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 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

B E H I N D T H E L AW R E N C E
LEGEND
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 16/11/17, SPi

Praise for Behind the Lawrence Legend

‘This excellent account of those who underpinned the fighters in the Arab
Revolt reminds us of the hardships and challenges of war in early twentieth-
century Arabia. By looking behind the lines,Walker shows us the real scale of
Lawrence’s achievement and the achievements of those who supported him.’
Sir Mark Allen, ex-Foreign Service
‘After another round of books on T. E. Lawrence ‘of Arabia’, published on
the war’s centennial, it seems scarcely credible that anything new can be said
on the subject. But Philip Walker has discovered an astonishing wealth of
new material in private collections. The Forgotten Few peers beneath the
Lawrence legend to reveal the seamy underbelly of the Arab Revolt.’
Sean McMeekin, Professor of History, Bard College
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

BEHIND THE
LAWRENCE
LEGEND
The Forgotten Few Who
Shaped the Arab Revolt

PHILIP WALKER

1
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

1
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 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

Acknowledgements

A large number of people over many years have helped me in the research
and writing of this book, and I am very grateful to all of them. They
include:
Michael Adam; Rosemary Adam; Scott Addington; Professor Ali Allawi;
Patricia Aske, Pembroke College Library, Cambridge University; John
Barnard; James Barr; Sarah Baxter, Society of Authors; Julian Beaumont
OAM for information on Colonel John Bassett; John Bellucci; Shirley
Bose; Frank Bowles, Cambridge University Library; Colin Boyes; Roger
Bragger; Axel Bray; Howard Bray; Professor Carol Brayne; Mark Brayne;
Sophie Bridges, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge;
Jim Brown; Norman Brown; Gary Bryan; Peter Card; Michael V. Carey; Julie
Carrington, Royal Geographical Society Library, for information on
George Wyman Bury; Greville Cavendish; Piers Cavendish; Rebecca Child;
Anthony Cochrane; Susanne Cochrane; James Cochrane; Lindon Cornwallis;
George Cruddas;
Neil Dearberg; Brian Dobson; Barbara Duce; Mary Duffy; John Edmonds
CMG, CVO; Sam Eedle; Charles Eilers; David Elliott; Wynne Evans;
Rebecca Fellows; Sarah Felton; Dr Simon Fielding; Peter Finch; Ray Foster;
Dennis Garrood; Gregory Gilbert; Tony Gilbert; Valerie Gilman; Jenny
Glazebrook; Katherine Godfrey, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives,
King’s College, London; Adam Gotch; Francis Gotto, Sudan Archive,
Durham University Library; Cynara de Goutiere;Tony de Goutiere; Howard
Hamilton QC; Michael Hammerson; Fred Hancock; Jennifer Haynes;
Richard Heywood; Dale Hjort; Jane Hogan, formerly of the Sudan Archive,
Durham University Library; Raymond Holland; Professor Brian Holden
Reid; Pauline Homeshaw; Keith Hopwood; Diane Horsfield; Michael
Hughes, Bodleian Library, for information on the Marconi Archive;
Amanda Ingram, Pembroke College, Cambridge University; Kenneth
Jacob; Professor Salah Jarar; Clifford Jones, Christ’s Hospital School, for
information on Lieutenant Leslie Bright; Christopher Kennington; Harriet
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

vi A c k nowle dg e m e nts

King; Hugh Kirkbride; Yvett Klein, Bonham’s, Sydney, Australia, for infor-
mation on Colonel John Bassett; Dennis Lalor; Vincent Landon; Zoe
Lawson; Christophe Leclerc; Alice Lock; Andrew Lownie for information
on Colonel John Bassett; Katharine Lumsden; Nicholas Lumsden; Nigel
Lutt; Ian Mackenzie; Keith Mackenzie; Bridget McCrum; Catherine
McIntyre; Henrietta McCausland; Christopher McKibbin; Stuart McKibbin;
Alistair Massie, National Army Museum; Mohamed Mekabbaty; John
Millensted; Polly Mohs; Claire Morgan-Jones; Michael Morrogh; Dr David
Murphy; Peter Murphy; Dr Fiona Nash, Royal Geographical Society; Valerie
Neill; John O’Brien, British Library; Simon Offord, Imperial War Museum;
Dr Carol Palmer; Dr Suzanne Paul, Cambridge University Library; Helen
Pearson; Mark Pearson; Ian Petrie; Richard Piggott; Rosamunde Pilcher;
Robin Pilcher; Patricia Popkin; Gregory Pos; Michael Powell; Stephen
Powell; John Price; Jean Proffitt;
Carole Qureshi; Jonathan Rashleigh; Ian Reid; Anthony Richards,
Imperial War Museum; Richard Ridler; David E. Roberts; Martin Robertson;
Eugene Rogan; David Sarsfield, Microform Academic Publishers; Sir Patrick
Macdonnell Salt; Reg Saville; Alister Scott; Mark Scott; Desmond Seward;
Fred Sharf; Jenny Shore; Mandy Stephens; Andrew Shepherdson; Sir Robert
Sherston-Baker Bart; Lianne Smith, King’s College London Archives; Paul
Smith; Piers Smith-Creswell; Colonel Carron Snagge; Caroline Stone;
John Storrs; Marietta Crichton Stuart; Ninian Crichton Stuart; Katharine
Thomson, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge; Charles
Tilbury; Michael Tilling; Debbie Usher, Middle East Centre Archive,
St Antony’s College, Oxford; Johnny Van Haeften; Simon Vickers; Professor
David Walker; Laura Walker, British Library; Christine Walker-Kelley;
Miriam Walton; Alixe Wallis; Alan Weeks; Hugo White;Vicki White; George
Willey; Simon Wilson, Hull University Archives, Hull History Centre;
Jeremy Wilson; John Winterburn; Patrick Wyman; Mohamed Zuber.
My particular thanks go to my outstanding agent Andrew Lownie, for his
expertise, drive, and encouragement. He is truly the bee’s knees, and it has
been a pleasure to work with him and to learn from him. Anthea Gray was
unfailingly helpful and hospitable in the face of all my requests and her
often poor health. It is a matter of deep regret to me that she died while this
book was in the production stage: she wanted so much to hold the book in
her hands and to read of the wartime activities of her father, Lieutenant
Lionel Gray. Joe Berton has been a constant source of information, advice,
encouragement, and friendship. He, Sir Mark Allen, and James Stejskal read
early drafts, and gave many useful comments for which I am very grateful.
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

