&ERKILBY
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
MEMOIE AND LETTERS
OF
SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS
INVENTOR
EDITED BY
K. W. BUENIE
OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRIStB ll-AT-LAW
1 Life 's more than breath, or the quick round of blood ;
"Tis a great spirit and a fiery heart.
We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial,
We should count time by heart throbs ;
He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest,
Acts the best ' FESTUS
WITH POETEAITS
LONDON
JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET
1891
T4-AZ
EDITOE'S PEEFACE
IN the following pages I have sought, with what success I
know not, to construct out of material sufficiently abundant,
a brief history of a very striking and individual character,
and of a life cut short prematurely enough, yet possessed
in its own way of a singular completeness.
It is hoped that no one who may read this little book
will so misapprehend its intention as to look upon it as a
glorification of personal success or money-getting achieve-
ment, after the fashion possibly of some biographies of
inventors, biographies haply more grateful to the last
generation than to us who stand (as it seems to some) on
the threshold of a New Age. No one would more have
recoiled from being ranked among the devotees of Ruskin's
' Goddess of Getting on ' than the subject of this Memoir.
Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (although placed among
conditions by no means favourable for such purposes, and
with working hours occupied by distasteful and monotonous
business) solved a great scientific problem the dephos-
phorisation of pig iron in the Bessemer and Siemens-
Martin processes and for such solution was fortunate
(perhaps we should rather say foreseeing) enough to gather
296
[6] EDITOR'S PREFACE
a pecuniary reward which, rightly or wrongly, he never
regarded as his own, but rather, according to his lights, as
trust-money for toilers and labourers.
Not on this account, however, is his story told here,
but because it has seemed well to those who knew him,
that some record should be kept of a remarkable and
interesting personality, typical indeed in some ways of
the very best side of our ' industrial > century, yet touched
with a human sympathy which we may hope will be more
general in the future than it has been in the past.
It may be observed that an endeavour has been made
simply to paint a portrait, without allowing the tempera-
ment or opinions of the present writer or of anyone else
to affect the rigid accuracy of the presentment.
R. W. BURNIE.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS
PAGE
Parentage Birth Education Precocity Kadicalism Father's
death Classical mastership Thames Police Court ... 1
CHAPTER II
A SUMMER TOUR
First visit to Continent Normandy Thomas's physical appearance
Thomas's abstinence and over-work Paris Thrift Finan-
cial genius Formula swallowing 16
CHAPTER III
A ' DOUBLE LIFE '
Police Court labours Mr. Lushington on Thomas Chemical
studies Letters to mother and sister 23
CHAPTER IV
THE PROBLEM OF DEPHOSPHORISATION
The Birkbeck Institution Mr. Chaloner Non-elimination of phos-
phorus in Bessemer Converter Hindoo steel Cort Bessemer
process described The Steel Age -Cleveland ironstone . . 30
[8] SIDNEY GILOHRIST THOMAS
CHAPTER V
YEAES OF EQUIPMENT
Determination to solve dephosphorisation problem Mr. Vacher
The Science and Art Department The School of Mines
Summer holidays and work Anti-alcoholism Contributions
to Iron Letter to Miss Burton ,36
CHAPTER VI
THE PROBLEM THEORETICALLY SOLVED A GERMAN TOUR
Acid lining of Bessemer Converter Basic lining Mr. Percy Gil-
christ Experiments Wiesbaden Frankfort The Hartz . 56
CHAPTER VII
' TECHNICAL TRAVEL TALK '
Dresden Erzgebirge of Saxony Fair at Freiberg Saxon Mines
Freiberg Academy Bohemia The Hartz Blankenberg . . 65
CHAPTER VIII
EXPERIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND
Iron and Steel Institute Cwm Avon Blaenavon Thomas and
Fellowship of Chemical Society Einking Literature A Brad-
laugh meeting Lucerne Camping-out Gambling at Saxon
Cow-Land 88
CHAPTER IX
THE BASIC PROCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED
Police Court labours Middlesbrough Jennie Lee in Jo ' Blows
at Blaenavon Life at high pressure A dangerous run A
first dephosphorisation patent Financial difficulties Mr.
Edward Martin A momentous announcement Music and
literature . . . . . 102
CONTENTS [9]
CHAPTER X
THE BASIC PROCESS DESCRIBED
PAGE
Paper on ' Elimination of Phosphorus in Bessemer Converter '
Kationale of process Mr. Gilchrist Basic lining Basic addi-
tionsBasic slag at early stage of blow The after-blow . . 117
CHAPTER XI
TRIUMPH
French conversation Paris in 1878 The paper not read Mr.
Eichards A Creusot visit Commercial success Bush of con-
tinental ironmasters The patent position The paper read
Besignation at Thames Police Court Victory in Germany . . 123
CHAPTER XII
DUSSELDORF A GATHERING CLOUD
A narrowing span Journeyings of Thomas Stress and strain
A Diisseldorf speech The Sistine Madonna Grave lung mis-
chief Ventnor ' Small ailments ' 137
CHAPTER XIII
A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES
A striking reception New York Clubs Plymouth Church Money
worship Chicago Banquets to Thomas Hartford Capitol
Architecture Some Southern cities Niagara A personal de-
scription of Thomas 146
CHAPTER XIV
HEALTH FAILS IN EARNEST
' Note on Current Dephosphorising Practice ' Basic steel More
Journeyings A break-down Torquay The Society of Arts'
Medal Thomas's plans and deeds for workers The Channel
Islands Election to Council of Iron and Steel Institute , . 159
[10] SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS
CHAPTER XV
SOUTH AFRICA
PAGE
Voyage to the Cape Port Elizabeth Grahamstown East London
Kaffirs and Dutch Economic conditions Diamond fields . 174
CHAPTER XVI
MAURITIUS AND INDIA
More voyaging Port Louis Cureppe Coolies and Chinese
' Square thinking on religious questions ' Bombay Allahabad
Benares Calcutta Barrakur Iron-making in India . . 205
CHAPTER XVII
CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA
Chinese law and religion Climate of India Colombo Mount
Lavinia Interview with Arabi An Argentine Steel in India
Basic process 229
CHAPTER XVIII
AUSTRALIA
Adelaide' The Child ' Melbourne Sydney Democracy in the
Colonies Australian Ministers Wangaratta A slag process
wanted Lithgow Brisbane . . . . . . 240
CHAPTER XIX
HOMEWARD BOUND
Auckland and New Zealand Honolulu San Francisco Thomas
in dangerous condition The States again ..... . . 270
CONTENTS [11]
CHAPTEE XX
A SAD HOME-COMING AND A FLIGHT SOUTH
PAGE
Worrying letters Uncheckable activity New plans and schemes
The Slag Question Sevenoaks Common A change for the
worse Farewell to England . 277
CHAPTEE XXI
A WINTER IN ALGIERS
Marseilles and mosquitoes Arab and Frenchman in Algiers-
Bessemer Medal presented to Thomas Project for new type-
writer Slag experiments at Bir-el-Droodj ' Steel a by-pro-
duct and phosphorus a main-product ' Doctors despair A
move north . . 282
CHAPTEE XXII
THE LAST DAYS IN FARIS
Limoges Some Southern French towns The Avenue Marceau
Trial of a new cure Friends' last visits Plans for workers
Death of brother Clouds close in A logical life Death
of Thomas Disposal of money for toilers' benefit . . . 303
CONCLUSION . 313
ILLUSTBATIONS
PORTRAIT AFTER HERKOMER Frontispiece
PORTRAIT FROM A PHOTOGRAPH ..... To face page 1
SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS
MEMOIK AKD LETTEES
OF
SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS
SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS was born on April 16, 1850, at
Canonbury. His father was in the Civil Service, and a
Welshman. His mother (nee Gilchrist) was the eldest
daughter of the Rev. James Gilchrist, the author of a
striking and individual litt'e "book, unknown to modern
readers, the ' Intellectual Patrimony.' James Gilchrist
was a Highlander, of keen literary tastes and eager after
Truth as he saw it, who drifted from Presbyterianism into
Unitarianism and thence reverted to orthodoxy, much to
his worldly detriment. One of his sons was Alexander
Gilchrist, the well-known and too early gone biographer
of Etty and of Blake. The important matter for us to
note is that Sidney Thomas was mainly of Celtic strain,
and furnished yet another example of the often unrecog-
nised addition of fame which that great race has brought
to the ' English ' people.
