Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S. : An autobiography

Chapter I Early Days

Introductory — Parentage — Flight from Paris — Childhood and Youth at Charlton — Early Days in London — Art Castings from Natural Objects — Copper-coated Medallions — Acquaintance with Dr. Ure — “ Lost Wax” Castings — Dies for Stamping Cardboard -

Chapter V The Manufacture Of Bronze Powder

Early Schemes for Making Bronze Powder — First Experiments — Failure — Microscopic Examination — Fresh Attempt — The First Success — Prepara¬ tions for the Manufacture of Bronze Powder — Designing Bronze Powder Machinery — The Erection of the Machinery — Making Coloured Bronzes —

The Manufacture of Gold Paint — “Charlton House” — Introduction to Mr. Robert Longsdon — A German Spy — A Defence of the Patent Law

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VI

CONTENTS

Chapter VI Improvements In Sugar Manufacture

The Society of Arts Gold Medal Offered for Improvements — Experiments with Canes — Invention of Cane Press — Presentation of the Gold Medal-

Chapter VII A Holiday In Germany

A Police-Court Adventure — Home Again ....

Chapter VIII Improvements In Glass Manufacture

Optical Glass — Experiments with Viscid Fluids — Furnace for Making Optical Glass — Mixing Materials for Glass-making — Open-Hearth Glass Furnace — Continuous Sheet Glass Furnace — Interview with Mr. Chance — Project for Glass Works in London — Pneumatic Glass Polishing Table — Silvering Glass Mirrors ......

Chapter XII The Bessemer Process

The First Bessemer Ingot' — The Cheltenham Meeting of the British Association — The Cheltenham Paper, 1856 — Imitations of the Bessemer Process — The Introduction of the Bessemer Process — The first Licensees — An Offer of Purchase of Patents — Early Difficulties with the Bessemer Process — Phosphoric Pig Hon — The Introduction of Bessemer Tool Steel — The Profits of the Sheffield Works . - - - -

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CONTENTS

Vll

Chapter XIII Bessemer Steel And Colonel Eardley Wilmot

Bessemer Pig — Bessemer Steel Works at Sheffield — The First Malleable Iron Gun — Swedish Iron — Investigations at Woolwich — Bessemer Steel-making at Sheffield .....

Chapter XIV The Bessemer Process And The War Office

Interview with the Secretary of State for War — Early Difficulties — Steel Gun- Tubes — Colonel Wilmot’s experiments— Tests made at Woolwich

Chapter XV Bessemer Steel : The Armstrong Controversy

Pressed Steel Cups — Bessemer Steel Boiler Plates — Experiments with Bessemer Steel — Steel Guns — Cost of Bessemer Steel — Bessemer Steel versus Wrought Iron — Built-up Steel Guns — Bessemer Steel-making at Sheffield

Chapter XVI Bessemer Steel Guns

Bessemer Steel at Woolwich — Rejection of Delivery — Bessemer Iron and Steel — Paper at the Institution of Civil Engineers — Steel-making at Sheffield — Gun-making at Sheffield — Paper Read before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Sheffield — The Exhibition of 1862 — Cost of Bessemer Steel — The Sale of Part of the Bessemer Patents — Government Compensation to the Els wick Ordnance Factory — Bessemer Steel for Guns -

Chapter XVII Cast Steel For Shipbuilding

Bessemer Steel for Boiler Plates — Steel for Shipbuilding — Sir X. Barnaby on Steel Ship-plates — Tests of Bessemer Steel Boiler-plates at Crewe

Chapter XVIII Manganese In Steel-making

Patents relating to the Use of Manganese in Steel-making — Heath’s Patent, and Use of Manganese — Martien and Mushet’s Inventions — Manganese and Pitch — Spiegeleisen in Steel-making — Fluid-compressed Steel — The Dis¬ advantages of Spiegeleisen — Franklinite — The Manufacture of Ferro- Manganese — Swedish Bessemer Steel — The Bessemer Process in Austria — The Neuberg Works in Austria — Honours and Recognitions — The Effect of Manganese on Steel — Carburet of Manganese — Alloys of Iron and Manganese — Visit to Cornwall — The Production of Bessemer Pig-iron — Early Experiments at Ebbw Vale — Interview with Miss Mushet — The Death of Mr. Mushet -

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CONTENTS

Chapter XIX Ebbw Vale

A Momentous J ourney — Interview with Mr. David Chadwick — Ultimatum Offered to the Ebbw Yale Company — Agreement with the Ebbw Yale Company — End of Opposition -

Chapter XX The Bessemer Saloon Steam-ship

First Design of the Bessemer Saloon — Working Model of the Bessemer Saloon — The Formation of a Company — The Design of the Hull — The Saloon — The Control of the Bessemer Saloon — Sir E. J. Reed’s Letter to The Times — The Builders of the Ship — Financial Difficulties of the Bessemer Saloon Ship Company — The Collision with Calais Pier — The First Trip of the Bessemer Saloon Steam-ship — The Second Trip — Liquidation of the Company ......

