Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Secret Inventions.
crossed the channel, insinuated himself tablished at Attercliffe. The process was
surreptitiously into a tin-plate manufactory, wrapped in secrecy by every one within
made himself master of the secret and reach, true and faithful men hired, the
SOME WITHHELD FROM THE PUBLIC AND DIS- brought it home.
• <•
work divided and sub-divided, large wages
COVERED AT LAST BY STRATAGEM.
The history of cast steel presents a curi- paid and stringent oaths administered. It
ous instance of a manufacturing secret did not avail. One midwinter's night, as
N the early working on arts and me- stealthily obtained under the cloak of an the tall chimneys of the Attercliffe steel
chanics workmen were put on oath never appeal to philanthropy. The main dis- works belched forth, a traveler knocked at
to reveal the process used in their manu- tinction between iron and steel, as most the gate. It was bitter cold, the snow fell
facture. Doors were kept closed, artisans people know, is that the latter contains fast and the wind howled across the moat.
going out were searched, visitors were vig- carbon.
The one is converted into the The stranger, apparently a plowman or ag-
orously excluded from admission, and false other by being heated for a considerable ricultural laborer seeking shelter from the
operations blinded the workmen them- time in contact with powdered charcoal in storm, awakened no suspicion. Scanning
selves. The mysteries of every craft were an iron box
Now steel thus made is un- the wayfarer closely, and moved by motives
hedged in by quickset fences of empirical equal. The middle of a bar is more car- of humanity, the foreman granted his re-
pretension and judicial affirmation.
There bonized than the ends, and the surface quest and let him in.
used to be, close by Temple Bar, in London, more than the center. It is, therefore, un-
Feigning to be worn out with the cold
an old chemist's shop, the proprietor of reliable. Nevertheless, before the inven- and fatigue, the poor fellow sank upon the
which, in days gone by, enjoyed the tion of cast steel there was nothing better. floor and soon appeared to be asleep.
monopoly of making citric acid.
More In 1760 there lived at Attercliffe, near That, however, was far from his intention.
favorably circumstanced than other secret Sheffield, a watchmaker named Huntsman. He closed his eyes apparently, only. He
manufacturers, "his was a process that re- He became dissatisfied with the watch saw workmen cut bars of steel into bits,
quired no assistance.
He employed no springs in use, and set himself to the task place them in crucibles in a furnace.
The
workmen.
Experts came to sample and of making them homogeneous.
"If," fire was urged to its extreme power until
assort and bottle his products. They never thought he, " I can melt a piece of steel and the steel was melted. Clothed in wet rags
entered the laboratory.
cast it into an ingot, its composition should to protect themselves from the heat, the
The mystic operations by which he grew be the same throughout."
He succeeded. workmen drew out the glowing mold. Mr.
rich were confined to himself. One day, His steel soon became famous.
Hunts- Huntsman's factory had nothing more to
having locked the doors and blinded the man's ingots for fine work were in uni- disclose. The making of cast steel had
windows, sure, as usual, of the safety of versal demand. He did not call them cast been discovered.
his secret, our chemist went home to din- steel.
The casting of hollow ware was for a
ner. A chimney-sweep, or a boy disguised
That was his secret. About 1770 a large number of years a secret, and was kept in
as such, wide-awake in chemistry, was on manufactory of this peculiar steel was es- one family for more than fifty"years.
the watch. Following the secret keeper so
far on his way to Charing Cross as to be
Send for prices on
sure he would not return that day, the
our latest New-
sooty philosopher hied rapidly back to A Resonant
Style B
Temple Bar, ascended the low building,
The finest, most
and Singing
convenient and
dropped down the flue, saw all he wanted
best Piano iu
Quality of
and returned, carrying with him the mys-
every particular
on the market.
tery of making citric acid. The monopoly Tone with
of the inventor was gone. A few months Perfectly
Factory and Ware
rooms over Arcade
after the price was reduced by four-fiftns. Even Scale
to Union Depot,
The poor man was heart-broken, and died is Found Onlv
543 to 549
short'/ afterward, ignorant of the trick by in the Old
BROADWAY
which he had been victimized.
Reliable
The manufacture of tinware in England
originated in a stolen secret. Few readers
need to be informed that tinware is simply
thin sheet iron plated with tin by being
dipped into the molten metal. In theory it
is an easy matter to clean the surface of
iron.
Dip the iron into a bath of boiling
Dealers desiring instruments Carefully Constructed, Elegant in
tin and remove it, enveloped in the silvery
Appearance, possessing a Superior Tone Quality, for a
metal, to a place of cooling. In practice,
Moderate Price, should communicate with
•••>:,.-•
however, the process is one of the most
difficult of arts. It was discovered in Hol-
land and guarded from publicity with the
utmost vigilance for nearly half a century.
England tried to discover the secret in vain
until James Sherman, a Cornish miner,
?
I
OARDMAN
k # G RAY*
PIANOS
ESTABLISHED—IN—1837
CONNOR PIANOS.
FRANCIS CONNOR, - Manufacturer,
134th Street and Trinity Avenue, Southern Boulevard,
*
MERRILL PIANOS
YORK.
118 BOYLSTON ST.
IBOSTOISJV
Soavorns Piano Action Co
MANUFACTURERS OF
FINE
' P Nos.
Tnptnp A T=*T . j p t H MIT*> 1 8 6 1 .
BROADWAY,
CAMBBIDGEPOBT, MASS.