His childhood was passed on the banks of the New
River when there was still something of a rural character
B
2 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. i
about that artificial stream. The miles of houses which
now stretch over the northern slopes of the great parish of
Islington away to Highgate Hill and the very gates of the
Alexandra Palace were, forty years ago, still for the most
part in the future.
For the first few years of Sidney's life,' says his mother,
c he was a constant care ; his brain seemed too big for his
.body. He learnt to read at a most unusually early age.
When quite a little boy, six or seven years old, he already
read much and earnestly. He would act out, in his small
way, the characters of the heroes of his books now it
might be Nelson, now King Arthur, or one of the Round
Table Knights. I remember, when he was seven, making
for him a suit of armour, as he firmly believed it to be-
Clofched in it, he would solemnly "keep vigil," pacing
up and down, his sword by his side, for hours together,
before making his vows to an imaginary King. One of
his favourite books was a little volume I gave him on
his sixth birthday " Our Soldiers and Sailors " short
sketches of eminent men in those lines. I can see now
the earnest, large-eyed child, and his delight with his
presents ; especially with his books. He was so rational
and good a boy that his father and I thought he should by-
and-bye be a clergyman. Very early in his boyhood, however,
he told me with decision that that he should never be, " he
was not good enough." " I will do something great, mamma,
and you shall have a carriage to ride in " (I was not very
strong just then), "and money to help people with." '
Sidney's mother taught both him and his elder brother
(the late Dr. Llewellyn Thomas, of Weymouth Street)
during their early years. When Sidney was eight he
attended for a year, with Llewellyn, at the school kept in
the neighbourhood by Mr. Darnell, of copybook fame.
At the end of that year Mr. Thomas removed to Grove
CH. i EARLY DAYS 8
Lane, Camberwell, near the brow of Champion Hill,
mainly that he might gain for his boys the advantage of
the education given by the newly reconstructed Dulwich
College, then under Dr. Carver's head-mastership. There
for the next seven years Sidney remained, gradually rising
from form to form in the school till the proud eminence of
the ' sixth ' was reached. Living at home, but attending
daily at the College, the brothers enjoyed all the undoubted
benefits of what is called ' home education,' together with
whatever is really useful in 'public-school' life. The home
in Grove Lane (well remembered by the present writer)
was no ordinary educative influence. Sidney's father was
no ordinary man. His talents were at once intellectual
and practical, and his interest in his sons' development
was ever present. Sidney was naturally precocious, and
the keen hunger after knowledge (which was as much
his characteristic at thirteen as afterwards at thirty) was
encouraged and stimulated in every way. The boys were
early admitted on equal terms to conversation both with
their mother and with their father. Gossip was little
favoured in the family circle. The discussion (for real
discussion it would be) of literature and politics was pre-
ferred to vain personal talk. Mr. Thomas himself was a
Conservative in creed, his wife a Liberal by inheritance,
but their sons were ever warned from accepting any
opinion they had not tested for themselves, and the freest
spirit of inquiry was not only welcomed but expected
from them. It may truly be said that a thoroughly
scientific mental attitude was thus, unconsciously to them-
selves, induced in them. Omnivorous reading was the
habit of the whole household.
' Sidney's mind,' says his mother, ' was stored with the
kind of knowledge boys gain in a cultured home. His
father habitually read aloud to the boys bits of Words -
B 2
4 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. i
worth, lives of great men, passages from Buffon's " Natural
History." I well remember how Sidney's cheeks glowed
at hearing read in this way the " Morte d' Arthur " of
Tennyson. He and his brother had a healthy source of
education in the visits they were accustomed to pay once
or twice a year to the country. At Christmastide and in
the early spring time, they would be received as indulged
nephews by a kind, broad-minded, busy uncle into his
Berkshire home. Here they would see the practical work-
ing of many rural industries.
1 In the late summer or early autumn, they would visit
one or other of two ideal vicarage-houses. One was
Corwen, situate on the side of the lovely Berwyn Moun-
tains, with the river Dee flowing silently and darkly on
the other side of the Holyhead high road. Here reigned
a grand old vicar, living a life of lettered dignity, and
ruling his church, his house and the parish with perfectly
absolute sway, yet with real sympathy and love. The
other vicarage was that of Llandrillo in Rhus (near
Colwyn), where the Rev. Thomas Hughes (a bachelor
nephew of him of Corwen) was vicar. This was a home
still more entirely Sidney's. From eleven to sixteen he
was a regular autumnal visitor here, and a great favourite
with the tall, hearty, breezy Mr. Hughes, the very sound
of whose laugh did one good and inspired immediate con-
fidence. At thirteen Sidney began helping the vicar
during his visits by reading the lessons in church for
him in the earlier days in English, afterwards, with some
training, in Welsh. These holidays, after the close work
of school, were a real blessing to him, and here he dreamed
out many an ambition for the future. Noble scenery, the
sea, books, the simple vicarage life all these things were
a rare refreshment to the quiet, self-contained boy. I
remember a characteristic story of him at this period. A
e. i EAKLY DAYS 5
Dean (whose cathedral I forget) was lunching with the
vicar. This dignitary put Sidney through an examination
in Latin. The boy came so well out of the ordeal that
the Dean " tipped " him three half-sovereigns and retained
him as guide over the Great Orme's Head. A happy hour
ensued; Sidney in the heat of some discussion flinging
off his jacket and carrying it under his arm. The half-
sovereigns had been put into the jacket pocket, and not
unnaturally, upon return to the vicarage, they were gone.
Not unnaturally either, the vicar was vexed ; but Sidney's
only answer was : " Never mind, godfather, most likely
someone has it who wants it more than I." " What can
you do with such a boy ? " wrote the vicar to me.
' Never did he as a lad care for money in the way boys
often do. Once, some money having been given him, he came
to his father and offered him five shillings for a little worn-
out American clock. His father told him the clock was
not worth the money and that he might have it for
nothing. Sidney, however, said that he wanted to take
the clock to pieces, and must therefore pay for it. Take
it to pieces he did, and, not being a watchmaker, was
naturally unable to put it together again. He remained,
nevertheless, perfectly content with his bargain.'
Constant discussion of political questions, coupled with
unceasing insistence by his elders that he should render
a reason for the faith that was in him, made Sidney a
militant Radical at an age when it may be supposed that
most boys are chiefly interested in cricket stumps and
footballs, not to say in tops and marbles.
From the beginning he followed the course of the
American Civil War with the eagerness and comprehen-
sion of an intelligent man. Alone in the family circle he
would do battle for the North, and upon fitting occasions
(for he must not be supposed to have been in any sense
6 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. i
that most dreadful of social plagues, an f infant pheno-
menon ' ) would argue on State Rights and what not with a
knowledge and an accuracy which would have done credit
to a disputant thrice his years.
