Music Trade Review
Issue: 1894 Vol. 19 N. 9 - Page 5
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
One of the World's
Greatest Inventors.
The Bessemer Process of Making Steel.
5|j HE man who inaugurated the reign of mak-
~& ing steel by so vastly increasing its uses,
and invented a method of manufacture which
makes the product even lower in cost than the
kind of metal it was destined so largely to re-
place, ranks among the world's greatest inven-
tors, though, says Harper's Monthly, he did
not reach his goal unaided by the skill and
genius of colaborers. The pneumatic process of
making steel by which Sir Henty Bessemer
added more to the wealth of the world than any
man of his generation furnished curious ex-
ample of what Tyndall called the scientific use
of the imagination. Bessemer, like Siemens
and Thomas, who share with him the honors of
modern iron metallurgy, was not a practical
worker in the metals, but, unlike them, he was
absolutely ignorant of aught beyond superficial
chemical knowledge. When he grasped the
conception of burning out the impurities of pig
metal by the oxidizing power of air and thus
reducing the excessively carburized material to
the malleable state, he knew nothing of the tra-
ditions and science of the problem he was daring
enough to attack. Had he been an adept it is
more than probable that he would have been so
imprisoned by the past as never to have reached
out so daringly into the unknown. He began
his experiments secretly in a small way, after
having visited numerous iron works to make
himself acquainted with existing processes.
It was not till the end of eighteen months
that the fundamental principles of his great
future success became perfectly clear to him—
that of rendering cast iron malleable by a pow-
erful air blast blown throughout the charge,
and not merely on the top, as in the old finery
and puddling furnace. The heat developed was
so great as to keep even wrought iron fused,
and the happy inventor found by and by that
he had succeeded in making iron in small quan-
tities. It cannot be related here how he fought
through the early difficulties of his work, and
how the iron-masters of the age were alike
astonished and delighted at his primary results.
The shock of the inventor was scarcely less
great when he discovered that in making iron
in large quantities his process did not answer
all his anticipations. His earlier successes had
been with pig iron smelted from high-grade
ores, comparatively free from sulphur or phos-
phorus. The attempt to work the process com-
mercially involved the use of the common pig,
which made up the bulk of the smelting ma-
terial. The intense heat of the furnace burned
out the carbon and the silicon, but left the phos-
phorus and sulphur untouched. This might
have been remedied by using pure pigs contain-
ing but traces of these elements; but a graver
defect attended the process. In many of the
operations the ingot had no consistency; it
crumbled under the hammer or in the rolls. In
the language of the shop, it was rotten. The
process, which, within a month of its first public
announcement at the Cheltenham meeting of the
British Association in 1856, had brought to its
discoverer the sum of twenty-seven thousand
pounds sterling in advance license fees, was now
condemned by scientists and practical men as a
visionary scheme.
RECENT LEGAL
DECISIONS.
[PREPARED .'OR THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.]
DEBT—PART PAYMENT—CONSIDERATION.
In the recent case of Leeson vs. Anderson, de-
cided by the Supreme Court of Michigan, and
reported in the Washington Law Reporter, the
question was presented whether the acceptance
by the holder of a promissory note past due of a
less sum than the face of the note, with an
agreement to discharge the debt, operates to
fully discharge the debtors. The court held that
it does not, saying: '' The debtor in paying a
portion only of the debt when he is bound to pay
the whole furnishes no consideration for a prom-
ise by the creditor to discharge him, and such
payment is treated in law as a payment pro
tanto only. * * * The result is different if
payment is made in compromise of a claim over
which there is an honest dispute, or by general
composition with creditors, or if the payment be
in something other than money. It was con-
tended in the present case that, before suit was
brought for the portion remaining unpaid, the
plaintiff should have tendered back the amount
received, and thus repudiated the settlement,
and defendant's counsel cite Pangborn vs. Insur-
ance Company, 66 Mich., 683, as sustaining this
contention. But in that case the plaintiff's only
ground for setting aside the settlement was that
it was effected by fraud. If there had been no
fraud the settlement was admittedly valid and
effectual to discharge the debt. Such was also
the case in Jewett vs. Pettit, 4 Mich., 508. The
settlement, but for the alleged fraud, was good
and valid, and it was held that the plaintiff was
bound to rescind this transaction before he could
treat it as a nullity. But such is not the case
here. No fraud was practiced. The defendant
has simply failed to pay the amount which he
owed, and, under the authorities cited, this was
payment pro tanto, leaving the remainder un-
paid. The defendant by paying a portion of his
indebtedness has not been induced to part with
any money which by the obligation of his con-
tract he was not bound to pay, and the payment
which he has made is ineffectual to discharge
wholly plaintiff's claim, because it was not suf-
ficient in amount, and because the plaintiff's
agreement to release the defendant was not upon
any valid consideration, and hence the relations
of the parties are the same as though such agree-
ment had not been made.
