was the primary barrier which stopped my way; and when this difficulty was removed, by the absence of tap cinder from the hematite furnaces, we could obtain pig iron which was as free from phosphorus as the puddled bar iron used in Sheffield for conversion into steel; and with this Bessemer pig good steel could readily be made by my process, when there was used in conjunction with it the well-known remedy for red-shortness, carburet of manganese.

In the meantime, our Sheffield works had commenced commercial operations, and we made no secret that we used spiegeleisen for recarburising the converted metal. We patiently waited for the injunction in Chancery that was to stop its use. But neither Mr. Mushet nor others took any steps to enforce their patent rights. Another year or two passed quietly by, and our steel works at Sheffield, and those of our licensees, were daily increasing the quantity of Bessemer steel placed upon the market. No attempt was made to prevent us using manganese; but, nevertheless, for some months the air was filled with vague reports of legal proceedings. A "round-robin" had, it was said, been filled up with subscribers to the extent of £l0,000, and even high legal luminaries and eminent engineers and experts in Great George Street were supposed to be definitely retained. These rumours were very vague; nevertheless, they cropped up in various different quarters over a period of many months. I personally took very little heed of them, feeling absolutely secure in my patent claims; no doubt a careful search through a thousand old iron patents might unearth a few vague expressions to which legal ingenuity, under the new light thrown upon the subject by me, might give an outward appearance of similarity with my invention; but I had always remembered that my claim was "to force atmospheric air beneath the surface of crude molten iron until it was thereby rendered malleable, and had acquired other properties common to cast steel, while still retaining the fluid state." This I felt absolutely certain no man but myself had patented, and so I slept soundly in spite of rumour, which, however, I did not doubt had some foundation.

For a period of more than two and a-half years (1857-60) after the date of Mr. Mushet's three manganese patents, I had no intimation of any kind that either I, or my licensees, were infringing any of these patents. But about three or four months prior to the date when a further £100 stamp was required to be impressed on them, to prevent their forfeiture, I received a letter from a Mr. Clare, of Birmingham, calling himself Mr. Mushet's agent for the sale of steel, and requesting an interview with me and my partner at my office in London on the following morning. On his arrival, he explained the object of his visit; it was simply to say that Mr. Mushet was prepared to grant me a license to use his manganese patents for a nominal sum; he merely wanted his rights acknowledged. I then told Mr. Clare that we considered that Mr. Mushet had acquired no rights under either of his three manganese patents, and that we entirely repudiated them. I also told him that we were anxious to meet any claims legally preferred; that we were prepared, on any day to be mutually arranged, to receive Mr. Mushet and his solicitors and witnesses at the Sheffield Works; that we would allow them to see the crude iron converted and re-carburised with spiegeleisen, made into an ingot and forged into a bar, and that I would personally take that bar to one of my customers and sell it to him in their presence; and then the prosecution of our firm for infringement would be a very simple matter. This offer resulted in Mr. Clare's retirement from my office, and after that interview we never heard from him, or from Mr. Mushet, on the subject.

It will be within the memory of my readers that when we had got into full swing with the new process at Sheffield, and had been successful not only in making high-class tool steel from Swedish charcoal pig iron, but also mild steel for constructive purposes from Bessemer pig, I read a paper at the Institution of Civil Engineers, on which occasion many beautiful samples of steel were exhibited, made by my process in France, in Sweden, and at Sheffield. At the reading of this paper Mr. Thomas Brown, of whom I have frequently spoken, was present.

Referring to my process, Mr. Brown said that he had been sanguine of its success, and had spent £7000 in endeavouring to carry it out; but he did not say that he had no license from me to make this secret use of my invention. The annexed extract from the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers furnishes a report of his remarks :--