The last sentence leads us specially to emphasise what
is necessary to be remembered in connection with what
has gone before, that amid all this precocity no element of
priggism was allowed to intrude. The slightest flavour
of this detestable spirit would have been instantly detected
and unsparingly ridiculed. Sidney was before all things
trained to be a boy while boyhood lasted. Nor was it
desired to cultivate mental at the expense of physical
faculties. Open-air pursuits and recreations were encou-
raged in every way. Each Sunday afternoon Mr. Thomas
would take his boys long country walks, by no means
restricting himself to the high roads, but striking ' across
country ' whenever opportunity offered. On these expe-
ditions, and indeed whenever they found themselves in
fields or roads, the lads were taught to use their eyes
to good purpose. Natural history was a passion with
Llewellyn Thomas, and Sidney also cultivated it in a
minor degree. Thirty years ago Camberwell (or the
up-lying portion of it at least) was still on the edge of the
country, and abundant opportunity was to be found for
entomological collecting even for birds'-nesting on a
somewhat extensive scale, and with a more or less scien-
tific object.
A well-thumbed copy of a little book by Mr. Atkinson
on ' British Birds' Eggs and Nests ' was a classic in the
home. Llewellyn and Sidney were joint possessors of a
regular aviary, with a constant population of some dozen
birds of different species, an intense source of delight to
both boys. For some time an effort was made to keep
a kite in the garden ; but the bird developed such an
CH. i EAELY DAYS 7
unpleasant habit of attacking innocent visitors, that
ultimately it was deemed necessary by the domestic
authorities to cause its presentation to the Zoological
Gardens. These tastes were adopted by Sidney (so far
as they were adopted at all) in emulation of his elder
brother. From very early days his own individual predi-
lections took a different direction. Mechanics and engin-
eering had an irresistible fascination for him from the
time when (tcrfifia ss asl as it seemed indeed) he became
possessor of his first box of tools and fashioned his first
toy ship. A little later, in 1862, during the formation by
the then youthful Metropolitan Board of Works of the
New Main Drainage System, he would stand for hours on
a half-holiday entranced in contemplation of the building
of the great sewers. He soon decided that his avocation
in life was to be that of a mechanical engineer. A year
or two afterwards the fairy 'and of chemistry opened before
him, and he resolved upon becoming an analytical
chemist. Little did any then foresee the devious paths by
which he was to be led back to his first mistress, Science.
Art, however, had also its influence on the boy. The
Dulwich Gallery was a favourite resort during recreation
hours at the neighbouring college. Every picture in
the collection was known by heart, so to speak, to Sidney,
and its history and every fact connected with it. Music,
too (although in after life he always disclaimed special
liking for modern developments on Wagnerian lines, or,
indeed, any special taste for it), had always in truth a great
attraction for Thomas. At fourteen the wonderful singing
and playing of Miss Havergal (a lady whose religious
verse made her quite famous at one time in certain circles)
produced a strong impression on him, ' as well,' says his
mother, c as the deep spiritual individuality of the sweet
singer herself.'
8 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. i
Amid all these influences and dreams, the steady,
regular school work and life at Dulwich maintained an
admirable balance of compensation. Sidney was boyish
enough in all conscience when joining on a summer after-
noon or evening in a hare and hounds paper chase round
the borders of South London. Over the whole scheme of
education presided a steady inculcation of industry and
energy in all things, whether work or play, very delight-
ful to witness. To use an expressive Americanism, the
household at Grove Lane was a i live ' household, with no
particle of sullen sloth about it. Self-reliance was one of
the earliest lessons taught the boys, and at twelve years
old or less, they were expected to be able, unassisted, to
escort a less experienced country cousin to a day's sight-
seeing in town, or with equal facility to join him in a day's
birds'-nesting in the country.
'From the time Sidney entered Dulwich,' says his
mother, ' his progress was steady. He was always obedient,
always industrious, yet seeming to lead an inner life of his
own. I remember that at fourteen he had a vehement
struggle with another boy for the top of the fifth form.
Especially was their competition keen for that form's prize
for Latin Verse and Prose Composition. This prize Sidney
gained. Comparing notes afterwards, however, with his
friendly rival, he came to the conclusion that it had not
been rightfully adjudged to him. No sooner was he con-
vinced of this than he sought an interview with the
Master, and endeavoured to convince that authority that
the decision was wrong. The Master was both amused
and aggravated, and told Sidney that he had better be
content with what praise and success were given him
in this hard world. Nevertheless, Sidney remained
thoroughly dissatisfied with his victory, taking no pleasure
in his prize.
CH. i EAELY DAYS 9
c His protecting love for his little sister Lilian, eight
years younger than himself, was born with her birth and
grew with her growth. When she was a week old he
would ask the nurse to be allowed to take her in his arms,
and upon the good woman's consent, would sit holding
the baby-sister for half an hour at a time, never moving,
but silently looking at her. As Lilian grew older, Sidney
became her companion and friend, teaching her, telling
her fairy tales ; upon returning from an absence always
bringing her some little memento of the spot visited, or
some odd quaint tale of adventure.'
Equal with Sidney's love for his sister was his devo-
tion to his mother.
1 One of the strongest ties of his life,' says the latter,
c was his devoted affection to me. When he was fourteen
he had a serious illness, inflammation of the lungs and
brain, brought on (so the doctors said) by overwork, and
by carelessly getting wet in walking across the fields to
school. (At that time there were fields between Camber-
well and Dulwich, and not streets of speculative builders'
masterpieces.) Through this terrible illness I nursed him.
He and I were shut up together for three anxious months,
and our mutual affection and devotion were, if possible,
strengthened. During his convalescence from this malady
he would sometimes give me a glimpse of his inner thoughts.
Through science (always through science) he was to do
some great thing, and Lilian and I were to help him to
dispense among the unfortunate and the neglected the
money he was sure to make.
4 When Sidney had attained his sixteenth year, Dr.
Carver, the head-master of Dulwich, wrote to my husband
requesting an interview. At the meeting which there-
upon ensued, Dr. Carver said that he was most anxious
that Sidney, who he thought would do honour to the
10 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. i
school, should remain some time longer at Dulwich, and
should ultimately go in for a scholarship at either Oxford
or Cambridge. To such a scheme my husband had no
objection ; on the contrary, he was eager for its execution.
" Sidney," he used to say, " will in the end become a man
of science ; but he will be a credit to whichever university
he may join. One thing, however, is certain : money will
never be an object to him; indeed, he will never be able
to take care of it." This last prediction the future was
fated signally to falsify.
* However, an insurmountable obstacle arose to all these
plans. Sidney, in his own quiet, respectful way, told both
the head-master and his father that he would rather
matriculate at London University and study medicine in
the capital.
1 Dr. Carver, his father, I myself, were all much dis-
appointed ; but the boy had his way. In the summer
holidays of 1866 he left Dulwich. In that summer, too,
he accompanied his father upon a long tour in South
Wales.
' That trip strengthened the boy's affection for his
father, and more than ever convinced the latter that he
had a rare nature to deal with. Upon their return my
husband said : " Sidney can pursue his own course ; we
can absolutely trust him."
' My boy, on his side, at once began studying for the
London Matriculation. His father offered him a coach.
" No ; please, father," said he, " a fellow knows nothing
really well which he does not gain for himself." So passed
the weeks, Sidney working up his subjects himself,
and also devoting his time to teaching Lilian and his
younger brother Arthur. He began Latin with them ;
made geography lessons easy to them by telling them
tales of strange countries. Always the instruction was
CH. I
EARLY DAYS 11
wound up by some wonderful story invented for tlie
occasion.'
In such fashion were the irresistible forces of heredity
and of education combining to mould a bright, alert,
questioning, indefatigable, strenuous, and withal practical
spirit. A sudden family crisis was to test that spirit
earlier than had seemed likely. Dreams of matriculation
at London, of study of medicine, of ultimate pursuit,
mayhap, of analytical chemistry or mechanical engineering,
were to disappear.
