10.The wintry days are merry，but they are very short.At Stockholm，the capital of Sweden，there are in December only six hours of daylight，and in the far north it is night during the whole twenty-four hours，day after day-if night can be called day-for over a month.By the darkness of winter you have to pay forthe long days and luminousnights of summer.
1.For every great work where strength and lightness are required，steel has now taken the place of iron.Our steam-ships and steam-engines，our railways and railway bridges，are all made of steel.That we are able to produce steel in large enough quantities and at a small enough cost for such purposes，we owe chiefly to the discoveries and inventions of one man，Sir Henry Bessemer.
2.He was the son of French parents，his father having settled in England during the terrors of the FrenchRevolution.He was born at Charlton，in Hertford-shire，in 1813.As a boy his favourite amusement was claymodelling.In London he was making his way in lifeas a modeller and designer，and working also as anengraveron steel，when something happened which
promised at first to secure him a comfortable position for life.
3.All important documents require a government stamp.These stamps are now embossed upon the documents themselves；but in Bessemer’s early days they were made separately，like our postage stamps，and gummed on.The government was losing many thousands of pounds each year，by dishonest people taking off the stamps from old documents and fixing them on new ones.
4.After several months of hard work，Bessemer succeeded in making a machine which would pierce the parchment of the document itself with hundreds of small holes，arranged so as to form a stamp.The government was satisfied with this invention，and offered Bessemer the post of Superintendent of Stamps as a reward.Before he was appointed to the post，however，a friend suggestedto him that it would bestill simpler to use a dieby which a date would be puton each stamp as it was printed.
5.Bessemer saw that if this plan was adopted by the government，the post which they had just offered him would become unnecessary.Still，trusting in the fairness of the government to give him some reward，Bessemer unfolded to them the new plan.Judge of his disappointment when the government at once adoptedEmbossed，raised.
Suggested，proposed.Die，stamp.this new method，but refused to give the inventor a single farthing of reward.
6.His next invention was happily a more profitable one.He was struck with the fact that the bronze powder used for gilding，which was then sold for seven shillings an ounce，was made from a material which cost only one shilling per pound.He set to work to invent a method of making the powder，and after two years he succeeded in his task.
7.Warned by his former experiences，and knowingvery little of the patent law，Bessemer decided to keepthis secret to himself，and to begin the manufacture of the powder on a small scale.The room in which the manufacture was carried on was kept locked，and only a few trusted workmen were allowed to know the secret.The business proved a prosperous one，and it is still carried on by two of Bessemer‘s assistants，who keep the process secret.
8.But it is in connection with his improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel that Sir Henry Bessemer’s name is best known，and it was for these improvements that he received the honour of knight-hood.Cast iron is weak and brittle on account of itsBronze，a mixture of copper and tin.
Patent law，law giving the right to the profits of an invention to the inventor for a certain time.
impurities，and in order to get rid of these impurities，the melted iron had to be stirred about by men，who suffered much from the extreme heat.The effect of this stirring was to burn up all the impurities，partly by bringing them while hot into contact with the air.
9.The invention of the Bessemer process made theproduction of malleableiron and of steel very muchsimpler and cheaper.This process consists of forcingair through the melted iron.The oxygenof the aircombines with or burns up the impurities，and leaves the iron soft and malleable.Steel is produced in the same way，the only difference being that steel contains asmall proportion of carbon.The steel produced in thisway is not so fine as that made by the older process，but it costs only one-fifth as much.In this way it has been possible to use steel for rails and bridges and other great undertakings where iron was formerly used.