A c k nowle dg e m e nts vii

My thanks are also due to Jacob Rosen and Professor Yigal Sheffy, who read
parts of the typescript and also made helpful suggestions. Any mistakes are
solely my responsibility.
For permission to quote from copyright published and unpublished
records, and for advice on records not needing copyright clearance, I would
like to thank: Professor Carol Brayne, for the Brayne Papers on loan at the
British Library; British Online Archives provided by Microform Academic
Publishers for the papers of Sir Mark Sykes; the National Archives;
the Australian War Memorial; The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust for T. E.
Lawrence; the British Library for India Office Records; the Syndics of
Cambridge University Library for the Hardinge Papers and the Letters of
Hugh Drummond Pearson; the Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony’s
College, Oxford for the collections of J. W. A. Young and Thomas Edward
Lawrence; the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge for the
Sir Ronald Storrs papers; the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College,
Cambridge for the George Lloyd Papers; the provost and scholars of King’s
College, Cambridge and the Society of Authors as their representative, for
the E. M. Forster quotation; the trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for
Military Archives for the Joyce Papers; Hull University Archives, Hull
History Centre for the papers of Sir Mark Sykes; the Council of the National
Army Museum for the papers of Captain Leslie Lionel Bright; the Imperial
War Museum for the Private Papers of Major-General Sir Arthur Lynden-
Bell; the Society of Authors, on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material in
the book, but the publishers will be pleased to make amends if anything has
been inadvertently overlooked.
I am especially grateful to the staff at Oxford University Press, whose
experience and diligence have helped to improve the shape and narrative
flow of the book: Luciana O’Flaherty (publisher), Matthew Cotton (original
Commissioning Editor), Kizzy Taylor-Richelieu (Assistant Commissioning
Editor), and Terka Acton (editor). I am grateful too to Jen Moore who
copy edited the book with such skill and insight, to Sally Evans-Darby, and
to Vaishnavi Anantha­subramanyam who steered the book through the
­production phase.
I must also thank my wife, Janet, for her forbearance, advice, and support,
while for more than seven years I told stories about Cyril, Lionel, Norman,
and the others as if they were long-lost family members; and John Ette for
his helpful comments.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

Preface

T he grave of Captain Thomas Goodchild at the British Protestant

Cemetery at Alexandria, Egypt is derelict, the headstone missing. Like
most people he has fallen through the cracks of the historical record. Not
one of the more than one hundred books on T. E. Lawrence and the Arab
Revolt of 1916–18 mentions the small part Goodchild played in those
­dramatic events during the First World War. This is hardly surprising:
Goodchild was an affable veterinary officer who had no combat experience
with Lawrence or his colleagues. While Lawrence used his powers of per-
suasion, his flair for guerrilla warfare, and his political nous to try to help
some Arabs win independence from the Turks, Goodchild was worrying
about how to prevent the spread of camel mange.Yet there was much more
to Goodchild than met the eye.
We know about Goodchild’s work because of a chance discovery at a garage
sale.The fairly brief factual entries in his battered 1916 diary conceal a bizarre
story. When I carried out detailed archival research, it became clear that
Goodchild led a sensitive and totally forgotten mission to Jeddah in Arabia to
buy baggage camels from the family of the region’s leading camel breeder,
who just happened to be the revolt’s leader, Sherif Hussein of Mecca.
The overarching importance of Goodchild’s mission was that it was part
of a key British intelligence objective to deny baggage camels to the Turks
and to improve the sometimes fragile relationship between the British and
Hussein. Unlikely as it may seem, camels were a key strategic asset because
they were so important for the mobile desert operations that the British
were planning in Turkish-held Palestine.
The question then arose: what if there were other forgotten chapters of
the Arab Revolt that, pieced together, might add something substantial to
the narrative of this iconic campaign; perhaps even lead to a different per-
spective seen through a new lens? A counter-argument took shape almost
immediately: given the bookshelves are groaning with an abundance of
books on the subject, was there really anything new and important left to
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

x P re fac e

say about Lawrence and the Arab Revolt? Nevertheless, more in hope than
expectation, I decided to hunt for other ‘unknown unknowns’ of the Arab
Revolt. I spent seven years tracking down the descendants of twenty forgot-
ten British officers, to ask whether diaries or memoirs, letters or photo-
graphs had been passed down to them.The hunt led to Panama, Jamaica, the
USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, and all over the United Kingdom.
Perhaps surprisingly, thirteen families still had a wealth of Arab Revolt
material that had stayed hidden for a century, and they were happy to let me
examine it. One huge private collection in a suburban house was crammed
into two large metal chests. There were hundreds of photographs taken in
Arabia by a cipher officer in intelligence, Lieutenant Lionel Gray, together
with hundreds of letters sent by him to his fiancée and family, as well as a
captured Turkish pistol given to him by T. E. Lawrence and private confi-
dences from Lawrence himself. There were also Arab robes and a headdress,
secret cable message notebooks, and many more intelligence documents.
I interviewed Gray’s daughter and the descendants of many other men: their
insights breathed personality and character into the mere names I had begun
with. At Gray’s daughter’s ninetieth birthday lunch at a London hotel, I felt
the eerie illusion of being within touching distance of the Arab Revolt.
* * *
The new evidence was intriguing but a key question had to be addressed.
Was the evidence merely footnote material or was it likely to enlarge our
understanding of the Arab Revolt and the British role in it? A pattern to the
research soon emerged, which offered hope of an answer. A number of the
forgotten or little-known men I had uncovered were based, like Gray, at
the port of Jeddah. This town was strategically important for the delivery of
supplies, weapons, and gold from the British to their ally, Sherif Hussein.
Thousands of Muslims arrived by sea, many British Indians, who passed
through on their way to Mecca for the annual Hajj or pilgrimage. The offi-
cers based at Jeddah worked for Colonel Cyril Edward Wilson, who was
given the bland title of ‘pilgrimage officer’ by British intelligence, as a cover
for his military and diplomatic duties helping Hussein’s revolt.
Wilson was a rather stiff and correct figure, something of a Colonel
Blimp—jingoistic, unimaginative, a stereotypically British officer. He was
the antithesis of the brilliant and mercurial T. E. Lawrence. Wilson is por-
trayed as having a secondary role in the revolt and, like so many, came to be
overshadowed by Lawrence’s dazzling leadership and railway demolition
skills—and by the Lawrence legend that turned the shy maverick with a
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