PROMISSORY NOTE—STIPULATION—DEFENSE.
The Supreme Court of Georgia held, in there-
cent case of Toombs vs. West et. al., that where
the payee of a promissary note procured the
same to be executed by stipulating with the
maker that he, the payee, would procure em-
ployment for a third person (for whose benefit
the note was given and who received the entire
consideration therefor) by which the latter
would earn enough money to pay off the note, a
total breach of this stipulation was a defense to
an action brought upon the note by the payee.
VOSE & SONS can boast of having added to
the pleasures and joys of thirty-four thousand
homes in this broad land of ours. That is the
number of the popular Vose pianos which have
been sold up to date. Truly a record to be
proud of.
W E are pleased to say that Mr. C. J. Heppe,
the well known 'piano dealer, of Philadelphia,
is fast recovering from his recent dangerous
Illness.
s?)
•YOU-AT SHORT- NOTICE
• ILLUSTRATED •'BROCH URE
®RT6TE$$
Cuis-iSf?-ADVERTISEMENTS- ^
fiEGANT?R[CE-LlST5~NENU-QRD5etc v efc.
FlNEWOOD-ENdRAVING-OF-RANO-5 ORGANS-S-MACHINERV-
MIL TITLES -BRASS PIES • FOR-ALL-PU^POSES
~
PEH-])RAVIHG5 • BUILDINGS- LANDSCAPES- PORTRAITS-
PHOTO-ENGRAVING HALFTOHES
^ T H E KEYNOTE ^ S
—
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
One of the World's
Greatest Inventors.
The Bessemer Process of Making Steel.
5|j HE man who inaugurated the reign of mak-
~& ing steel by so vastly increasing its uses,
and invented a method of manufacture which
makes the product even lower in cost than the
kind of metal it was destined so largely to re-
place, ranks among the world's greatest inven-
tors, though, says Harper's Monthly, he did
not reach his goal unaided by the skill and
genius of colaborers. The pneumatic process of
making steel by which Sir Henty Bessemer
added more to the wealth of the world than any
man of his generation furnished curious ex-
ample of what Tyndall called the scientific use
of the imagination. Bessemer, like Siemens
and Thomas, who share with him the honors of
modern iron metallurgy, was not a practical
worker in the metals, but, unlike them, he was
absolutely ignorant of aught beyond superficial
chemical knowledge. When he grasped the
conception of burning out the impurities of pig
metal by the oxidizing power of air and thus
reducing the excessively carburized material to
the malleable state, he knew nothing of the tra-
ditions and science of the problem he was daring
enough to attack. Had he been an adept it is
more than probable that he would have been so
imprisoned by the past as never to have reached
out so daringly into the unknown. He began
his experiments secretly in a small way, after
having visited numerous iron works to make
himself acquainted with existing processes.
It was not till the end of eighteen months
that the fundamental principles of his great
future success became perfectly clear to him—
that of rendering cast iron malleable by a pow-
erful air blast blown throughout the charge,
and not merely on the top, as in the old finery
and puddling furnace. The heat developed was
so great as to keep even wrought iron fused,
and the happy inventor found by and by that
he had succeeded in making iron in small quan-
tities. It cannot be related here how he fought
through the early difficulties of his work, and
how the iron-masters of the age were alike
astonished and delighted at his primary results.
