Nov. 30, 1850.

Trial at law. It not only splits the pot to pieces, but the metal runs into the material of the pot-it becomes porous, so as to admit it; the material of the crucible appeared to be rendered porous, so as to let the metal run through. Before 1839 I had heard of attempts to make welding steel by the use of the manganese of commerce. I never remember hearing the term of carburet of manganese. It was the black oxide of manganese; the trials of which I had heard were of the black oxide of manganese, and not of the carburet of manganese. I never heard of success.

Cross-examined: I never used carburet of manganese to my knowledge in the manufacture of steel. I use oxide of manganese and some carbonaceous matter. The carbonaceous matter introduced prevents that mischief of the breaking of the pots which the oxide of manganese itself used to cause. The pots do not break. The first time I ever heard of carbonaceous matter being used in connection with oxide of manganese was about the period that Mr. Heath came to Sheffield — about the period that Mr. Heath obtained his patent he came down to Sheffield. We use oxide of manganese and carbonaceous matter together in combination. We take a certain proportion of oxide of manganese and of the carbonaceous matter reduced to a powder, and forming a solid substance like paste, and a certain weight of that we put into the pot; we mis them ourselves. I first used this mixture at the latter end of 1839 or the early part of 1840.

Augustus William Johnson: I was a manufacturer of steel at the Chelsea Works for about thirty years; I have known the plaintiff about twenty years; he erected works near mine, at Thames Bank, for making cast steel-furnaces for casting steel, previous to the date of the patent, in 1839. I made experiments for him at my works a considerable time previous to the date of the patent. Carburet of manganese having been made by him and my workmen, was put into the crucible with the blistered steel; it made a very superior quality of cast steel. That was previous to the taking out of the patent; those experiments were conducted by himself on my premises. I made cast steel after the patent by the use of carburet of manganese. It was the very best steel that could possibly be made; there was nothing ever produced in England equal to it before— decidedly not; it had the properties of welding; it was a welding cast steel, and a steel that you could not, generally speaking, spoil. The greatest quantity of cast steel is spoiled in the heating; a workman takes a piece of cast steel and burns it, and spoils it; that could not be the case with this-it would bear a welding heat; he could give it a proper heat to weld it without the danger of spoiling it; such a steel had never been made in England to my knowledge; I never heard of it, and do not believe it was ever made. Cast steel that would weld had not to my knowledge been known before, unless it was by a che

mical process, and then it was very rarely the case. I used con- Trial at law, siderable quantities of the carburet of manganese, under a Nov. 30, 1850. licence from Mr. Heath, and made large quantities of welding cast steel, which I had made into cutlery of all descriptions; after that I used what Mr. Heath gave me. It was a black mixture which got hard by keeping; there was coal tar and manganese in it. Previously to Mr. Heath's process, I had never known of the use of manganese at all in the manufacture of steel. It was the greatest improvement that could possibly be made, and a great advantage to the trade.

Cross-examined: Mr. Heath never gave the substance any name; I called it Mr. Heath's mixture. I have given the trade up.

Thomas Bevins: I am a file-cutter at present, and was formerly in the employ of Messrs. Johnson & Co. at Chelsea. I know Mr. Heath very well; I remember his making experiments in the making of cast steel at the Chelsea Works; we made some experiments at the Chelsea Works, and also we had a work erected next door; in the first instance we used the carburet of manganese for the making of cast steel. I prepared the carburet of manganese by lining the pots with charcoal, mixing of oxide of manganese with coal tar, putting it into the pot with it, and exposing it to an excessive heat; the product of that was the carburet of manganese. The carburet of manganese was put into the pot when the steel was in a fused state; it improved the quality of the steel wonderfully. I had been in the iron and steel business all my life—about forty years; up to that time I had never heard of the use of carburet of manganese in the making of cast steel. It improves the steel wonderfully; it had a tendency to make it weld; took the harsh nature of the steel and gave away, it a more malleable one. We found afterwards that, instead of making the carburet of manganese first, if we took the coal tar and the manganese and put them into the crucible where the steel was being melted, it produced the same effect. We mixed them together into a sort of paste, and then put them into a crucible where the melting steel was at the time; we put the paste into the crucible, the steel was melting nearly within a few stages. We made the one heat and one pot serve the double process. I have tried to use the oxide of manganese alone; without the carbonaceous matter I could not keep it in the pot; it spoilt the pot. I found that using the paste instead, without first forming the carburet, putting the paste into the crucible with the steel, and making one pot and one heat serve the double purpose, answer as well as when we used to make the carburet and put the carburet in. We discovered the using the carburet in the way I have described would answer the same purpose as making the carburet first about Michaelmas, 1839; we were making experiments all that autumn, and part of

Nov. 30, 1850.

Trial at law, the next year too. I remember Mr. Heath sending to different people packages of the paste containing the coal tar and the manganese; I prepared it myself. He began to send those out in 1840. Very soon after we had made the discovery that that paste would answer, I sent some of this composition to the defendant, Mr. Unwin, by desire of Mr. Heath. It was in 1840 I believe. I knew of Mr. Heath addressing letters and corresponding with Mr. Unwin at that time. I have seen Mr. Unwin's letters.

Cross-examined: At first I used the carburet of manganese, and put it into the pot. As soon as I discovered I could use the coal tar and paste without making the carburet first, I abandoned the use of the carburet, finding the other much cheaper. It saves both heat and time. It is much cheaper. The expense of making a pound of carburet of manganese is 7s. or 8s. I mean the whole expense, including wages, pot, coke, materials and all other things. There were more required than you are aware of; what was required cost somewhere about 78. or 8s. The expense of a ton of oxide of manganese and coal tar is about 71.

