But
his first experiments were not particularly encouraging, and when he read
a paper on the process of manufacturing steel without fuel before the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, it is said that every
British steelmaker roared with laughter at the "crazy Frenchman" and that
it was voted not to mention his silly paper in the minutes of the
association. [Footnote: "On the 13th of August, 1856, the author had the
honor of reading a paper before the mechanical section of the British
Association at Cheltenham. This paper, entitled 'The Manufacture of
Malleable Iron and Steel without Fuel,' was the first account that
appeared shadowing forth the important manufacture now generally known as
the Bessemer process.
"It was only through the earnest solicitation of Mr. George Rennie, the
then president of the mechanical section of this association, that the
invention was, at that early stage of its development, thus prominently
brought forward; and when the author reflects on the amount of labor and
expenditure of time and money that were found to be still necessary before
any commercial results from the working of the process were obtained, he
has no doubt whatever but that, if the paper at Cheltenham had not then
been read, the important system of manufacture to which it gave rise would
to this hour have been wholly unknown.
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