Conclusion

List of Patents granted to Henry Bessemer, 1838-1883 — Skill as a Draughtsman — Reminiscences — Early Struggles — First Steel Rails — Bessemer Steel at the Exhibition of 1862 — First Bessemer Steel hi the United States — American Bessemer Plant — The Original of the Popojfka — The “ Dial of life” — Nasmyth’s System of Puddling — The Occupation of Bessemer’s Later Years — Lens and Mirror Grinding Machine — Telescope — Solar Furnace — Diamond Polishing — Mr. W. D. Allen — Resolution Passed by the Iron and Steel Institute on Sir Henry Bessemer’s Death — Bessemer Cities in the United States — A Billion Dissected — Easter and the Coal Question — Death of Lady Bessemer — Death of Sir Henry Bessemer — Bessemer’s Parents ......

PAGES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS f>

Jf

To face page To face page

FIG.

Portrait of Sir Henry Bessemer -

1. (Plate I.) Copy in Relief of Raphael Cartoon

2. (Plate II.) Copy of Oval Medallion

3. Extract from Dr. Ure’s Dictionary, “ Electro-Metallurgy ”

4. (Plate III.) Government Deed Stamp

5. ( „ „ ) Bessemer Perforated Stamp -

6. (Plate IY.) Facsimile of Lord Beaconsfield’s Letter - 7 and 8. Method of Compressing Plumbago Dust 9 to 11. (Plates Y. and VI.) Reproductions of Medals and Medallions

12 to 14. Young’s Type-Composing Machine

15. (Plate VII.) Reproductions of Stamped Utrecht Velvet

16. Diagram Showing Base of Pyramids for Bronze Powder

17. Sugar-cane Passing between Rolls

18. (Plate VIII.) Side Elevation of the Bessemer Sugar-press 19 and 20. Vertical Section and Plan of Bessemer Sugar-cane Press, 1849

21. Section of Fireclay Saucer and Glass Disc ...

22 and 23. Experiment showing Air Carried into a Viscid Fluid by a Stirrer

24. (Plate IX.) Furnace for Making Optical Glass - To face page

25 and 26. (Plate X.) Furnace and Rolls for making Continuous Sheet Glass „

27 and 28. (Plate XI.) Elevation and Section of Glass Works Designed by

Mr. Longsdon - - - To face page

29 to 32. Bessemer’s Pneumatic Polishing Table for Plate Glass

33. Section of Experimental Mortar - - - - -

34. Model of Bessemer’s Revolving Shot .... 35 to 37. (Plate XII.) Vertical and Horizontal Sections of Furnace for Malleable

Iron ... -To face page

38 to 41. (Plate XIII.) Sections of Crucible with Blow-pipe, and of Forms of Vertical Fixed Converters - - To face page

42. (Plate XIV.) Section of Converter, Ladle, and Hydraulic Ingot

Mould - - - - - To face page

43. (Plate XV.) The First Form of Bessemer Moveable Converter and

Ladle - - - - To face page

PAGE

Frontispiece To face page 13

„ 13

91 102

105 111

143 146 148

FIG.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(Plate XYI.) Early Form of Bessemer Converting Plant at Sheffield

(Plate XVII.) Bessemer Plant at Sheffield : Converters, Ladle and Crane, and Casting Pit - - - - To face page

(Plate XVIII.) Plan of Bessemer Plant at Sheffield - „

Ingot Crane ; Bessemer Plant at Sheffield -

Malleable Iron Ingot ------

(Plate XIX.) Specimens of Bessemer Steel Gun Tubes - To face page

Bessemer Steel Boiler Plate being Pressed into a Cup (1861) - (Plate XX.) Bessemer Steel Boiler Plate Pressed into a Cup (1861)

(Plate XXI.) Square Bar of Bessemer Metal Twisted Cold, and Shown at Sheffield, 1861 - - - To face page