Robert Warrington: I am a chemical operator at Apothecaries' Hall. In 1844 I received from Mr. Lewin a substance in a packet. I submitted it to fusion, it yielded globules of carburet of manganese, a large button, and a number of small buttons of carburet of manganese. It was a mixture that yielded carburet of manganese by fusion; the mixture was given to me to be submitted to fusion, to see what the result would be. I proceeded to Sheffield at the commencement of this year, January the 30th. J. T. Cooper was with me. We made a series of experiments. There were two distinct sets of experiments; the first set of experiments had reference to the formation of carburet of manganese, and to the effect of the oxide of manganese on the pot. And the second set had reference to the improved quality of steel by the use of carburet of manganese. The effect of the oxide of manganese alone upon the pot was that the pot was fluxed very rapidly; indeed, it was fused, not broken, it was melted through. This is a piece of the bottom of the pot (specimen produced), showing that the whole pot was fused completely through. We ascertained by that that the oxide of manganese would destroy the pot. That destructive effect was prevented by the use of coal tar. In the next set of experiments we put oxide of manganese and coal tar into the crucible, nothing else. It was in a furnace with a pot by the side that was working steel. Each furnace was working two pots, and the experiment was made on one pot of those two in each case, so that the temperature of the working steel was maintained throughout. Carburet of manganese was made from the mixture at the temperature at which steel was being worked; a mass

Nov. 30, 1850.

of carburet of manganese was obtained from that pot, and the Trial at law, pot was not broken or fused. In the third experiment each furnace contained two pots, the one pot contained steel, the other was empty. All the time of fluxing the packet of manganese and coal tar was put into the pot with steel, and a similar packet was put into a small crucible and introduced into the large empty pot which was by its side; the small crucible was taken out; at the bottom of it was found a button of carburet of manganese. The object was that the mixture of oxide of manganese and coal tar should be in the furnace the same time only in both, cases one with the steel and the other without the steel. That experiment satisfied me that carburet of manganese would be formed in both cases, the one mixed with the steel, the other by itself; the carburet of manganese would be formed in the melted steel as it was formed in the pot by its side, where there was nothing but the two elements; it would be formed mixed with the steel. In that state of things carburet of manganese would be employed in the manufacture of steel. The carburet of manganese would be first formed, and would immediately alloy itself with the steel. It would form a carburet before it would become mixed with the steel. I had never known of the use of carburet of manganese in the manufacture of steel before the date of Mr. Heath's patent.

John Thomas Cooper: I am a chemist, and have been in the habit of lecturing on chemistry for many years. I went down with Mr. Warrington and made these experiments. We put oxide of manganese and coal tar into the small pot, and oxide of manganese and coal tar in the other pot, where the steel was in the course of being melted. In the pot where there was no steel we found a button of carburet of manganese. I agree with Mr. Warrington in his opinion, that the experiments show that the carburet of manganese must have been first formed in the pot where the steel was, and that then the carburet of manganese entered into alloy with the steel. In my knowledge of chemistry, and the discoveries of chemists, I never heard of the use of carburet of manganese, or of the elements of the carburet of manganese-tar and oxide of manganese-in the manufacture of cast steel before the date of Mr. Heath's patent, nor of the use of manganese in any way. I never heard of the application of the oxide of manganese to the same purpose, or of experiments being made with it.

Cross-examined: I should conclude that carburet of manganese is formed as a substance before it is mixed with the steel; and as soon as it is formed the alloy of the carburet of manganese takes place with the steel. This is a conjecture. It is impossible to say how it could be otherwise; I could not go inside the pot to see what was going on. There are no means of ascertaining but by the thing being side by side; the carburet

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In the Common of manganese being introduced into the pot, where it is formed at the same time that it is put into the steel pot. The inference I should make from that is, that in the one case the carburet of manganese was formed, and as soon as it was formed it alloyed with the steel, and in the other case it went down to the bottom of the pot. When the steel is melted, the melting steel is heated up to more than enough to reduce the manganese to the metallic state-the state of carburet ; and as soon as the carburet is formed, it is fluxed, and goes into the steel. That is the inference I should draw, and there are no means I am aware of from whence it could otherwise be obtained. The manganese must be melted itself before the reduction takes place. When the oxide of manganese is put into the pot by itself at a very high heat it melts, and in its melted state has a great affinity, if I may so term it, for the earthy matters of the pot, and they will fuse together into a form of glass, and the pot is either cracked or cut through; when the carbon is present, the carbon takes the oxygen from the oxide of manganese, the manganese is reduced to a metallic state, or a state of carburet, in which it has no action whatever on the pot. You have an analogy in the case of lead.

Andrew Ure: I am a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a professor of chemistry. In my opinion the carburet of manganese would be formed before it would mix with the steel; oxide of manganese alone would destroy steel instead of combining with it; it would oxydize and destroy it; carburet of manganese will combine perfectly. Before the date of Mr. Heath's patent I never knew of the use of carburet of manganese in the manufacture of steel. I have been intimately acquainted with the application of chemical science for the last fifty years.

William Thomas Brande: I have heard the evidence of the experiments, and have no doubt that, in the first instance, the oxide of manganese and the coal tar mutually act upon each other, so as to produce a carburet of manganese, and that then that carburet of manganese combines with the steel. The cast steel is equally improved whether you introduce the mixture as a carburet in the first instance, or use the ingredients which form a carburet, and then enter into combination with it, the result is equal. I imagine that in any case in which there is an alloy formed between the steel and the carburet of manganese, the carburet of manganese must be first formed by some process or other.

And upon the trial of the said issues, it was admitted by the defendant that the substance or composition received by Mr. Warrington from Mr. Lewin, as above stated, was received by Mr. Lewin from the defendant, and that the said substance or composition consisted of oxide of manganese and carbonaceous matter. And upon the trial of the said issues it was admitted