In February, 1867, Mr. Thomas died suddenly of
apoplexy, and the household was left without a head. The
loss of income was naturally serious. Llewellyn, the
eldest son, had already entered upon his career (a career
destined to prove brilliant enough, although cut short too
early), and for a twelvemonth past had been attending
at St. Thomas's Hospital. Sidney's resolves had better
be told in his mother's words :
1 Sidney sat down by his father's bedside a boy ; from
his grave he passed out a man, and thenceforward took
upon himself, as far as he could, the burden of my grief.
When we were alone, he told me quietly that he should
not matriculate, that he should write to the vicar of
Llandrillo, and endeavour to obtain a Civil Service
nomination ; that he would take anything that first offered.
I prayed him to carry out his plans. I said we would all
live quietly together, and that we should have income
enough. " Mother," his answer was, " you will want all
you have to educate the little ones."
' No prayers, no argument could move him, and so
this boy (not yet seventeen) launched himself on a man's
career. He wrote to his Llandrillo cousin and godfather,
and had a speedy promise of his nomination. In the
meantime, Sidney devoted himself to urgent affairs. His
12 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. i
father had been executor of the vicar of Corwen, who had
died the preceding summer. He carried on this executor-
ship and helped me with my own.
' Shortly after my husband's death we moved to
Camberwell Grove. We had not long settled there when
Sidney told me quietly that he had taken a classical
mastership at an Essex school, meaning to hold it until
the promised Civil Service appointment came. He ex-
plained that there was nothing now for him to help me
in. " You know, mother, I cannot be idle."
1 No remonstrances availed. He went to the Essex
school it was at Braintree and found his class to consist
of young fellows bigger and older, for the most part, than
himself. These lads were at first much inclined to re-
bellion ; but Sidney persevered, prevailed, and in the end
reduced them to willing obedience. The head-master was
most anxious to secure his classical assistant permanently,
and offered him increased salary and ultimately partnership
if he would remain.'
However, the particular drudgery of teaching was
always abhorrent to Sidney, tolerant as he was of drudgery
when needful, and he was by no means ill-pleased when
the looked-for nomination came. It was to a clerkship in
the Metropolitan Police Courts.
Attached to each Metropolitan Police Court are a
' senior ' and a l junior ' clerk, members of the Civil Service.
The junior's salary begins at 90Z. a year, with an annual
increment until 200Z. a year is reached ; the senior receives
500/. per annum. The seniors are recruited from the
ranks of the juniors ; but in so small a department pro-
motion is necessarily slow, and the discoverer of the
Thomas-Gilchrist process never attained, it in his twelve
years' service. The duties of the clerks are to conduct all
the business of the office as distinct from the Court, to
CH. i EARLY DAYS 18
receive and account for all the moneys paid in for process,
fines, &c., and in court to take notes and depositions.
The examination of witnesses, in the great majority of
cases where no advocate appears, is by most magistrates-
left much to the clerk. To anyone with the slightest
knowledge of the volume of business constantly transacted
before these tribunals, it will be obvious that the official
hours from ten to five must be pretty fully occupied. At
the busier courts, indeed, the clerks are often detained an
hour or so later, although the magistrate himself, of course,
adjourns at the statutory time. This is mentioned for a
reason which will presently appear. Thomas, having ob-
tained his ' nomination,' had little difficulty in success
in the examination, with some hundreds of marks to
spare. A year or two later, equal success in his
examination would have given him to a great extent his
choice of departments. At this time, however, it was not
so. In the latter part of 1867 he entered upon his duties
at the Marlborough Street Police Court. Mr. Knox was
the senior magistrate here at the time. The work was
quite novel to Sidney ; but, although he never liked it
(indeed, disliked it cordially), he buckled to it with
characteristic energy. At any rate, it was better than
teaching. It is not too much to say that, in the midst of
all the other more congenial pursuits of which we shall
presently speak, he found time to thoroughly master not
only the practice and procedure, and the various statutes
with which he was more immediately concerned, but, in-
deed, to make himself an accomplished criminal lawyer.
In the earlier days at Marlborough Street the atmosphere
was, doubtless, strange enough to him, and the writer can
well remember his telling with much gusto how he tried
to convince Mr. Knox that he should not convict a
man who, when starving, had appropriated another's loaf,
14 SIDNEY GIT CHRIST THOMAS CH. i
because even so conservative a thinker as Paley had main-
tained that such a taking was not theft. The worthy
magistrate was puzzled for the moment by this citation of
an authority so little quoted in law courts, but presently
bethought him that in truth the plea of necessity could
hardly arise, since the merciful legislation of this happy
country had provided for the destitute the pleasant asylum
of the casual ward.
Marlborough Street is probably the police court where
the work is lightest, and it is situate in a locality which
is accessible and agreeable to the average middle-class
man ; consequently the ordinary police-court clerk seeks
rather eagerly after appointment to it. Sidney, however,
was neither an average middle-class man nor an ordinary
police-court clerk.
In 1868 the East End had not yet been discovered
by Mr. Walter Besant. Nobody knew of the delightful
pastime styled ' slumming ; ' nobody dreamt of Palaces of
Delight, or produced glorified technical schools. Thomas
was nevertheless smitten with a genuine desire (since
police-court drudgery seemed to be his portion) to pursue
his vocation rather in the East than in the West, and to
see for himself something of the great depths below our
civilisation. For probably the first time in the history of
this branch of the Civil Service, he sought an exchange
with a colleague at the ' Thames ' Court in Arbour Square,
and naturally met with no difficulty or obstacle in the
achievement of his wish. He thus quitted the West End
Court after about a year spent there, and for the remainder
of his time in the profession was attached to the Stepney
tribunal. Among the magistrates here were Mr. Paget,
Mr. De Rutzen, Mr. Lushington, and for a short time
before Sidney's resignation, Mr. Saunders. Thomas con-
tinued to live at home. His mother, as we have seen, had
CH. i EAKLY PAYS 15.
removed from Grove Lane to the neighbouring < Camber-
well Grove.' Naturally, and gradually, while still little
more than a boy, he assumed unconsciously the position of
head of the family ; for his elder brother was by this time
out in the world on his own account, and no longer a con-
stant member of the home circle. He would usually walk
the long distance from Camberwell to Stepney at a swing-
ing pace, always arriving at the Court at ten sharp ; often,
indeed, he would walk back. At Thames he had a senior
colleague, a Mr. Poyer, since deceased. With this gentle-
man Sidney was enabled, after some years, to make an
arrangement which left him two days a week free, and
this gave him precious time which was devoted to the real
mistress of his heart, Science, and to study and researches
by means of which he, in the end, perfected that which
was to prove his life-work.
Before we speak of this pact, which had so much in-
fluence on the future, let us here introduce a description
of Thomas as he appeared at this time to a cousin and
intimate friend, who took a holiday tour with him in the
summer of 1869.
16 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS
CHAPTER II
A SUMMER TOUR
' IT was in the gorgeous July of 1869 that Sidney Thomas
and I, he then being aged nineteen and I a year or two
younger, visited the Continent for the first time. Such a
visit at such an age is an experience never in any case to
be forgotten ; but in this instance my cousin's striking
personality must, anyhow, have indelibly impressed upon
one's mind all the main incidents of a month's travel with
him. During our walks along the straight white Norman
roads we discoursed " of all things, and some others," with
that wonderful self-confidence alas ! also with that won-
derful energy and new delight characteristic of the dawn-
ing days of manhood, when life is like a romance " of cloak
and sword," and not the dreary, grimy, realistic narrative
which it too often afterwards becomes.
