Henry Bessemer, the son of an engineer…

Henry Bessemer, the son of an engineer and typefounder, had early shown considerable mechanical skill and inventive powers.

After the invention of movable stamps for dating deeds and other government documents and the improvement of a typesetting machine, he had gone to the manufacture of “gold” powder from brass for use in paints.

The florid decoration of the time demands great quantities of such material, and Bessemer's secret process had soon brought him great wealth.

He has developed other inventions, notably sugarcane-crushing machinery of advanced design, but he is soon devoted to metallurgy.