(Plate XXII.) Square Bar of Bessemer Steel Twisted Cold, and Shown at Sheffield, 1861 - - - - To face page

(Plate XXIII.) Square Bars of Bessemer Steel Twisted Cold, and shown at Sheffield, 1861 - - - - To face page

Pressing Bessemer Steel Block for Rifle Barrel

(Plate XXIV.) Disintegrated Wrought Iron Bars - To face page (Plate XXV.) Bessemer Mild Steel Bar, Flattened under Hammer

Particulars of Tool Steel supplied to Woolwich Arsenal, 1859 - (Plate XXVI.) Bessemer Steel Locomotive Tyre, Tested under Hammer - ( „ „ ) Section of Bessemer Steel Gun supplied to the Belgian

Government, 1860 - - - To face page

Forged Bessemer Steel Gun, with Test Pieces -

(Plate XXVII.) Group of Test-pieces from Bessemer Gun Forgings

(Plate XXVIII.) Bessemer Steel Gun Test-piece, Shown at the Meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Sheffield, 1861. To face page (Plate XXIX.) Bessemer Steel Gun Test-piece, Shown at the Meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Sheffield, 1861. To face page (Plate XXX.) The Bessemer Display at the International Exhibition, London, 1862 - - - - To face page

(Plate XXXI.) Alleged Faulty Bessemer Plate, 1875 „

System of Testing Bessemer Steel Plates adopted at Crewe by Mr. F. W. Webb ------

(Plate XXXII.) Examples of Bessemer Steel Plate “ Spun” into Vases, etc. - - - - - To face page

(Plate XXXIII.) Test Specimens of Bessemer Steel made at Sheffield, 1859-1869 - - - - To face page

Experimental Apparatus for Exposing Molten Steel to the Action of a Vacuum ------

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

XI

FIG.

77. (Plate XXXIV.) Reproduction of a page from the Supplement to Dr. Ure’s

“ Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines ” - To face page

78. Facsimile reproduction from Bessemer’s Note-book -

79. (Plate XXXV.) Facsimile of Pages from Bessemer’s Note-book. To face page

80. (Plate XXXVI). Statuary and Clock in Sir Henry Bessemer’s Hall at

Denmark Hill . - - - To face page

81 and 82. (Plate XXXVII.) Sections Through Early Form of Bessemer Saloon in

Still Water, and with Vessel Rolling - - To face page

83. (Plate XXXVIII.) Model of Bessemer Saloon, with Hull in Horizontal

Position - - - - To face page

84. (Plate XXXIX.) Model of Bessemer Saloon, with Hull inclined. „

85. (Plate XL.) Transverse Section of Saloon on the Channel Steamer

“Bessemer” - - - - To face page

86. (Plate XLI.) General View of the Bessemer Saloon Steam-ship. „

87. (Plate XLII.) Intei’ior of Saloon, Bessemer Saloon Steam-ship „

88. (Plate XLIII.) View of Sir Henry Bessemer’s Residence at Denmark Hill

89. (Plate XLIV.) The Conservatory at Denmark Hill - „

90. (Plate XLV.) The Grotto at Denmark Hill - ,,

91. “Dial of Life,” for Mr. James Nasmyth -

92. “Dial of Life,” for Sir Henry Bessemer -

93. (Plate XLVI.) Facsimile of a Letter from Mr. James Nasmyth. To face page 94 and 95. Lens and Mirror Grinding Machine ....

96. (Plate XLVEL) The Observatory, Denmark Hill - To face page

97. (Plate XLVIII.) Gallery Floor of Observatory - „

98. (Plate XLIX.) Interior of Observatory, Ground Floor „

99 and 100. The Bessemer Solar Furnace -----

101 to 103. Diamond Polishing Machine -----

104. Method of Driving Diamond Polishing Machines

105. Method of Driving Diamond Polishing Machines

106. Sketches of Steel Wheel and Steel Rail; London and North-Western

Railway ------

107. Solid Steel Column Illustrating the World’s Production of Bessemer Steel

(Plate L.) Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Bessemer To face page

PAGE

352 352 352 355

Preface

XT is fifty years since Henry Bessemer made the great invention which has rendered his name famous, not only in English-speaking countries, but also in all civilised communities, and it is seven years since he died. If this Autobiography had dealt with the story of a lesser man, its appearance so long after his death might have reduced its interest and value so far as to render it scarcely worth while to place the narrative before the reader. But lapse of time cannot tarnish the lustre of Henry Bessemer’s memory, nor can common and world- wide use of the great invention that crowned it, render uninteresting a story of the struggles through which he passed and the battles he had to fight before the world became enriched by his inventive genius.