' We were, I think, both possessed of that keen pleasure
in argument, for the sake of argument, which older out-
siders sometimes find so distasteful to them in smart lads
in their teens, and we naturally always took opposite
views of every conceivable topic, from the mysteries of
theology down to the topography of the Lower Seine. The
summer air would be heavy with the clang of debate as
we trudged along. Yet we had, I think, both of us, a
wonderfully happy time of it, and as light hearts as any
pair of youngsters in all fair France. Light hearts have
a proverbial accompaniment, which in our case was not
CH. ii A SUMMEK TOUR 17
lacking either to wit, light purses ; but need for economy,
provided it be not too pronounced, only adds to the enjoy-
ment of a pleasure-trip at twenty.
' Of the well-remembered little incidents of that trip, so
far as they illustrate either Sidney Thomas' character as it
appeared to me, or the experiences which were going to
form it, I will say something presently ; but I want, if I
can, in the first place, to give some idea of that unique
personality of his at which I have already hinted. Such
as he was then, such he remained, in my eyes at least,
almost to the end. No one with the slightest faculty of
observation could ever have come into the most momen-
tary contact with him and have failed to recognise a mind
of exceptional power. He had the spare frame of a man
^ager, not merely for intellectual research, but for intel-
lectual conflict and conquest, of a man perhaps somewhat
too disdainful of the things of the flesh. His face was
a little "sicklied o'er with th.3 pale cast of thought" and
his hair a little long and unkempt (of a surety from no
conscious affectation, nor indeed had " sestheticism " begun
in 1869) ; yet I think most women would have found his
clear-cut features and speaking eyes, wonderfully variable
in colour and expression, handsome. He spoke in a clear,
pleasant voice, which in moments of excitement became
metallic. His reading was wonderful for a youth of his
age fiction, history, travel, theology, on all these subjects
he seemed equally at home. Perhaps poetry had been a
little neglected. In the semi-humorous, self-depreciatory
way which became him well, he used to say that he had
no care for verse, and that in the coming time everything
worth reading would be written in prose ; but I never
believed either assertion. Social subjects had a wonderful
fascination for him, and although his mind was too indepen-
dent to accept blindfold any of the provisional theories of
c
18 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS X:K. n
the human future which had come in his way, and he was
-" nullius addict us jurare in verba magistri," yet I do not
think, looking back across the expanse of twenty years,
that it would be saying too much to describe him as almost
persuaded to be a Socialist. I know that in those days he
was far more advanced than I, who had but faint glimmer-
ings of social problems ; although politically I was radical
enough. Of science he seldom spoke to me, knowing how
feeble my interest in and scant my knowledge of those
departments of it, at least, which specially attracted him.
1 Under the stimulus of what to us were novel experi-
ences in wayside Norman inns or on the asphalte of peer-
less Paris, sides of Thomas's character became apparent
which were not so well seen in his workaday life, when
he was subjecting himself to that double strain of dis-
tasteful exertion conscientiously performed in the fetid
atmosphere of a London police court and congenial study
unfortunately pursued in hours which immutable hygienic
laws have decided should be devoted to leisure. Most of
us, who belong to the non-productive classes at least, know
nowadays something of the mental exaltation produced
by realising for the first time with our own eyes the
existence of a civilisation different from our own, even if
it be only the civilisation of a country so like ours as is
France. The very names on the shop-fronts, the very
jabber of the children in the streets, the very knowledge
that we are strangers and sojourners, all those things
cause a delight never afterwards to be reproduced. For
myself, I shall never forget our landing at Havre one
afternoon in early July. We had come by the long route
from London Bridge, and I think we had both of us
suffered a good deal in the Channel. All the morning we
had lain tossing outside the harbour waiting for the tide.
Such troubles were soon forgotten as, in our phrase-book
CH. n A SUMMEK TOUR 19
French, we asked our way, knapsacks on back, to the
Caudebec road ; for we were to walk up the Seine valley,
Paris-ward.
' With what zest we ate our rolls and drank our cafe au
lait in the morning and felt that we were indeed " on the
Continent! " We did a good trudge that day, I remember.
Thomas resolutely refused to eat any dejeuner^ a resolution
which he adhered to pretty steadfastly throughout our
travels, maintaining that our rolls in the morning, with
our dinner in the evening, sufficed for all our needs. This
was a doctrine which I as steadfastly opposed, insisting
on the midday repast as a necessity. Hence arguments
which speedily led us far afield over the whole domain of
what we knew of physiology, and from physiology the way
was easy to dispute concerning most things in heaven and
earth. The echo of our words comes back to me now, with
the background of the straight white roads, the hedgeless
fields, the kilometre-stones, and the iron guide-posts. I
did not know of the purposes which were even then doubt-
less dimly shaping themselves in Sidney's mind, and
leading him to a settled scheme of minute economy in
his expenditure upon himself, so that, when the hour struck,
he might not fail in his projects for want of the sinews
of war.
' There was, I have always thought, however, joined with
this intelligible motive to abstinence, a half-conscious lean-
ing to k asceticism in Sidney's nature which impelled him to
unnecessary and even injurious self-denial. I much fear
that the seeds of premature decay were implanted in his
naturally vigorous frame by the habit which he acquired in
these adolescent years, when abundance of food is of prime
need, of systematic under-eating a habit, the evil results
of which were assisted, as has already been hinted, by
systematic over-work. But these things were absolutely
c 2
20 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CIL n
hidden from us by futurity's curtain, nor did any anticipa-
tion of evil to come spoil our summer days.
4 Paris in the midsummer of 1869 seemed to our in-
experienced eyes the City of Pleasure in very truth, and
doubtless we missed the lessons we might have learnt in
the streets of the City of Light. In little more than
another twelvemonth, the frequenters of the boulevard,
with their English-made clothes and their twisted
moustaches, would for the most part have fled elsewhither;
but the real children of Paris, noblest populace perhaps of
the world, would be enduring with fortitude, never before
shown by such a mass of human beings, all the horrors of
the long siege. In some twenty months' time, those same
children of Paris would kindle a flame which should terrify
respectable persons everywhere, and be as a beacon to
lighten the steps of revolutionists for many a day.
4 Although we did not dip much below the surface, we
crowded a great deal of sight-seeing into our eleven days
in the capital. Sidney was, as ever, insatiable after new
things, and, although never tired of satirising himself for
the foible, yet was seemingly bent on emulating the typical
Yankee anxiety to fill the day with achievement.
4 On our return walk from Paris to Dieppe I remember a
country gendarme stopped us once and demanded our pass-
ports. We said that we were English and needed none ;
but " Je crois que vous etes des Prussiens," rejoined the
moustached and swaggering Dogberry. However, after
some consideration he allowed us to go our ways, yet still
with scowling mien walked his horse after us for a kilo-
metre or two, until, I presume, we passed out of his juris-
diction.
1 We disliked this dogging of our footsteps very much,
and at Sidney's suggestion we started the " Marseillaise,"
feeling all the time that we were very desperate ruffians
CH. n A SUMMER TOUR 21
indeed ; but as we could neither of us sing a note, and as
we knew nothing of the tune, and but little of the words
of the then forbidden song, I really do not think that our
persecutor realised our audacity. Another time we walked
some miles with an ex-convict from Toulon, in whom
Thomas took much interest, but from whom we gathered
little save a general impression that our interlocutor was
a well-meaning, stupid fellow, somewhat dazed with the
injustice of the world.
' We were absent a month, and out of the ten pounds
apiece we had started with I brought back some sixteen
francs, but Sidney double or treble that amount. Had it
not been for his example, I should never have done things
so cheaply. I insist on these details because Sidney's severe
and rigid, perhaps too severe and rigid, economy throws
much light on some main features of his character. We
may hope that in the better society which the future, as
some of us hold, has in store for us, thrift may cease to be
deemed a virtue ; since, where each one renders according
to his capacity and receives according to his needs, there
will be no fear of ever wanting. But under the present
false social conditions, and in the horrible world in which
we live to-day, there is, it seems to me, revolt as we may
from asceticism, no undeserved credit due to him who, for
a worthy and unselfish purpose, not only " shuns delights
and lives laborious days," but even by abstinence hoards
out of scanty means the wherewithal to battle hereafter.