P re fac e xi

touch of genius into an international icon after the war. Wilson stoically
endured chronic dysentery and attacks from his own colleagues at General
Headquarters in Cairo, who thought supporting the revolt was a waste of
money, supplies, and effort, and that the real battle should be fought against
the Turks in Palestine rather than in the backwater of the Hejaz, Hussein’s
province.
Yet there were tantalizing pointers to Wilson and his core team at Jeddah
having made a key contribution to the Arab Revolt that has been over-
looked. Wilson was given high praise by two senior officers who had wide
experience of all the major players in the revolt. General Reginald Wingate,
who as governor-general of the Sudan sent weapons and supplies across the
Red Sea to Sherif Hussein, and then became British High Commissioner for
Egypt, wrote to Wilson in 1936:
I always feel that ‘Little Lawrence’, much as I valued and appreciated his won-
derful qualities and powers of leadership, did not know or estimate at their
true value, the marvellous work done by yourself . . . and other officers without
whose knowledge, experience and self-sacrifice, the Revolt could never have
succeeded and he could never have acquired the title of ‘Lawrence of
Arabia’! ...he sailed in really to fame largely on the shoulders of men like
yourself.1
This is rather hard, in one sense, on Lawrence, who did in fact acknowledge
Wilson’s role to Wilson privately, but the recognition of the pilgrimage
officer’s vital role could not be clearer.
The second endorsement of Wilson is from Captain William ‘Ginger’
Boyle, who commanded the Red Sea Patrol of the Royal Navy. The Red
Sea Patrol played a crucial role in the Arab Revolt through its firepower, its
supply ships, and its political role in boosting Hussein’s morale. Boyle was at
the heart of all these interventions and, after the revolt, as admiral of the
fleet, wrote of Wilson: ‘To the ability, tact, and energy of this self-effacing
but able officer the ultimate success of the Arab rising was largely due.’2 That
a man as perceptive as Boyle should single out Wilson for such praise is sig-
nificant. Boyle also referred to Wilson as ‘the uncrowned King of Jeddah’.
Wingate’s and Boyle’s comments seem never to have been investigated in
detail—perhaps they were seen as the rather overblown compliments of
friends. Lawrence’s famous book about his personal role in the campaign,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, made no mention of any key role for Wilson. This
was not surprising since Lawrence also downplayed the role of other offi-
cers who are known to have made important contributions to the revolt.
Yet the enigmatic Lawrence, so adept at smoke and mirrors, also lists, in his
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

xii P re fac e

preface to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the names of forty of his colleagues who,
he states, ‘could each tell a like tale’ to his own.3 Those names include Wilson
and Gray. Lawrence could be perverse and loved toying and teasing: this
seems to be false modesty and probably he did not really believe that so
many officers could tell a story as well as he could, but that short preface
gives a hint of hidden alternative narratives.
* * *
The search for other narratives was at the heart of my research. It became
an investigation of what lay concealed in shadows—the shadows that were
inevitably created around the limelight that has fallen on Lawrence for four
generations. I began a lengthy trawl through the publicly available archives in
London, Durham, Cambridge, Oxford, and Hull, and cross-referenced them
to the fresh evidence in the private collections. The two classes of records
complemented each other: the significance of each was enhanced through
that association. The key findings were, first, that Wilson had a core team of
four officers at Jeddah, the true hub of the revolt, who helped him stabilize
the revolt on several occasions when it was at imminent risk of collapse—
both before and during Lawrence’s involvement in Arabia. The imperturb-
able Colonel John Bassett and the eccentric, half-deaf Major Hugh Pearson,
both with a background in intelligence, were his able deputies. The highly
strung Captain Norman Bray, a bloodhound on the trail of anti-British
jihadists, was another intelligence officer. Lieutenant Lionel Gray was the
fourth member of the team. There was also a colourful supporting cast based
at or near Jeddah, including a resourceful Persian spy and a forgotten officer
who lived with Bedouin tribes collecting important intelligence.
The second major factor was the extent to which the relationship between
Wilson and Sherif Hussein underpinned the rickety edifice of the revolt,
from before it broke out until its final weeks in September 1918. This rela-
tionship was crucial to the survival and, ultimately, to the hollow ‘victory’ of
the revolt. Hussein ran a corrupt regime and was irascible, suspicious, and
controlling, prone to fits of despair and suicide threats, yet for over three years
Wilson kept the trust and respect—it was something akin to friendship—of
the old ruler.Wilson managed this because of his honourable and principled
behaviour, which was patently free from double-dealing. Wilson’s under-
valued influence over Hussein during critical phases of the revolt was at
least as important as the well-known influence of Lawrence over Hussein’s
son, the Emir Feisal. Without the quiet diplomacy and intelligence work of
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

P re fac e xiii

the unlikely hero, Wilson, and his men, the revolt would have collapsed and
the world would never have heard of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
Gray’s story is exceptional because it throws light on so many aspects of
the revolt. This amiable and long-suffering cipher specialist, who was to be
parted from his fiancée, Mabel, for about five years, was a junior officer who
at first sight had less influence than his comrades at Jeddah. Yet he knew
almost all the key British players in Arabia, where he served for over two
and a half years. Furthermore, Gray helped Wilson by gaining the trust of
Sherif Hussein himself and was even invited to Hussein’s palace to take
some stunning photographs of the old leader. He had intriguing discussions
with Lawrence and, in his detailed commentary, Gray conjures up the sights,
sounds, and smells of the strange world of Jeddah, rife with corruption,
where spies jostled with jihadists bent on subverting the revolt and destabil-
izing British India with its seventy million Muslims. Mining the rich seam
of Gray’s remarkable images, letters, and other documents offers a unique
insight into the twists and turns of the revolt. Gray’s lost story holds a mirror
to important overarching themes of the campaign, in particular the hidden
world of intelligence and the role of the Royal Navy.
The story of Wilson and his men is interwoven with the bigger picture
of the military campaign in the desert and with the familiar saga of T. E.
Lawrence’s role, but with new insights into Lawrence’s deceptions and com-
plex motivations, as well as into his achievements and writings. The narra-
tive provides depth of field for the revolt by including the lost stories of
other officers who were mostly at the large supply base at Aqaba: the link
with Jeddah is provided by Gray who served at Aqaba too. This book offers
a fresh interpretation of the Arab Revolt through a new lens and presents
Colonel Cyril Wilson as a key figure of history.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

