiments will serve to show the difficulties that one meets with from the most trivial circumstances. The fact was that my air-furnace, which was designed for making bronze alloys, was deficient in temperature when treating such a refractory ore as oxide of manganese, and produced only a few buttons of reduced metal.

I had found, in making alloys of copper and tungsten for bronze powders that the mineral wolfram was most difficult to bring to the metallic state, but was reduced easily if crushed and mixed with oxide of copper, or with refuse "copper-bronze," that is, a fine powder with pure copper. Thus copper, alloyed with tungsten, was readily obtained. This fact of the union of metals in the act of simultaneous reduction from their oxides, of which I had some practical experience, at once suggested to me that the difficulty in reducing oxide of manganese would be removed, by combining it in the form of powder with oxide of iron, which is so easily fused, and then reducing the two metals simultaneously. I clearly saw, at the same time, that this system of alloying the manganese with iron would prevent the spontaneous decomposition