Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/248

 His father, Anthony Bessemer, himself a notable inventor and engineer, was born in the city of London, but with his parents passed over to Holland in early childhood, and was in due time apprenticed to an engineer. Before he was twenty he took a conspicuous part in the construction and erection of the first steam pumping engine set to work in Holland, At the age of twenty-one the elder Bessemer went to Paris, and, although possessing scanty means and few friends, he quickly attained high distinction, becoming a member of the French Academy of Sciences five years after his arrival. Later he was appointed to a leading position in the Paris mint, where his artistic skill in die-sinking and engraving, and his invention of a copying machine, brought him reputation and abundant means. With the French Revolution, however, reverses came, and Anthony Bessemer barely saved his life and lost nearly all his fortune. He escaped to England and settled in the Hertfordshire village of Charlton, where Henry Bessemer was born. The pursuits followed by the elder Bessemer in the secluded village shaped the course of Henry Bessemer's life. The former established a small factory at Charlton for the manufacture of gold chains, and this was subsequently abandoned for a more important enterprise, that of type-founding. This business was undertaken in association with William Caslon, the representative of the well-known family which for two previous generations had been connected with this industry [see under ]. The skill of the elder Bessemer as a die-sinker rapidly brought considerable success to the new business.

Henry Bessemer, inheriting the energy, inventive talent, and artistic feeling of his father, was brought up amid congenial surroundings ; except for the time devoted to an elementary education, the whole of his early years were spent in his father's workshop, where he found every opportunity and encouragement for developing his natural inclinations. At the age of seventeen he came to London to seek his fortune, possessing a knowledge of all that his father and the Charlton factory could teach him. This was in 1830 ; he appears to have first turned his knowledge of easily fusible alloys, and of casting them, to good account, and to have made a trade in art work of white metal, and afterwards in copper-coating such castings, the earliest practical application of electro-plating. His work brought him into notice. He occasionally showed it at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy at Somerset House. From art castings to embossing metal, cards, and fabrics, was a natural step, and in this his skill as a draughtsman, and his ability as a die-sinker, inherited from his father, gave him special advantages. The fly press at first, and afterwards the hydraulic press, in its then primitive form, enabled him to turn out large quantities of embossed work in different materials, and for this he found a ready market.

His connection with Somerset House (through the annual art exhibitions), and the attention he was then paying to stamping and embossing work, led to his first great invention. At that time (about 1833) it was notorious that frauds on the government, by the repeated use of stamps affixed to deeds, were perpetrated to an alarming extent, involving a loss to the revenue of 100,000l. a year. This fraud Bessemer rendered impossible by the invention of perforated dies, so that a date could be indelibly impressed on every stamp. His gift of this invention to the government was to have been recognised by a permanent official appointment, but, fortunately for the inventor, the promise was not kept, although it was recognised many years later by a tardy bestowal of knighthood. Greatly disappointed at the result of this, his first great invention, Bessemer turned to another direction in order to make a livelihood. He purchased plumbago waste at 2s. 6d. a pound, which, after cleaning and lixiviation, he compressed into blocks under hydraulic pressure, and cut into slips for making pencils; as the plumbago in this shape found a market at 4l. 10s. a pound, the industry was a profitable one. After a time he disposed of the secret of manufacture for 200l. Reverting to early experience, Bessemer now turned his attention for a while to type-founding, the novel idea of his process being that of casting under pressure ; this was followed by notable improvements in engine turning, an occupation which brought him into contact with Thomas De La Rue [q. v.], founder of the printing house. About 1838 he invented a type-composing machine that was used at the printing offices of the 'Family Herald,' and was capable of setting five thousand type an hour. It was at this time too that he invented and perfected a process for making imitation Utrecht velvet. The mechanical skill and artistic capacity of the inventor proved useful in this industry, for he not only had to design all the machinery required, but to engrave the embossing rolls himself. His arrangement with the manufacturers was to emboss the velvet supplied to him at a fixed price. At the commence-