Thomas was no miser, and no man more generous to others
ever lived. He only pinched himself.
1 He had, as it seemed, an inborn financial genius.
Perhaps this was merely a manifestation of his keen sense
of things as they really were. His imagination was power-
ful enough in some directions ; but it was always his
servant and never his master, and his outlook on the world
&2 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. n
was quite unobscured by mists of fantasy or passion. Yet
none was bolder in speculation, and in many matters he
was an idealist. I will not say that he had quite " swallowed
all formulas " few of us, strive as we may, succeed
altogether in that ; but he had proved most things, and he
held fast those which seemed to him good.
'Looking back on these somewhat rough notes
wherein I have endeavoured, perhaps not too successfully,
to paint my cousin's portrait in rather " impressionist "
fashion it seems to me that I have given, it may be, too
harsh and stern a rendering of one of the most genial men
1 ever knew. Stern and even harsh he could be upon
occasions, although never for long ; but habitually he was
the most cheerful, the most fascinating, even the most
humorous and lightsome of mortals.'
CH. m A ' DOUBLE LIFE ' 23
CHAPTER III
A ' DOUBLE LIFE '
IN the foregoing chapter we have Sidney Thomas as he
appeared to an intimate friend when on holiday-making
bent. At home he had become practically, as we have
said, the head of the family, his elder brother being out
in the world. After the removal from Grove Lane to
Camberwell Grove, there began, says Sidney's mother, ' a
new domestic life, of which Sidney was the centre.' His
official work at this time (1867-1871) was hard enough,
as indeed it always was, and the two free days a week
to be by him devoted to still harder scientific work which
he subsequently acquired by arrangement with Mr. Poyer,
were as yet in the dim and distant future. Hard as might
be his police-court labours, unattractive to him as they
often were, he threw his whole heart and soul into their
discharge. Always an early riser, he had mastered the
morning paper, eaten his breakfast, done miscellaneous
work, and walked, as his usual manner was, the long miles
from Camberwell to Stepney easily by ten o'clock.
There, day after day, he would arrive with ever-fresh
energy, always buoyant with a vitality which, so long as
he remained at the court, was to the very end entirely
devoted to his official duties. Mr. Lushington, under
whom he served for ten years, brings out well this buoyant
energy, which was one of Sidney's most marked charac-
24 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. in
teristics, in the following letter addressed to Sidney's sister,
now Mrs. Percy Thompson :
' Thames Police Court : January 1890.
( Dear Miss Thomas, Your brother, Sidney Gilchrist
Thomas, appears to have been transferred as second clerk
to this Court some time in the summer of 1868. I have
been unable to find any letter announcing the exact date
of his, appointment ; but his handwriting begins then to
appear in the Court Letter Book, and this would accord
very well with my own impression that he had been here
from eighteen months to two years when I came to the
Court in December 1869. He left it in 1879, so that I
had the pleasure of his help for nearly ten years, and
enjoyed the fullest opportunities of appreciating his value
in our business relations, as well as of gaining an insight
into his character. During most of those years, the
pressure of work at the Thames Court upon the magis-
trates, and the clerks also, was perhaps harder and more
unremitting than at any other Court in London.
4 Your brother was as indefatigable, as clear-headed, as
patient in dealing with stupid or ignorant witnesses, as
accurate and concise in putting the evidence into the form
of a deposition, as any clerk could possibly be ; and he
was bright and elastic from the beginning of a long day
to the end, and from one long day to another, with work
BO heavy as to require its being got through with all the
rapidity that was compatible with efficient performance.
It was a constant help and a constant satisfaction to me
to see his part performed, not only with the exact
mechanism of a trained intellect, but with the thorough,
going industry of a conscientious and passionate lover of
strict justice.
1 1 instinctively felt that he formed his opinion inde-
CH. in A ' DOUBLE LIFE ' 25
pendently of mine, and that he was the most competent
and unbiassed, and in some ways the severest, critic of the
style in which my own duty was performed. Wherever
a touch of out-of-the-way medical or scientific jurispru-
dence came into the details of a case, I was always par-
ticularly struck with his quick appreciation of the points
in the evidence of any expert witness. I understood that
he was fond of practical chemistry ; but it was not until
after the publication of his great discovery that I became
aware of his possessing a genius in that line that would lift
him at once into the first ranks of scientific reputation.
' I was most sorry when his new career removed him
from the staff of the Court, though delighted with the
extraordinary success he had achieved ; and I am sura
that every official of the Thames, from the highest to the
lowest, was equally fond of him while there, equally proud
of him when he went from us, and equally grieved at his
early end. His career was an instance of the precept ot
the Preacher : " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it
with thy might."
1 Believe me, very truly yours,
' F. LUSHINGTOT^.'
Most Civil servants, after the hard collar-work, ex-
tending over seven or eight hours, which is here described,
would have thought their evenings at least sacred to re-
laxation ; but Thomas was made of different stuff. His
evenings, as soon as his simple dinner was disposed of,
were always spent in work of some kind, and very soon
came to be specially set apart for chemical studies and
experiments. He early began to lead the double life a
very virtuous * double life ' which was to be his for a
decade at least. In one aspect and to one set cf acquaint-
ances he was a model and exceptionally intelligent police-
26 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. m
court clerk ; in another aspect and to another class of
friends he was a promising young scientist. Into his
leisure hours he crammed work which would have been
more than sufficient for all the energies of most men.
We will return to his chemical pursuits presently.
Let us note here that, beyond all this, he had burdened
himself with the management of the financial affairs, not
only of his mother, but also of several other female re-
latives. The keen, practical, business-like side of him,
which was as markedly characteristic as his idealism,
delighted in threading the intricacies of the Stock Ex-
change, and he was a thoroughly trustworthy guide to
'investments' never really rash, although sometimes
seeming so.
Yet he never seemed too busy for such a long talk
with a congenial friend as his soul loved, and in some
mysterious way he contrived to read more general litera-
ture of all kinds than many professed literary men.
In the summer of the fearful and memorable year
1871, Mrs. Thomas let her house in Camberwell Grove for
some months, and went abroad to Germany, Switzerland,
and Italy with her two younger children and Miss Burton,
a cousin, returning early in 1872. Sidney accompanied
them, as far as his annual holiday would stretch, and then
returned to harness.
During the absence of his family Thomas lived a
somewhat solitary life in London, residing at first in a
boarding-house in a City square, and afterwards in lodgings
in Brooke Street, Holborn.
The following extracts from letters belong to this period :
To his Mother
'1871.
'Dearest Mother, I have just contrived to squeeze out
a moment or two to write to Lil. Square as I anticipated a
CH. Ill
A 'DOUBLE LIFE 27
failure ; but I am of course in a fix, as I can't get a day to
look about. I have seen three rooms close to Chancery
Lane, very small, dingy, only 15Z. per annum; of course
empty. They are not empty till end of month. I calcu-
late attendance about 4Z. a year ; light, fuel, and furniture
6Z., and glorious independence. No more boarding-houses
for me. However, it is uncertain whether the rooms are
not already let. London viler than ever. How I envy
you in your luxurious retreat, far removed from the toils
.and cares of your deserted sons.'
