ron. For an account of John Wilkinson see
Lives of the Engineers, vol. ii. 337, 356. In the description of the
first iron bridge given in that work we have, it appears, attributed
rather more credit to Mr. Wilkinson than he is entitled to. Mr. Darby
was the most active promoter of the scheme, and had the principal share
in the design. Wilkinson nevertheless was a man of great energy and
originality. Besides being the builder of the first iron ship, he was
the first to invent, for James Watt, a machine that would bore a
tolerably true cylinder. He afterwards established iron works in
France, and Arthur Young says, that "until that well-known English
manufacturer arrived, the French knew nothing of the art of casting
cannon solid and then boring them" (Travels in France, 4to. ed. London,
1792, p.90). Yet England had borrowed her first cannon-maker from
France in the person of Peter Baude, as described in chap. iii.
Wilkinson is also said to have invented a kind of hot-blast, in respect
of which various witnesses gave evidence on the trial of Neilson's
patent in 1839; but the invention does not appear to have been
perfected by him.

[10] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed. Art.

[11] PLYMLEY, General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire. "Iron
Bridges."

CHAPTER VI.

INVENTION OF CAST STEEL--BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN.

"It may be averred that as certainly as the age of iron superseded that
of bronze, so will the age of steel reign triumphant over iron."--HENRY
BESSEMER.

"Aujourd'hui la revolution que devait amener en Grande-Bretagne la
memorable decouverte de Benjamin Huntsman est tout a fait accomplie, et
chaque jour les consequetces sen feront plus vivement sentir sur le
confinent."--LE PLAY, Sur la Fabrication de l' Acier en Yorkshire.

Iron, besides being used in various forms as bar and cast iron, is also
used in various forms as bar and cast steel; and it is principally
because of its many admirable qualities in these latter forms that iron
maintains its supremacy over all the other metals.

The process of converting iron into steel had long been known among the
Eastern nations before it was introduced into Europe. The Hindoos were
especially skilled in the art of making steel, as indeed they are to
this day; and it is supposed that the tools with which the Egyptians
covered their obelisks and temples of porphyry and syenite with
hieroglyphics were made of Indian steel, as probably no other metal wa