Whitworth are the chief subjects of Mr. Jeans's book ;
but he has also given chapters to Sir John Brown, famous for his manufacture of armour-plates, and to Messrs. S. G. Thomas and G. J. Shelus, who have both done good service in practical metallurgy. The first two memoirs may be regarded as the most interesting of the series, Sir Henry Bessemer's, on account of the versatility of his inventive genius, Sir William Siemens's for the way in which great scientific) knowledge was blended with practical aptitude. The history of the Bessemer inventions is certainly more creditable to their author than to those who have used then). There is something peculiarly dis- creditable in the way in which the Government of the day (it was that which came into power with the Reform Bill) behaved to Sir Henry Bessemer in the matter of his ingenious invention of a stamp (we are
taking, of course, Mr. Jeans's account as correct). Briefly put, the case is this. He invented a stamp which could not be forged. Government accepted the idea, and offered him a post with £600 a year to see it
carried out. He improved the idea in a way that rendered his ser- vices as superintendent unnecessary, and the authorities accepted the improved idea, and gave him nothing. Possibly it turned out for the best. He might have rested on his superintendent's salary, and never gone on to the great invention which has added so much to the wealth of the country, and which, as we are glad to know, has so handsomely remunerated himself.
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