Part 29 (1/2)
I have avoided expanding them to the extent I feel the subject to be worthy and capable of; but I trust such as I have offered will be sufficient to convey a pretty clear idea of my views on this sublime subject, which I trust may receive the careful consideration its nature entitles it to Let any one carefully reflect on the reason ater assumes a rotatory motion when a portion of it is permitted to escape fro it; if they will do so in the right spirit, I am fain to think they will arrive at the same conclusion as the conteht me to
” BRIDGEWATER FOUNDARY, June 7, 1855”
I was present at a ical Society at Manchester in 1853, in the discussions of which I took part
I was han (then Principal of the Independent College at Manchester), which is as interesting now as it was then After referring to the influence which geological changes had produced upon the condition of nations, and the moral results which oceans, mountains, islands, and continents have had upon the social history of man, he went on to say: ”Is not this island of ours indebted to these great causes? Oh, that blessed geological accident that broke up a strait between Calais and Dover! It looks but a little thing; it was a hty the moral results upon the condition and history of this country, and, through this country's influence, upon hue over the space between, and you have directly the huge continental barrack-yard systereat continental et the arbitrary power; you cra what they ought to be--FREE And all the good influences together at work in this country could not have secured us against this, but for that blessed separation between this Isle and the Continent”
In 1853 I was appointed a member of the S and, in fact, re-establishi+ng the Small Arun in the war between Prussia and Denst our military authorities as to the state of affairs at hoton to the last proclaimed the sufficiency of ”Brown Bess” as a weapon of offence and defence; but er be deferred
The United States Govern arfield a small arned to execute with theprecision all the details of muskets and rifles, they were enabled to dispense with mere manual dexterity, and to produce arms to any amount It was finally deterlish army The Government resolved to introduce the Aht be produced reat diminution of cost
It was under such circumstances that the Small Arht to England so exafield, and he established a manufactory at Pimlico for the production of his well-known revolvers
The committee resolved to field My own business engage the members ere selected; but as uide, the committee had in him a most able and effective helper He directed their attention to the most important and available details of that admirable establishment
The United States Govern the committee to obtain every information on the subject; and the heads of the various departent and zealous, rendered them every attention and civility
The hted with the results of their inquiryThe co of the Small Arms Factory at Enfield
The workshops were equipped with a complete series of special field factory
The United States Government also permitted several of their best and worklish Governin of the Enfield rifle The weapon came as near to absolute perfection as possible, It was perfect in action, durable and excellent in every respect even in it's conversion to the breechloader it is still one of the best weapons It is iive too much praise to Sir John Anderson and Colonel Dixon for the untiring and intelligent zeal hich they carried out the plans, as well as for the numerous improvements which they introduced These have rendered the Enfield Sulated establishdom
CHAPTER 20 Retirement fro the possibility of retiring altogether frooods, and illing to er men But I found it difficult to break loose froht wish to go back ”ondays” I had some correspondence with my old friend David Roberts, Royal Academician, on the subject
He wrote to me on the 2d June 1853, and said:
”I rejoice to learn, frohout your epistle, that you are as happy as every one who knows you wishes you to be, and as prosperous as you deserve Knowing, also, as I do, your feeling for art and all that tends to raise and dignify ratulate you on the prospect of your being able to retire, in the full vigour of manhood, to follow out that sublime pursuit, in coli 'The Landscape of other worlds' you alone have sketched for us, and enlightened us on that hich the ancient world but gazed upon and worshi+pped in the symbol of Astarte, Isis, and Diana
We are matter-of-fact now, and have outlived childhood What say you to a photograph of those wonderful drawings? It may come to that”
[footnote
It did indeed ”coraphy, chiefly for this special purpose
But I had so else yet to do in my special vocation
In 1854 I took out a patent for puddling iron by means of steam
Many of my readers may not know that cast-iron is converted intoThe iron, while in a itated by a stiff iron rod, having its end bent like a hoe or flattened hook, by which every portion of the en of the air, and the supercharge of carbon which the cast iron contains is thus ”burnt out” When this is effectually done the iron becomes malleable and weldable
This state of the iron is indicated by a general loss of fluidity, accolobular masses
The puddler, by his dexterous use of the end of the rabbling bar, puts the ether, and, in fact, welds the new-born particles of malleable iron into puddle-balls of about three-quarters of a hundredweight each These are successively re furnace, and subjected to the energetic blows of the stea within the spongy puddle-balls, and thus welds them into compactheat, they are rolled out into flat bars or round rods, in a variety of sizes, so as to be suitable for the consumer
The uing, and unhealthy The process of puddling occupies about an hour's violent labour, and only robust young ue and violent heat I had frequent opportunities of observing the labour and unhealthiness of the process, as well as the great loss of ti it to a conclusion It occurred toso rid of the superfluous carbon, and bringing the molten cast-iron into a malleable condition
The method that occurred to me was the substitution of a s bar By having the end of this steam pipe bent doards so as to reach the bottoe a current of steaht that I should by this sient, at the sa action within the pool Thus the steaen to the carbon of the cast-iron, while the mechanical action of the rush of steahout the pool of melted iron as to exceed the utases would pass up the chi furnace, and the puddler would not be subject to their influence Such was the method specified in my patent of l854
[footnote
Specification of Ja iron May 4, 1854; No 1001
My friend, Thomas Lever Rushton, proprietor of the Bolton Ironworks, was so much impressed with the soundness of the principle, as well as with the great si the invention into practical effect, that he urged avethe process at his works The results wereof labour and ti process; and the hest order as regarded strength, toughness, and purity My process was soon after adopted by several iron manufacturers with equally favourable results Such, however, was the energy of the steaulate its force and the duration of its action, the waste of iron by undue oxidation was such as in a great arded the superior value of the malleable iron thus produced