Table of Contents

List of Illustrationsxvii
A Note on the Textxxi
List of Mapsxxiii

1. ‘Anything could happen in such a place’ 1

2. ‘A town that hung heavy on the soul’ 14

3. ‘A vast pan-Islamic conspiracy’ 23

4. Sharing a Cabin with Lawrence 36

5. ‘Just go on sticking it’ 47

6. Camels and Secrets 59

7. Combat and Confusion 69

8. Sabotage, Golf, and Betrayal 81

9. Aqaba, the Arab Legion, and Jam Roly-Poly 93

10. Hopes and Fears 105

11. Great Escapes 116

12. ‘Someone you once knew and a King’ 126

13. ‘Blood brother of the Bedouins’ 138

14. Alarms and Excursions 150

15. Aqaba Calling 162

16. Fairy Godmothers to the Arab Revolt 174

 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

xvi T able of Conte nts

17. ‘Use great caution’: The Curious Case of Agent Maurice 182

18. Endgame 194

19. Aftermath 204

Epilogue 215

Post-Arab Revolt Biographies223

Notes229
Bibliography267
Picture Acknowledgements275
Index277
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

List of Illustrations

1. General Fatmi Pasha (centre foreground) on HMS Hardinge, which

brought the Holy Carpet from Suez to Jeddah for the 1917 Hajj
pilgrimage. Colonel Cyril Wilson is in darker army uniform to
right of centre. 31
2. Arrival of the Holy Carpet under the Mahmal (tented covering) at
Jeddah, 1917. Escort of Egyptian soldiers in white pilgrim clothing. 32
3. Presentation photograph signed in person at the bottom by
Sherif Hussein, accompanying the Hejazi Order of Al Nadha
(Renaissance) awarded to Captain William Cochrane in 1920. 33
4. From left: unknown officer, Fatmi Pasha (Emir el Hajj), and
Colonel Cyril Wilson. 34
5. Emir Abdullah, Sherif Hussein’s second son, seated at the British
Consulate, Jeddah, on 17 October 1916. Standing from left: Hussein
Ruhi, Said Ali (Egyptian Army artillery officer), Colonel Cyril
Wilson, Aziz Ali al-Masri (former officer in Ottoman Army and
Arab nationalist). 44
6. British Consulate, Jeddah. Meetings were held on the large
projecting balcony on the third floor (side elevation, to the left).
The commandeered Austrian Consulate is to the right. 45
7. Colonel Edouard Brémond (centre, looking at camera), head of
French Military Mission, Jeddah. Captain Norman Bray to right. 52
8. House of Sherif Mohsen, Hussein’s representative at Jeddah.
Mohsen is on the horse to the left; General Bailloud, chief of
French forces in the Middle East, is on his horse to the right. 53
9. Sherifian soldiers disembarking from a British ship at Rabegh,
early 1917. 70
10. T. E. Lawrence at Wejh, probably early 1917. Lieutenant Gray
was given the photograph, probably by the officer who took it
(unknown, but perhaps the supplies officer Captain Raymond Goslett).
The same image is at the Imperial War Museum (Q60912). 73
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

xviii L i st of I l lustrati on s

11. 44 Smith & Wesson revolver given to Lieutenant Gray by

T. E. Lawrence. Gray’s contemporary inscription records that
the weapon was taken from a senior Ottoman officer, Ashraf
Bey, when Lawrence captured him and £15,000 in Turkish gold.
In fact, it was Emir Abdullah who seized Ashraf; Lawrence’s role
was probably to interrogate him. 75
12. Lieutenant Norman Hopwood playing golf on the nine-hole
course laid out at Jeddah by Major Hugh Pearson. The course lay
partly over the Royal Flying Corps’ emergency landing ground,
abandoned when the Rabegh crisis ended in January 1917, and partly
over the defensive trenches near the captured Ottoman barracks. 79
13. Sherifian bodyguard. 86
14. Mahmas, one of T. E. Lawrence’s Ageyl bodyguards. The Ageyl were
often outlaws but were fiercely loyal to Lawrence.  87
15. Captured Ottoman flag paraded in triumph through the streets of
Jeddah, early 1918. Photograph taken by Lieutenant Lionel Gray
from his Consulate balcony after he heard the celebrations. 88
16. Sherifian soldiers drinking tea at Jeddah. 89
17. The house at Wejh of Nasib al-Bakry (Emir Feisal’s influential
Syrian adviser) is one of those behind the Arab. 95
18. House of the Kaimakam (Governor) of Wejh, who is standing in the
centre at the back, talking to Colonel John Bassett (in white topee) and
Colonel Edouard Brémond (only his helmet is visible). With Cousse
(foreground) and Pisani (wearing fez) of the French Military Mission. 103
19. Arab Regular Army, part of which was trained by Major Hugh
Pearson in Egypt, under the Hejaz flag at Aqaba. 114
20. Jafar al-Askari, former Ottoman Army officer and chief of the Arab
Regular Army, with Lieutenant Lamotte of the French Military
Mission at Jiddah oasis, inland from Wejh. 114
21. On board HMS Hardinge off Jeddah, January 1918, following
Bassett’s and Hogarth’s crisis talks with a wavering Hussein. From
third left: Captain Linberry, Suleiman Qabil, Sherif Hussein,
Commander David Hogarth, Colonel John Bassett, Hussein Ruhi.
This image illustrates both the vital importance of diplomatic work
at Jeddah and the political value of Red Sea Patrol ships and captains. 130
22. Sherif Hussein firing a large gun on HMS Hardinge, with Commander
Linberry watching on anxiously. 131
23. Sherif Hussein’s house at Jeddah, with guard of honour for Lieutenant
Lionel Gray who had been invited by Hussein to photograph him. 133
24. A recently unladen dhow at Yenbo, with Red Sea Patrol vessel in
the background. 141
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

