§ MR. LYALLsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the Government had under their consideration Bessemer's economical process of manufacturing steel, and if there is the intention of substituting that metal for iron to any extent in the manufacture of guns for the Artillery and Ordnance?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, he had 888 to state that applications had been made on two or three occasions to the War Office, with respect to Bessemer's steel, as to whether it could be used in the manufacture of guns. It might be remembered that Mr. Bessemer started an invention some years ago which made a considerable noise at the time among a great many scientific persons. The Government had offered that if Mr. Bessemer sent in a block of iron, of a certain weight, an experiment would be made therewith; but the Government of that day very properly declined to become ironmasters and take up the invention before it had been sufficiently tested. He apprehended that if there hail been a great demand for this new material, which professed to combine economy with efficiency, the capital invested in the iron trade would have induced many persons to take the matter up, and it should be recollected that if the Government had done this and the experiments had failed all the loss would have been theirs; while if successful they would have gained nothing.