The shock of the inventor was scarcely less
great when he discovered that in making iron
in large quantities his process did not answer
all his anticipations. His earlier successes had
been with pig iron smelted from high-grade
ores, comparatively free from sulphur or phos-
phorus. The attempt to work the process com-
mercially involved the use of the common pig,
which made up the bulk of the smelting ma-
terial. The intense heat of the furnace burned
out the carbon and the silicon, but left the phos-
phorus and sulphur untouched. This might
have been remedied by using pure pigs contain-
ing but traces of these elements; but a graver
defect attended the process. In many of the
operations the ingot had no consistency; it
crumbled under the hammer or in the rolls. In
the language of the shop, it was rotten. The
process, which, within a month of its first public
announcement at the Cheltenham meeting of the
British Association in 1856, had brought to its
discoverer the sum of twenty-seven thousand
pounds sterling in advance license fees, was now
condemned by scientists and practical men as a
visionary scheme.
RECENT LEGAL
DECISIONS.
[PREPARED .'OR THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.]
DEBT—PART PAYMENT—CONSIDERATION.
In the recent case of Leeson vs. Anderson, de-
cided by the Supreme Court of Michigan, and
reported in the Washington Law Reporter, the
question was presented whether the acceptance
by the holder of a promissory note past due of a
less sum than the face of the note, with an
agreement to discharge the debt, operates to
fully discharge the debtors. The court held that
it does not, saying: '' The debtor in paying a
portion only of the debt when he is bound to pay
the whole furnishes no consideration for a prom-
ise by the creditor to discharge him, and such
payment is treated in law as a payment pro
tanto only. * * * The result is different if
payment is made in compromise of a claim over
which there is an honest dispute, or by general
composition with creditors, or if the payment be
in something other than money. It was con-
tended in the present case that, before suit was
brought for the portion remaining unpaid, the
plaintiff should have tendered back the amount
received, and thus repudiated the settlement,
and defendant's counsel cite Pangborn vs. Insur-
ance Company, 66 Mich., 683, as sustaining this
contention. But in that case the plaintiff's only
ground for setting aside the settlement was that
it was effected by fraud. If there had been no
fraud the settlement was admittedly valid and
effectual to discharge the debt. Such was also
the case in Jewett vs. Pettit, 4 Mich., 508. The
settlement, but for the alleged fraud, was good
and valid, and it was held that the plaintiff was
bound to rescind this transaction before he could
treat it as a nullity. But such is not the case
here. No fraud was practiced. The defendant
has simply failed to pay the amount which he
owed, and, under the authorities cited, this was
payment pro tanto, leaving the remainder un-
paid. The defendant by paying a portion of his
indebtedness has not been induced to part with
any money which by the obligation of his con-
tract he was not bound to pay, and the payment
which he has made is ineffectual to discharge
wholly plaintiff's claim, because it was not suf-
ficient in amount, and because the plaintiff's
agreement to release the defendant was not upon
any valid consideration, and hence the relations
of the parties are the same as though such agree-
ment had not been made.
PROMISSORY NOTE—STIPULATION—DEFENSE.
The Supreme Court of Georgia held, in there-
cent case of Toombs vs. West et. al., that where
the payee of a promissary note procured the
same to be executed by stipulating with the
maker that he, the payee, would procure em-
ployment for a third person (for whose benefit
the note was given and who received the entire
consideration therefor) by which the latter
would earn enough money to pay off the note, a
total breach of this stipulation was a defense to
an action brought upon the note by the payee.
VOSE & SONS can boast of having added to
the pleasures and joys of thirty-four thousand
homes in this broad land of ours. That is the
number of the popular Vose pianos which have
been sold up to date. Truly a record to be
proud of.
W E are pleased to say that Mr. C. J. Heppe,
the well known 'piano dealer, of Philadelphia,
is fast recovering from his recent dangerous
Illness.
s?)
•YOU-AT SHORT- NOTICE
• ILLUSTRATED •'BROCH URE
®RT6TE$$
Cuis-iSf?-ADVERTISEMENTS- ^
fiEGANT?R[CE-LlST5~NENU-QRD5etc v efc.
FlNEWOOD-ENdRAVING-OF-RANO-5 ORGANS-S-MACHINERV-
MIL TITLES -BRASS PIES • FOR-ALL-PU^POSES
~
PEH-])RAVIHG5 • BUILDINGS- LANDSCAPES- PORTRAITS-
PHOTO-ENGRAVING HALFTOHES
^ T H E KEYNOTE ^ S
—
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