L i st of I l lust rati on s xix

25. Bedouin forces at the port of Yenbo, 1917. 141

26. Lieutenant Gray’s pet gazelle at Yenbo with his Sudanese servant,
Yahya. The gazelle had a commendable sense of security: Gray
recorded that it ate the screwed-up balls of paper that he discarded on
the floor during his painstaking enciphering and deciphering work. 142
27. Lieutenant Leofric Gilman, leader of the Hejaz Armoured Car
Battery, which offered mobility and offensive power both alone
and in joint special forces operations. 153
28. Lieutenant Leofric Gilman, far right, and the remains of the
many-culverted bridge blown up near the Hejaz Railway station
at Mudawwara, April 1918. 154
29. Hejaz Armoured Car Battery, with the odd man out Lawrence
looking to his right (standing to the left). 154
30. Major Robert Scott, commandant of the Aqaba base from
February 1918. Scott kept a diary that documented the comings
and goings of Lawrence and other officers, the many supply ships,
and the American Lowell Thomas whose post-war shows turned
Lawrence into an international hero and icon. 164
31. Fort at Aqaba, used by the British, French, and Arab forces to
store supplies. 164
32. Sheikh Youssef, Emir Feisal’s quartermaster, keeping a watchful eye
on the entrance to the fort at Aqaba, where supplies for the
Northern Arab Army were stored. 165
33. Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force landing ground at Disi,
north-east of Aqaba. 165
34. Captain Boyle (left) and Commander Linberry of the Red Sea Patrol. 178
35. Lieutenant Lionel Gray (far left) on board a ship of the Red Sea
Patrol with two unidentified colleagues. The officer on the far right
gives the inadvertent impression of auditioning for a film part. 179
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

A Note on the Text

T ransliterating Arabic words was difficult for the British involved in the Arab
Revolt, and they spelt individuals’ names, the names of tribes, and place names
in a variety of ways. In quotations from archives and from T. E. Lawrence’s and
­others’ post-war writings, I have kept the actual spelling used—hence, for example,
both ‘Jeddah’ and ‘Jidda’, ‘Aqaba’ and ‘Akaba’. Elsewhere, to prevent unwieldiness
for the general reader, I have employed Anglicized place names in the form most
often used in contemporary British diplomatic and military sources. Examples are
Mecca instead of Makka and Medina instead of Madina.
The terms ‘Ottoman Empire’ and ‘Turkey’ were used interchangeably by the Allied
powers and often too, interestingly enough, by the nations they were fighting. I have
followed this practice. Whenever I refer to a particular religious or ethnic group, to
distinguish it from the Turkish majority, I mention, for example, ‘Ottoman Arabs’,
‘Ottoman Armenians’, or ‘Arab prisoners of war from the Ottoman Army’.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

List of Maps

1. The Middle East at the time of the Arab Revolt, showing the
territories of Arab leaders and some of the main tribes. xxv
2. The early stages of the Arab Revolt. xxvi
3. The later stages of the Arab Revolt and Allenby’s advance through
Palestine.xxvii
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

Constantinople
Batumi Tiflis

Angora
Smyrna Baku
T
U
R
K
E Tabriz
Y
Alexandretta Nisibin
Aleppo Mosul
SYRIA

R. T
Tripoli Homs Tadmur
(Palmyra)

ig r i
Beirut P E R S I A
MEDITERRANEAN SEA

s
Damascus Eu

R.
DRUSES p hr Baghdad
NURI ates
Alexandria Jerusalem ANA
Gaza ZE
Pt. Said SHALAAN H
RUALLA
W

Ismailia Maan B
ad

EN
Cairo I SA Sirh
i

Suez KH a n
Nekhl R Basra
Sinai Aqaba Jauf r t
E H
u d D e s e Kuwait
AT I Y N e f
SHAMMAR
E G Y P T IBN RASHID

Wejh
d
H

i
e
N
R. Nile

I B N S A U D
e

Medina Riyadh
Yenbo S H E R I F
j
R

H U S S E I N
a
E

EH WAHHABIS
AT E I B
z
D

Jeddah Mecca
Taif
Port
S

Sudan
ANGLO-EGYPTIAN
E

IDRISSI
ASIR
A

S U D A N

t
Khartoum au
m
Y

IMAM
ra
ad
e

OF
YEMEN H
m
e
n

Railway
Aden

Map 1. The Middle East at the time of the Arab Revolt, showing the territories
of Arab leaders and some of the main tribes.
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

W.
Sirha
AQABA n

Mudowwara

SINAI
NEFUD DESERT
EL HOUL

Hejaz
Rai
El Kurr

lw
WEJH ay
ARABIA
Ais
W.

UM LEJJ Aba el Naam

MEDINA
Nakhl Mubarak
YENBO
Hamra

Bir el Sheikh
RED SEA
Masturah

RABEGH
EGYPT

Wadis
Hejaz Railway
Route of Aqaba expedition JEDDAH
MECCA
from Wejh to Sirhan
0 50 100 miles Taif

0 50 100 kms

Map 2. The early stages of the Arab Revolt.

 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi

BEIRUT

MEDITERRANEAN

ni
Lita
SEA DAMASCUS

R.
Kiswe

Kuneitra

Tell
HAIFA Shehab Tafas JEBEL DRUSE
Yarmuk DERAA
Valley

Umtaiye
Um el Surab
Abya
R. Jordan

Minifir
NABLUS
Yarmuk
SALT
JAFFA
AMMAN
JERICHO AZRAK
JERUSALEM
ea

Atwi
Dead S

GAZA Nebk
W
Si
ATARA rha
n
BEERSHEBA
W.
He
sa
Tafileh
Bair
Jurf

Shobek

Petra
Jefer
MAAN

Aba el Lissan Ghadir

Wadis
Shedia Railways
Guweira Route of the Aqaba
expedition from
Shahm Sirhan to Aqaba
Aqaba Rumm
mt m 0 50 miles
W..itI
w
Mudowwara 0 50 kms

Map 3. The later stages of the Arab Revolt and Allenby’s advance through
Palestine.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 14/11/17, SPi
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Steel
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Title: Steel
a manual for steel users

Author: William Metcalf

Release date: October 2, 2023 [eBook #71782]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1896

Credits: deaurider and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STEEL ***

 STEEL:
A MANUAL FOR STEEL-USERS.

