was not included in this company, a certain interest in any profits which it might make was guaranteed to him. Mr. Z. S. Durfee soon went to England again to arrange for the control of the rights of Bessemer and Mushet in America. He was unsuccessful in the former case, but obtained, October 24, 1864, control of the American patent for the use of spiegeleisen, as Mushet's triple compound was called, on terms which admitted Robert F. Mushet, Thomas D. Clare, and John N. Brown, of England, to membership in the company; and on the 6th of September, 1865, it was further enlarged by the admission of Charles P. Chouteau, James Harrison, and Felix Vallé, all of St. Louis, Mo.[1]
While Z. S. Durfee was on his first visit to Europe, the writer of these papers was invited by Captain Ward to design and erect an experimental plant to determine the possibility of making a good steel by the new process from Lake Superior iron. I accepted the invitation, and reached Detroit, Mich., on the morning of July 1, 1862. It was decided to construct a blowing engine, and a converting vessel large enough for producing steel on a commercial scale, with reference to their use in a works properly planned for economical administration and production should the experimental works justify such an enterprise. As to the rest of the plant, it was decided to construct it as cheaply and simply as would answer the purpose of the experimental works only, and it was further decided that the experimental plant was to be located adjacent to, and partly in, the building of the Eureka Furnace at Wyandotte, Mich., about ten miles from Detroit, where Captain Ward had extensive rolling-mills. The metal for the experiments would be taken direct from the blast-furnace, and the spiegeleisen was to be melted in crucibles.
As soon as this general scheme was fixed upon, I began my plans for carrying it out. But very little guidance was obtainable in this task. I had never seen any apparatus for the manufacture of steel by the method proposed, and the description of that used by Mr. Kelly convinced me that it was not suited for an experiment on so large a scale as was contemplated at Wyandotte. As it was confidently expected that Z. S. Durfee would be able to purchase Bessemer's American patents, it was thought only to be anticipating the acquisition of property rights to use his inventions. I accordingly procured copies of his patents,
- ↑ These gentlemen were owners and operators of large iron-works; and, although their admission as members of "The Kelly Process Company" was with the expectation that their example and influence would promote its interest, they did not erect steel-works, and the company was in no way strengthened by their connection with it.
in the Cambria Iron Company (of which he was general manager) in such time as to enable him to commence making steel eight years after he was admitted as a member of "The Kelly Process Company."