The late Abram S. Hewitt, himself an engineer of universal reputation, and one of the pioneers of the Bessemer Process in the United States, speaking at the American meeting of the London Iron and Steel Institute, in 1890, said : —

A very few considerations will serve to show that the Bessemer invention takes its rank with the great events which have changed the face of society since the time of the Middle Ages. The invention of printing, the construction of the magnetic compass, the discovery of America, and the introduction of the steam-engine, are the only capital events in modern history which belong to the same category as the Bessemer process. They are all examples of the law and progress which evolve social and moral results from material discoveries and inventions. It is inconceivable to us how the world ever existed without the appliances of modern civilisation ; and it is quite certain that if we were deprived of the results of these inventions the greater portion of the human race would perish by starvation, and the remainder would relapse into barbarism. I know it is very high praise to class the

XIV

PREFACE invention of Bessemer with these great achievements, but I think a careful survey of the situation will lead us to the conclusion that no one of these has been more potent in preparing the way for the higher civilisation which awaits the coming century than the pneumatic process for the manufacture of steel .... The name of Bessemer will therefore be added to the honourable roll of men who have succeeded in spreading the gospel of “Peace on earth and goodwill toward men,” which our Divine Master came on earth to teach and encourage.

The words of Abram S. Hewitt are frequently quoted in the following pages, always in the same spirit of appreciation of the great inventor ; but on no other occasion did he so justly and clearly crystallise his opinion of Bessemer as in the foregoing passage addressed to the Iron and Steel Institute, at a time when all the futile attempts that had been made to deprive Bessemer of the profit and glory of his great invention, had faded into almost forgotten history, and its practical outcome in the United States was measured by millions of tons of steel every year.

On an early page of this volume the author tells us he makes no claim to literary merit. He, certainly, was without training in the art of writing, but the happy gift, which characterised all his mechanical work, of instinctively selecting the simplest and best means of attaining a given end, did not desert him here. He wrote just as he talked, and infused into his writing the charm of his conversation. It was one of the great pleasures of his latter years to discuss with his old and valued friends — the proprietors of Engineering — the details of his Autobiography, and each printed page is more or less a reflection of the man himself in his varying moods. The eighty-five years of busy life which had been allotted him, had in no measure dimmed his memory, or even paled his enthusiasm : and in his Autobiography he lived over again the ambitions of youth, the struggles of manhood, the bitterness of injustice, the pleasure of appreciation, and the satisfaction of success. The world, as it recollects Bessemer, only knew him as the triumphant inventor, but in this volume we tread with him the thorny road to

PREFACE

XV success, and more than that, he shows us the seamy side of the inventor’s career.

Unfortunately, this Autobiography is not complete ; even a Chapter of the history of the steel process is wanting — that recording its brilliant success in the United States. Sir Henry laid down his pen only a year before he died, but his self-told story goes no further than the episode of the Bessemer Saloon Steamer, in 1872. After that incident was closed he retired into private life, but not to a life of idleness. He had many occupations : the beautifying of his home ; the installation of a large diamond-cutting and finishing plant ; his telescope and observatory ; his method of cutting and polishing optical lenses ; his solar furnace ; all these and other things kept him very busy, and formed not the least interesting part of his long life. It is unfortunate that he has left no consecutive record of this period ; but he did leave many drawings, letters, and other documents referring to it, and from these has been prepared the supplementary Chapter which concludes the present volume.

Chapter I Early Days

T710R many years past my most intimate friends have urged on me the desirability of giving to the world an authentic account of the origin and progress of the several inventions which together constitute what has, by common consent, been called the “ Bessemer Steel Process ; ” thus tracing back to their earliest inception the various ideas and incidents which have led, by almost imperceptible degrees, to the development and practical working of that great steel industry, which, in so short a period, has spread itself over the whole of the continents of Europe and North America.

If we contemplate the rise and progress of almost all the great industries of the world, we find their origins lost in the mist of ages, with but few indications remaining of their gradual progress and development, or even of the names of those persons to whom we are indebted for their discovery.

This difficulty in tracing the origin of inventions is not less marked at the present day, when the increased rate of progress in all things brings about, in a few short years, a succession of changes, which, in olden times, centuries were required to effect ; for the inventor of to-day is to-morrow overshadowed by the accumulated mass of improvements that follow in the wake of every new discovery.