BY
WILLIAM METCALF.

FIRST EDITION.
FIRST THOUSAND.

NEW YORK:
JOHN WILEY & SONS.
London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited.
1896.

Copyright, 1896,
BY WILLIAM METCALF.

ROBERT DRUMMOND,
ELECTROTYPER AND PRINTER,
NEW YORK.
 INTRODUCTION.
Twenty-seven years of active practice in the manufacture of steel
brought the author in daily contact with questions involving the
manipulation of steel, its properties, and the results of any operations
to which it was subjected.
Blacksmiths, edge-tool makers, die-makers, machine-builders,
and engineers were continually asking questions whose answers
involved study and experiment.
During these years the Bessemer and the open-hearth processes
were developed from infancy to their present enormous stature; and
the shadows of these young giants, ever menacing to the expensive
and fragile crucible, kept one in a constant state of watching, anxiety,
and more study.
The literature of steel has grown with the art; its books are no
longer to be counted on the fingers, they are to be weighed in tons.
Then why write another?
Because there seems to be one little gap. Metallurgists and
scientists have worked and are still working; they have given to the
world much information for which the world should be thankful.
Engineers have experimented and tested, as they never did
before, and thousands of tables and results are recorded, providing
coming engineers with a mine of invaluable wealth. Steel-workers
and temperers have written much that is of great practical value.
Still the questions come, and they are almost always those
involving an intimate acquaintance with the properties of steel, which
is only to be gained by contact with both manufacturers and users. In
this little manual the effort is made to fill this gap and to give to all
steel-users a systematic, condensed statement of facts that could
not be obtained otherwise, except by travelling through miles of
literature, and possibly not then. There are no tables, and no exact
data; such would be merely a re-compilation of work already done by
abler minds.
It is a record of experiences, and so it may seem to be dogmatic;
the author believes its statements to be true—they are true as far as
his knowledge goes; others can verify them by trial.
If the statements made prove to be of value to others, then the
author will feel that he has done well to record them; if not, there is
probably nothing said that is likely to result in any harm.
 CONTENTS.
Page.
CHAPTER I.
General Description of
Steel, and Methods
of Manufacture.—
Cemented or Converted
Steel. Blister, German,
Shear, Double-shear.
Crucible-steel,
Bessemer, Open-hearth 1

CHAPTER II.
Applications and Uses
of the Different
Kinds of Steel.—
Crucible, Open-hearth,
Bessemer 14

CHAPTER III..
Alloy Steels and Their
Uses.—Self-hardening,
Manganese, Nickel,
Silicon, Aluminum 27

CHAPTER IV..
37
Carbon.—General
Properties and Uses.
Modes of Introducing It
in Steel. Carbon
Tempers, How
Determined. The
 Carbon-line. Effects of
Carbon, in Low Steel, in
High Steel. Importance
of Attention to
Composition

CHAPTER V..
General Properties of
Steel.—Four
Conditions: Solid,
Plastic, Granular,
Liquid. Effects of Heat.
Size of Grain.
Recalescence,
Magnetism. Effects of
Cooling, Hardening,
Softening, Checking.
Effects of Forging or
Rolling, Hot or Cold.
Condensing, Hammer-
refining, Bursting.
Ranges of Tenacity, etc.
Natural Bar, Annealed
Bar, Hardened Bar, etc. 52

CHAPTER VI..
Heating.—For Forging;
Hardening;
Overheating; Burning;
Restoring; Welding 77

CHAPTER VII..
Annealing 84

CHAPTER VIII..
Hardening and 96
Tempering.—Size of
Grain; Refining at
Recalescence; Specific-
gravity Tests; Temper
Colors; How to Break
Work; a Word for the
Workman

CHAPTER IX..
Effects of Grinding.—
Glaze, Skin,
Decarbonized Skin,
Cracked Surfaces,
Pickling 128

CHAPTER X..
Impurities and Their
Effects.—Cold-short.
Red-short, Hot-short,
Irregularities,
Segregation, Oxides,
etc., Wild Heats,
Porosity. Removing
Last Fractions of Hurtful
Elements. Andrews
Broken Rail and
Propeller-shaft 129

CHAPTER XI..
146
Theories of Hardening.
—Combined, Graphitic,
Dissolved, Cement,
Hardening and Non-
hardening Carbon.
 Carbides. Allotropic
Forms of Iron α, β, etc.
Iron as an Igneous
Rock or as a Liquid

CHAPTER XII..
Inspection.—Ingots, Bars,
Finished Work.
Tempers and
Soundness of Ingots.
Seams, Pipes, Laps,
Burns, Stars 151

CHAPTER XIII..
Specifications.—
Physical, Chemical, and
of Soundness and
Freedom from
Scratches, Sharp Re-
entrant Angles, etc. 154

CHAPTER XIV..
Humbugs 161

CHAPTER XV..
Conclusions 164

GLOSSARY.
Definitions of Shop
Terms Used 167
 STEEL:
A MANUAL FOR STEEL USERS.
 I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STEEL AND
OF MODES OF ITS MANUFACTURE.