To his Sister
'1871.
f Dearest Wee Maid, How dare you go and spend your
Xmas away from your devoted boy, and leave his Xmas
pudding to the chances of promiscuous charity and his
own culinary skill ? The truth is, I am conscious of deserv-
ing a scolding for not having rushed, with eager pen, at
once to respond, as best I might, to your two delicious
little epistles, and so hope to avoid the merited reproof by
exposing my own grievances. It is needless to remark
that I only recovered from the impression that I was the
fortunate recipient of one of the world-famed missives of
Sevigne, whose epistolary style has been chastened and
adorned during her residence with the shades by the
instruction and examples of a Lamartine, a Rochefoucauld,
and a Dumas, I only awoke from this delusion, I say, when
I recognised the well-beloved signature of my honoured
sister. But really I was much pleased, both with your
style and expression, while your communication in the
vulgar tongue was equally acceptable and less straining to
one's intellectual department. Now I really don't know
if I am en regie in wishing you a Merry Xmas, which I
had intended to do ; for I suppose you will spend it in a
28 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. iri
picnic on Arno's banks, with umbrellas to keep the sun
off, and an airy repast of strawberries and cream or grapes
and ices, or in some other festive mode befitting the
41 sunny South ; " whereas we all know that roast beef and
its concomitant plum indigestion, with snow on the
ground, is absolutely essential to a Merrie Xmas.
1 And so I, with a prospective possession of these latter
blessings, look down with pity on you benighted
foreigners. By-the-bye, talking of matters culinary, yon
have no conception what a professor in matters gastronomic
this fraternal genius of yours is becoming. To see .him
boil a potato, roast a haunch of venison (N.B. a frequent
dish), and finally prepare his great and world-renowned
dish of omni cum omnibus bene extrare, mixta cum quibu$
domain, oh, that indeed is a sight calculated to rejoice
the spirits of a Soyer or a Francatelli ! And then to see
his tranquil happiness and serene beatitude when, relieved
from his pleasant toils, with heels gracefully reclining on
far-upsoaring mantelshelf, and with easiest of chairs
backtilted to the uttermost verge of unstable equilibrium,
he rests exposed to the rays of a glowing fire, with pleasant
novel and not unpleasant dreams ! Now, after this fascinating
picture of life en gar$on t don't you feel tempted to join in
an alliance with this fond youth and leave the rest of the
family out in the cold of the blue skies of Italy ? Post
of housekeeper still open ; no one over twenty-three need
ppply. The midnight bell is striking, so, darling, once
more a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. Ever yours,
' SIDNEY GILCHRIST T.'
Some readers may be astonished at some passages in
the above letters. Chambers in Chancery Lane at 15Z.
a year, with attendance calculated at 4>l. per annum and
* light, fuel, and furniture ' at 61., may seem a vain dream
CH, in A ' DOUBLE LIFE ' 29
of economy. But it really was upon such bases that
Thomas arranged his existence. His thriftiness was,
however, as his cousin explains above in the account of
the French tour of 1869, confined to his own personal ex-
penditure, and was doubtlessly largely dictated by the
necessity of accumulating out of a small enough income
the nest-egg which would be needed for those ultimate
purposes which were shaping themselves more and more
clearly in his mind. Under our present social system, if
a man be born in the purple, he is not likely to
revolutionise metallurgy by his discoveries ; if he be not
so born, and yet have such an aim, he must not only work
night and day, but also pinch himself for years to obtain
Capital.
80 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. iv
CHAPTER IV
THE PROBLEM OF DEPHOSPHORISATION
ALL this time Thomas's purposes were ripening. We
have already told how in the very early days of 1868 he
had already begun experimenting and studying at home
in the evenings. In 1870 he attended a course of lectures
at the Birkbeck Institution delivered by Mr. George
Chaloner, who then held, as he still holds, the teachership
of Chemistry at that admirable school. Sidney had from
the first given himself to the examination of the unsolved
problems of chemistry ; l but it was at these lectures in
all probability that he received the final impetus which
started him in pursuit of a solution of the particular
problem destined to be indissolubly associated with his
name. Mr. Chaloner took occasion to say that 'the
man who eliminated phosphorus by means of the Bessemer
converter would make his fortune.' There can be no
question that this expression sank deeply into Thomas's
mind, and about this time he frequently quoted it. It
has indeed been said ('Iron,' No. 630, p. Ill) that 'the
1 Although dephosphorisation of would repeatedly insist to him on
iron pig was the question to which the hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro-
Thomas ultimately devoted him- gen present in air and water
self, yet he always kept in his and to be had for nothing, and
mind other problems which per- the little use made of them. ' Im-
haps, had he lived, he would possible as with present lights it
have elucidated as triumphantly. may seem,' he would say, 'why
Mr. Chaloner is wont now should not ammonia be extracted
to tell his pupils how Thomas from the air ? '
CH. iv THE PEOBLEM OF ' DEPHOSPHORISATION 31
commercial idea here expressed was quite as much in his
thoughts as the scientific nature of the problem. In early
conversation on the subject he frequently used to point out
the product of a royalty of sixpence a ton on 3,000,000 tons
annually of Cleveland pig.' No doubt that Sidney looked
forward to the realisation of riches, should he discover
the secret of the dephosphorisation of iron in the con-
verter. His mother has told above of his early dreams of
fortune and his visions of good purposes to which that for-
tune should be applied. Yet we may take leave to doubt
whether this supplies any support to the threadbare
theory that great inventions are only to be encouraged by
monetary rewards. The bent of Thomas's mind would, in
a society where money did not exist, have carried him
quite as irresistibly towards discovery perhaps even,
towards this particular discovery ; the stimulus of fame,
nay, the intellectual pleasure in doing good work, would
have been quite as effectual as the desire of riches even for
others.
In any case the solution of the dephosphorisation problem
became from this time forth his chief thought and object.
We may explain here in what that problem consisted.
Up to 1855 the process of making steel from iron had
not varied for a hundred years. In the middle of the last
century a certain Cort had invented a new process, which
in its time undoubtedly marked a new departure in the
world's history. Until Cort's discovery, the finest steel
used in this country was made by the Hindoos, and is said
to have been quoted at the fantastic and prohibitive price
of 10,0002. a ton. Cort produced equally good steel at
prices ranging from 50Z. to 1002. a ton. Still, even at such
prices as these what has been called the c Steel Age ' could
not be said to have begun.
That age began when Henry Bessemer, between 1856
32 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. iv
and 1859, worked out an entirely new method of steel
manufacture, a method destined to revolutionise this most
important branch of metallurgy. By this process pig-iron
is transformed into steel by being c blown ' in a ' converter.'
On May 24, 1859, Bessemer thus described his process to
the Institution of Civil Engineers :
4 The converting vessel is mounted on an axis, at or
near the centre of gravity. It is constructed of boiler
plates, and is lined either with firebrick, road drift, or
" ganister " a local name in Sheffield for a peculiar kind of
powdered stone, which resists the heat better than any
other material yet tried, and has also the advantage of
.cheapness. The vessel, having been heated, is brought into
the requisite position to receive its charge of melted metal,
without either of the "tuyeres," or air-holes, being below
the surface. No action can therefore take place until the
vessel is turned up, so that the blast can enter through the
tuyeres. The process is thus in an instant brought into full
activity, and small, though powerful, jets of air spring
upward though the fluid mass. The air, expanding in
-volume, divides itself into globules, or bursts violently
upwards, carrying with it some hundredweight of fluid
metal, which again falls into the boiling mass below. Every
part of the apparatus trembles under the violent agitation
thus produced ; a roaring flame rushes from the mouth of
the vessel, and, as the process advances, it changes its
violet colour to orange, and finally to a voluminous pure
white flame. The sparks, which at first were large, like
those of ordinary foundry iron, change into small hissing
points, and these gradually give way to soft floating specks
of bluish light, as the state of malleable iron is approached.