I well remember how the world was startled by the great discovery of Daguerre how few minds could, at the first moment of its announce¬ ment, realise the wondrous fact that by the aid of chemistry combined with knowledge, he had seized upon and trapped the fleeting shadow on his silver plate and held it there immovable for ever.

* The production of Daguerreotype plates was announced on February 6th, 1839

B

The mind had scarce time to grasp the importance of this marvellous discovery before there commenced that ceaseless flow of inventive talent which, growing with years, has wholly submerged the original invention of Daguerre. Process succeeded process with immense rapidity. At every step new ground was covered ; more beautiful and more permanent effects were almost daily produced by scientific investigators whose name was legion ; until at last the glorious orb of day has taken over the business of the engraver, and daily produces its hundreds of deeplyetched blocks from which our common printing machines throw off their thousands of printed sheets with the same facility with which they print a page of common type. In the midst of these marvels of modern invention we look around and exclaim, “ Where is now Daguerre ? ” and echo answers “ Where ? ” Simply buried beneath the huge monument which, instead of being raised to his fame, has placed him out of sight and out of memory.

I have referred thus prominently to this great discovery ot Daguerre and its subsequent marvellous developments, not only because it made a deep impression on my youthful imagination at the time, but because I purpose making a somewhat extensive use of photography in illustrating the following pages, where its absolute truthfulness will afford indisputable evidence of some facts which would otherwise have been altogether omitted, rather than allow them to rest on the uncorroborated testimony of the writer. At the same time this beautiful art will serve to illustrate many existing objects, an equally realistic idea of which the most elaborate description would fail to impart.

It is to the rapid passing into oblivion of great inventions like that of Daguerre that I attribute the pressure of my kind friends who ask me to give them some account of my early life and its relation to the more immediate past, while yet the process which bears my name remains an existing fact among us, aud has not been engulfed in that ever-advancing tide of scientific knowledge and commercial enterprise which sweeps away the past and leaves us face to face only with the present.

So energetic in this matter was my friend, Mr. Price Williams, that some years ago he called on me with Mr. Samuel Smiles, LL.D.,

INTRODUCTORY whose well-known talent as a biographer had all but tempted me to commit this task to him. We had a long consultation on the subject, but I could not feel that my life and its labours vTere a theme which could be treated in such a way as to make them interesting to the general reader, even when clothed in the beautiful language and charming style of that eminent writer. There were none of the exciting incidents of travel to relate : no hairbreadth escapes, no dangers by land and sea, to seize upon and captivate the imagination. Indeed, I could not help feeling that my daily pursuits were of too technical a character to supply the necessary materials to form an interesting book ; and if the narrative were simply treated in the plain matter-of-fact style of which alone I was capable, I felt it would have inevitably failed to be of sufficient interest, either to the general reader or to the man of science. Thus the proposed biography wTas for the time abandoned.

Nevertheless, several of my friends have from time to time tried to induce me to write a concise account of my steel invention in my own quiet wray. More especially was this view7 commended to my notice by my old friend Alexander Hollingsworth and his colleagues, the able editors of Engineering, William H. Maw and James Dredge. Thus it was in the year 1884 I found myself busily engaged in preparing large coloured drawings of the converting and other apparatus, and in the course of two or three months at least a dozen drawings were completed, from which photographic copies on a reduced scale were made on wood-blocks to illustrate the work I had just begun. At this time I was also engaged designing the whole of the machinery about to be erected by my grandson, William Bessemer Wright, at the new diamond mills in Clerkenwell ; and I became so deeply engrossed in working out the details of several experimental diamond-cutting machines which were in course of con¬ struction on my owm premises at Denmark Hill, that by degrees my attention was gradually more and more drawn from the book I had commenced, and I became at last wholly absorbed in the more congenial work of construction going on every day in my workshop. Again the long-contemplated autobiography was laid aside, and I must confess that there always was in my mind an undercurrent of feeling averse to the task.