Steel may be grouped under four general heads, each receiving

its name from the mode of its manufacture; the general properties of
the different kinds are the same, modified to some extent by the
differences in the operations of making them; these differences are
so slight, however, that after having mentioned them the discussion
of various qualities and properties in the following pages will be
general, and the facts given will apply to all kinds of steel, exceptions
being pointed out when they occur.
The first general division of steel is cemented or converted steel,
known to the trade as blister-steel, German, shear, and double-shear
steel.
This is probably the oldest of all known kinds of steel, as there is
no record of the beginning of its manufacture. This steel is based
upon the fact that when iron not saturated with carbon is packed in
carbon, with all air excluded, and subjected to a high temperature,—
any temperature above a low red heat,—carbon will be absorbed by
the iron converting it into steel, the steel being harder or milder,
containing more or less carbon, determined by the temperature and
the time of contact.
Experience and careful experiment have shown that at a bright
orange heat carbon will penetrate iron at the rate of about one eighth
of an inch in twenty-four hours. This applies to complete saturation,
above 100 carbon; liquid steel will absorb carbon with great rapidity,
becoming saturated in a few minutes, if enough carbon be added to
cause saturation.
 MANUFACTURE OF BLISTER-STEEL.
Bars of wrought iron are packed in layers, each bar surrounded
by charcoal, and the whole hermetically sealed in a fire-brick vessel
luted on top with clay; heat is then applied until the whole is brought
up to a bright orange color, and this heat is maintained as evenly as
possible until the whole mass of iron is penetrated by carbon; usually
bars about three quarters of an inch thick are used, and the heat is
required to be maintained for three days, the carbon, entering from
both sides, requiring three days to travel three eighths of an inch to
the centre of the bar. If the furnace be running hot, the conversion
may be complete in two days, or less. The furnace is then cooled
and the bars are removed; they are found to be covered with
numerous blisters, giving the steel its name.
The bars of tough wrought iron are found to be converted into
highly crystalline, brittle steel. When blister-steel is heated and rolled
directly into finished bars, it is known commercially as german
steel.
When blister-steel is heated to a high heat, welded under a
hammer, and then finished under a hammer either at the same heat
or after a slight re-heating, it is known as shear-steel, or single-
shear.
When single-shear steel is broken into shorter lengths, piled,
heated to a welding-heat and hammered, and then hammered to a
finish either at that heat or after a slight re-heating, it is known as
double-shear steel.
Seebohm gives another definition of single-shear, and double-
shear; probably both are correct, being different shop designations.
Until within the last century the above steels were the only kinds
known in commerce. There was a little steel made in India by a
melting process, known as Wootz. It amounted to nothing in the
commerce of the world, and is mentioned because it is the oldest of
known melting processes.
 Although converted steel is so old, and so few years ago was the
only available kind of steel in the world, nothing more need be said
of it here, as it has been almost superseded by cast steel, superior in
quality and cheaper in cost, except in crucible-steel.
Inquiring readers will find in Percy, and many other works, such
full and detailed accounts of the manufacture of these steels that it
would be a waste of space and time to reprint them here, as they are
of no more commercial importance.
In the last century Daniel Huntsman, of England, a maker of
clocks, found great difficulty in getting reliable, durable, and uniform
springs to run his clocks. It occurred to him that he might produce a
better and more uniform article by fusing blister-steel in a crucible.
He tried the experiment, and after the usual troubles of a pioneer he
succeeded, and produced the article he required. This founded and
established the great Crucible-cast-steel industry, whose benefits to
the arts are almost incalculable; and none of the great inventions of
the latter half of this nineteenth century have produced anything
equal in quality to the finer grades of crucible-steel.
crucible-cast steel is the second of the four general kinds of
steel mentioned in the beginning of this chapter.
Although Huntsman succeeded so well that he is clearly entitled
to the credit of having invented the crucible process, he met with
many difficulties, from porosity of his ingots mainly; this trouble was
corrected largely by Heath by the use of black oxide of manganese.
Heath attempted to keep his process secret, but it was stolen from
him, and he spent the rest of a troubled life in trying to get some
compensation from the pilferers of his process. An interesting and
pathetic account of his troubles will be found in Percy.
Heath’s invention was not complete, and it was finished by the
elder Mushet, who introduced in addition to the oxide of manganese
a small quantity of ferro-manganese, an alloy of iron and
manganese; and it was now possible, with care and skill, to make a
quality of steel which for uniformity, strength, and general utility has
never been equalled.
 Crucible-steel was produced then by charging into a crucible
broken blister-steel, a small quantity of oxide of manganese, and of
ferro-manganese, or Spiegel-eisen, covering the crucible with a cap,
and melting the contents in a coke-furnace, a simple furnace where
the crucible was placed on a stand of refractory material, surrounded
by coke, and fired until melted thoroughly.
The first crucibles used, and those still used largely in Sheffield,
were made of fire-clay; a better, larger, and more durable crucible,
used in the United States exclusively, and in Europe to some extent,
is made of plumbago, cemented by enough of fire-clay to make it
strong and tough. As the demands for steel increased and varied it
was found that the carbon could be varied by mixing wrought iron
and blister-bar, and so a great variety of tempers was produced,
from steel containing not more than 0.10% of carbon up to steel
containing 1.50% to 2% of carbon, and even higher in special cases.
It was soon found that the amount of carbon in steel could be
determined by examining the fractures of cold ingots; the fracture
due to a certain quantity of carbon is so distinct and so unchanging
for that quantity that, once known, it cannot be mistaken for any
other. The ingot is so sensitive to the quantity of carbon present that
differences of .05% may be observed, and in everyday practice the
skilled inspector will select fifteen different tempers of ingots in steels
ranging from about 50 carbon to 150 carbon, the mean difference in
carbon from one temper to another being only .07%. And this is no
guess-work;—no chemical color determination will approach it in
accuracy, and such work can only be checked by careful analysis by
combustion.
This is the steel-maker’s greatest stronghold, as it is possible by
this means for a careful, skilful man to furnish to a consumer, year
after year, hundreds or thousands of tons of steel, not one piece of
which shall vary in carbon more than .05% above or below the mean
for that temper.
The word “temper” used here refers to the quantity of carbon
contained in the steel, it is the steel-maker’s word; the question,
“What temper is it?” answered, No. 3, No. 6, or any other
designation, means a fixed, definite quantity of carbon.
When a steel-user hardens a piece of steel, and then lets down
the temper by gentle heating, and he is asked, “What temper is it?”
he will answer straw, light brown, brown, pigeon-wing, light blue, or
blue, as the case may be, and he means a fixed, definite degree of
softening of the hardened steel.
It is an unfortunate multiple meaning of a very common word, yet
the uses have become so fixed that it seems to be impossible to
change them, although they sometimes cause serious confusion.
The quantity of carbon contained in steel, and indeed of all
ingredients, as a rule, is designated in one hundredths of one per
cent; thus ten (.10) carbon means ten one hundredths of one per
cent; nineteen (.19) carbon means nineteen one hundredths of one
per cent; one hundred and thirty-five (1.35) carbon means one
hundred and thirty-five one hundredths of one per cent, and so on.
So also for contents of silicon, sulphur, phosphorus, manganese and
other usual ingredients.
This enumeration will be used in this work, and care will be taken
to use the word “temper” in such a way as not to cause confusion.
It has been stated that crucible-cast steel is made from ten
carbon up to two hundred carbon, and that its content of carbon can
be determined by the eye, from fifty carbon upwards, by examining
the fracture of the ingots. The limitation from fifty carbon upwards is
not intended to mean that ingots containing less than fifty carbon
have no distinctive structures due to the quantity of carbon; they
have such distinctive structures, and the difficulty in observing them
is merely physical.
Ingots containing fifty carbon are so tough that they can only be
fractured by being nicked with a set deeply, and then broken off;
below about fifty carbon the ingots are so tough that it is almost
impossible to break open a large enough fracture to enable the
inspector to determine accurately the quantity of carbon present;
therefore it is usual in these milder steels, when accuracy is
required, to resort to quick color analyses to determine the quantity
of carbon present. Color analyses below fifty carbon may be fairly
accurate, above fifty carbon they are worthless.
As the properties and reliability of crucible-steel became better
known the demand increased, and the requirements varied and were
met by skilful manufacturers, until, by the year 1860, ingots were
produced weighing many tons by pouring the contents of many
crucibles into one mould; in this way the more urgent demands were
met, but the material was very expensive and the risks in
manufacturing were great. About this time, stimulated by the desire
of enlightened governments to increase their powers of destruction
in war by the use of heavy guns of greater power than could be
obtained by the use of cast iron, and for heavier ship-armor to be
used in defence, Mr. Bessemer, of England, now Sir Henry
Bessemer, reasoned that if melted cast iron was reduced to wrought
iron by puddling, or boiling, by the mere oxidation, or burning out, of
the excess of carbon and silicon from the cast iron, that the same
cast iron might be reduced to steel in large masses by blowing air
through a molten mass in a close vessel, retaining enough heat to
keep the mass molten so that the resulting steel could be poured into
ingots as large as might be desired. At about the same time, or a
little earlier, Mr. Kelly, of the United States, devised and patented the
same method. Both of these gentlemen demonstrated the potencies
of their invention, and neither brought it to a successful issue.
To persistent and intelligent iron-masters of Sweden must be
given the credit of bringing the process of Bessemer to a commercial
success, and so they gave to the world pneumatic or Bessemer
steel, the latter name holding, properly, as a just tribute to the
inventor, and this inaugurated the third general division:

BESSEMER STEEL.
Bessemer steel is made by pouring into a bottle-shaped vessel
lined with refractory material a mass of molten cast iron, and then
blowing air through the iron until the carbon and silicon are burned
out. The gases and flame resulting escape from the mouth of the
vessel.
The combustion of carbon and silicon produce a temperature
sufficient to keep the mass thoroughly melted, so that the steel may
be poured into moulds making ingots of any desired size.
In the beginning, and for many years, the lining of the vessel was
of silicious or acid material, and it was found that all of the
phosphorus and sulphur contained in the cast iron remained in the
resulting steel, so that it was necessary to have no more of these
elements in the cast iron than was allowable in the steel. The higher
limit for phosphorus was fixed at ten points (.10%), and that is the
recognized limit the world over. When Bessemer pig is quoted, or
sold and bought, it means always a cast iron containing not more
than ten phosphorus.
In regard to sulphur, it was found that if too much were present
the material would be red-short, so that it could not be worked
conveniently in the rolls or under the hammer, and that when the
amount of sulphur present was not enough to produce red-shortness
it was not sufficient to hurt the steel.
As red-short material is costly and troublesome to the
manufacturer, it was not found necessary to fix any limit for sulphur,
because the makers could be depended upon to keep it within
working limits.
Later investigations prove this to be a fallacy, as much as ten or
even more sulphur has been found in broken rails and shafts, the
steel having made workable by a percentage of manganese. (See
the results of Andrews’s investigation given in Chap. X.)
During the operation of blowing Bessemer steel the flame issuing
from the vessel is indicative of the elimination of the elements, and it
is found that while the combustion is partially simultaneous the
silicon is all removed before the carbon, and the characteristic white
flame towards the end of the blow is known as the carbon flame;
when the carbon is burned out, this flame drops suddenly and the
operator knows that the blow is completed. Any subsequent blowing
would result in burning iron only. During the blow the steel is charged
heavily with oxygen, and if this were left in the steel it would be
rotten, red-short, and worthless. This oxygen is removed largely by
the addition of a predetermined quantity of ferro-manganese, usually
melted previously and then poured into the steel.
The manganese takes up the greater part of the oxygen, leaving
the steel free from red-shortness and easily worked.
The fact that the phosphorus of the iron remained in the steel
notwithstanding the active combustion and high temperature led to
the dictum that at high temperatures phosphorus could not be
eliminated from iron. This conclusion was credited because in some
of the so-called direct processes of making iron where the
temperature was never high enough to melt steel all, or nearly all, of
the phosphorus was removed from the iron.
For many years steel-makers the world over worked upon this
basis, and devoted themselves to procuring for their work iron
containing not more than ten (.10) phosphorus, now universally
known and quoted as Bessemer iron.
Two young English chemists, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy
C. Gilchrist, being careful thinkers, concluded that the question was
one of chemistry and not one of temperature; accordingly they set to
work to obtain a basic lining for the vessel and to produce a basic
slag from the blow which should retain in it the phosphorus of the
iron. After the usual routine of experiment, and against the doubtings
of the experienced, they succeeded, and produced a steel practically
free from phosphorus. For the practical working of their process it
was found better, or necessary, to use iron low in silicon and high in
phosphorus, using the phosphorus as a fuel to produce the high
temperature that is necessary instead of the silicon of the acid
process. In the acid process it is found necessary to have high
silicon—two percent or more—to produce the temperature
necessary to keep the steel liquid; in the Thomas-Gilchrist process
phosphorus takes the place of silicon for this purpose.
In this way the basic Bessemer process was worked out and
became prominent.