I have at all times keenly experienced the difficulty, which must necessarily confront an author when speaking of himself, and of what he has accomplished, of setting forth what I have done and what credit I am entitled to, without appearing to be self-assertive, and displaying a personal bias in relation to certain controversial matters into which I am obliged to enter. From this difficulty I see no way of escape without abandoning the work laid upon me by the importunity of my friends. I have, therefore, resolved to follow out rigidly the unenviable task of self-assertion, and not to shrink from fearlessly and truthfully claiming what is due to me, just as though I were speaking of some other person, whose advocate for the time I had constituted myself. And I shall, with equal candour, point out the persistent opposition and obstructive tactics to which my invention has been subjected in a few prominent cases ; while, on the other hand, I shall with pleasure place on record my grateful acknowledgments to those in the world of science who have honoured me by their kind appreciation : a gratitude which is also due from me to the many iron and steel manufacturers who have unreservedly acknowledged my patent-rights, and with rigid and scrupulous honour have fulfilled to the letter all their engagements with me.

Having thus entered upon a task so long deferred, I shall endeavour to make assured accuracy of historical detail take the place of literary ability, which I know but too well will be only conspicuous by its absence in these pages. Fortunately, I am in a position to review the past wholly uninfluenced by any mercantile considerations, having long ceased to possess pecuniary interests in the iron or steel manufacture ; and having arrived at that late period of life when there is no desire for new worlds to conquer, and there are no strong ambitions to bias the mind and obscure the judgment.

The name of Bessemer does not sound like an English one, and has often given rise to doubts as to my nationality. I may therefore mention a few facts in relation to my father. He was born at No. 6, Old Broad Street, in the City of London, and at the age of eleven years was taken to Holland by his parents, who settled there. In due time he was articled to a mechanical engineer, and during his apprenticeship assisted in erecting the first steam-engine in Holland, this engine being employed in draining the turf pits near Haarlem.

MY FATHER’S EARLY CAREER

After arriving at the age of twenty-one, my father went to Paris, and there commenced a career which did him much honour. At the early age of twenty-six he was made a member of the Academy of Sciences, as a reward for a great improvement he had effected in the microscope. He was at that period engaged in the Paris Mint, and while there invented that very simple and beautiful machine now known as the Portrait Lathe, by means of which medallion dies of any desired size can be engraved in steel from an enlarged model.

He was still residing in Paris at the time of the great French Revolution, and, as an active member of the Commissariat Department, he had to distribute a certain dole of bread and rice to the starving thousands, who formed a long queue for many hours every morning before the municipal bakery was opened. Everyone in Paris at that time felt the pinch for food. My father had a small estate some twenty miles out of town, and when he saw the probability of a famine, he had a few sacks of wheat taken to his house in Paris, and there secretly stowed away ; for a knowledge of their presence would have brought the hungry mob upon him. It was my mother’s task at night, when the household had retired to rest, to grind some of this wheat in a coffee mill, so that cakes might be made for the morrow’s breakfast ; and thus in secret my parents enjoyed the luxury of whole-meal bread of their own manufacture.

My father was most anxious to return to England, but it was very difficult to get away. He could obtain nothing from his bankers but the paper money then well known as Assignats, which were issued for amounts as low as fifty sous, or about two shillings in English value.

Fortunately a short lull occurred in those stormy times, and, takingadvantage of the opportunity, my parents escaped to England, bringing with them about £6,000 in nominal value in Assignats, and only a very small sum in cash.

Arrived in London, my father had to begin the world over again ; so availing himself of his intimate knowledge of the use of the stampingpress and dies, and the working of gold, he commenced the manufacture of gold chains of a novel and beautiful description. By using gold of a high standard of quality, and with the assistance of finely-executed steel dies for stamping each link, a splendid chain was produced, which appeared very massive while in reality it was very light. These chains were bought by the retail jewellers as rapidly as they could be made.

While this new branch of trade was going on satisfactorily, a great panic was created in London by a report that Napoleon was about to invade England in flat-bottomed boats, which were said to be then at Boulogne, prepared for the expedition. My father, who had lost all in Paris, was determined at this juncture to secure some solid property in his own country, and at once dispatched his traveller to collect all the money he could from his various customers. With this money he purchased a small landed estate in the village of Charlton, near Hitchen in Hertfordshire, to wThich he shortly afterwards retired, and where I was born on the 19th January, 1813.

My father’s active business habits did not permit him to lead a life of idleness, and, after a year or two of quiet retirement, he commenced to cut letter-punches for Mr. Henry Caslon, the proprietor of the well-known Caslon type-foundry of London. The eminence my father had acquired in this art, while in the Paris Mint, enabled him to produce specimens of typography far more beautiful than any others that could be met with at that time. An immense accession of trade to the Caslon foundry resulted, and Mr. Henry Caslon became a frequent visitor at my father’s house at Charlton ; where, on one of these occasions, he acted as my godfather, and gave me the name of Henry.