There is no eruption of cinder as in the early experiments,
although it is formed during the process ; the improved
shape of the converter causes it to be retained, and it not
CH. iv THE PROBLEM OF DEPHOSPHORISATION 83
only acts beneficially on the metal, but it helps to confine
the heat, which during the process has rapidly risen from
the comparatively low temperature of melted pig-iron to
one vastly greater than the highest known welding heats, by
which malleable iron only becomes sufficiently soft to be
shaped by the blows of the hammer ; but here it becomes
perfectly fluid, and even rises so much above the melting-
point as to admit of its being passed from the converter
into a founder's ladle, and from thence to be transferred to
Several successive moulds.'
The metal thus produced was fine steel, and could be
made for 61. a ton, against something like 60Z. a ten under
the old system. The new Steel Age had indeed begun.
Cheapness and rapidity were not the only recommendations
of the new metal ; it was, after a time, found to be superior
also in quality to steel manufactured under the old system.
We cannot follow here the history of the Bessemer process.
It was so universally adopted that in 1868 it was bringing
in to its inventor 100,000?. a year. 2
Yet there was one great drawback to this system of
steel-making. In the process just described one very
common impurity of iron ores was not remedied, and that
impurity was phosphorus. This was a matter of the
highest practical importance ; for the non-elimination of
phosphorus rendered steel made in the converter from pig-
iron containing it utterly useless, the phosphorus making
the metal brittle and worthless. The result was that this
wonderful invention could only be used for the conversion
of pig-iron derived from non-phosphoric ores, and (since the
2 Yet another mode of steel mami- duly note that it was subject to the
facture was a few years subse- same drawback, viz. non-dephos-
quently introduced : the 'Siemens- phorisation, as the Bessemer sys-
Martin ' or ' open hearth ' process. tern, and that the ' Thomas-Gil-
It is not necessary in a book of this christ ' process is equally applicable
kind to describe this process. We to it as we shall subsequently see.
84 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. iv
old, long, and expensive ' puddling ' process of Cort in
which the phosphorus was removed could not compete on
equal terms in the struggle with Bessemer), the great
majority of British, French, German and Belgian ores be-
came, to a large extent, unavailable for steel-making. In
Great Britain the 'hematite' iron of Barrow-in-Furness
speedily drove down in the market the phosphoric pig of
Cleveland or of Wales ; such pig falling or remaining
stationary in price, while hematite doubled in value. The
hematite iron ore to be found on the Continent (chiefly in
Spain) was eagerly sought after.
How was it that phosphorus was retained in the
Bessemer converter, and how could it be eliminated ? If
these questions could be answered satisfactorily i.e. in
uch a way as to cheaply dephosphorise phosphoric pig
the cost of the production of steel could be again dimin-
ished, and the world would not only have begun its Steel
Age, but definitely have broken with the Iron one. From
1860 onwards to the public announcement of the success
of the Thomas-Gilchrist process, metallurgists were eagerly
concerned with dephosphorisation. Sir Henry Bessemer
himself, and an army of unsuccessful experimentalists,
vainly grappled with the difficulty. Among other at-
tempters of the adventure was Lowthian Bell, who had for
years been regarded as the high priest of British metallurgy.
In 1870-72 he published a work entitled, 'The Chemical
Phenomena of Iron Smelting,' a book which must have
been frequently in Thomas's hands. Doubtless Sidney had
specially marked the following passage :
* The limit to the production of Bessemer pig is want
of ores free from phosphorus. The hematites of this
country, under the sudden demand, have doubled in price,
and speculators of all kinds are rushing off to Spain, where
tracts of land, conceded without any payment a few months
CH.-IV THE PROBLEM OF DEPHOSPHORISATION 35
ago by the Government of that country, are said now to
be worth large premiums ; at least such is the impression
left on the mind by a perusal of the published prospectuses
of the day.
' This may be correct, and so firm may be the grip
that phosphorus holds on iron, that breaking up the bonds
that bind them together may defy the skill of our most
scientific men ; but it may be well to remember that the
yearly make of iron from Cleveland stone alone contains
about 30,000 tons of phosphorus, worth for agricultural
purposes, were it in manure as phosphoric acid, above a
quarter of a million, and that the money value difference
between Cleveland and hematite iron is not short of four
millions sterling, chiefly due to the presence of this 250,OOOL
worth of phosphorus.
'The Pattinson process does not leave one part of
silver in 100,000 of lead; the Bessemer converter robs
iron of almost every contamination except phosphorus,
but nine-tenths of this ingredient is expelled by the
puddling furnace. It may be difficult, but let it not be
supposed that there would be any surprise excited in the
minds of chemists if a simple and inexpensive process fcr
separating iron and phosphorus were made known to-
morrow, so that only one of the latter should be found in
5,000 of the former ; and now that there is such a margin
to stimulate exertion, we may be sure the minds of
properly qualified persons will be directed towards the
solution of a question of such national importance.'
36 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS or. T
CHAPTER V
YEARS OF EQUIPMENT
SUCH, then, was the problem Thomas had made up his mind
to solve. Of its solution, which was due to no sudden flash
of irradiating inspiration, but was the slow outcome of long
years of patient, tireless work, we will speak later. Its
consideration absorbed, month by month and year by year,
more of Thomas's scant leisure. After the summer of 1871
no more vacations were spent in mere voyaging for plea-
sure ; every holiday was devoted in some way or other to
what had become the life object. The little laboratory he
had fitted up at home at The Grove became insufficient for
his needs, and he attended systematically the laboratories
of Mr. Chaloner (already mentioned) and of Mr. Vacher,
of Great Marlborough Street. He was determined, too,
to acquire all the credentials of the fully equipped practical
chemist, so that when the time came he might inspire
full confidence in men who would certainly doubt the
capability of a police-court clerk to overcome difficulties
which had baffled metallurgical chemists ever since the in-
troduction of the Bessemer process. With this end in view,
he submitted himself from time to time to the Science
examinations of the Science and Art Department. From
obtaining the diploma of the School of Mines in Jermyn
Street he was excluded by the rule requiring attendance
at lectures ; an attendance which he could not give so long
as the Thames Police Court claimed him ; and the Thames
CH. v YEARS OF EQUIPMENT 37
Police Court lie was determined not to abandon until he
had won for himself sure foothold and means of livelihood
elsewhere. All the examinations at the School of Mines,
however, which were open to him he passed.
We may mention here that more than one private
friend, recognising Sidney's exceptional quality, and
placing, perhaps, too much faith in the ' regular professions '
as necessary to success in life, had offered Thomas some
hundreds to spend in preparing for the Bar or Medicine.
All such offers he had refused. In either case he must
have abandoned his Civil Service certainty, since for
* walking the hospitals ' his attendance at Arbour Square
left him no time, and as for the Bar (although the prepara-
tion for that occupation is not of an arduous character),
the regulations of the Inns of Court stood in the way,
no clerk to magistrates being allowed to enter at those
institutions.
On May 9, 1872, he passed at the School of Mines the
examination in Mineralogy, ' first class advanced,' and on
the same day in the following year the examination in
Inorganic Chemistry, ' first class advanced.'
The summer holiday of 1872 was spent in Cornwall,
the chief object of interest being the tin mines and ' works.'
He travelled with Mr. Board, a fellow-student of chemistry.
The pair had a letter of general introduction from Mr.
Waddington Smyth, which enabled them to see much which
would have been closed to unaccredited travellers. His
mother and the rest had returned from abroad in the be-
ginning of the year, and the old life at Camberwell Grove
had been resumed ; Sidney, with all his scientific studies
and pursuits, with all his hard labour at his Court, being
always the life and soul and central point of the home
circle, never losing his interest either in domestic affairs
or in more general questions of literature and life.
88 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. v
He began his 1873 holiday by accompanying his family
to Hythe, where he initiated his sister and brother into
geology ; but he went thence to Bradford, whither he
was attracted by the meeting there in that year of the
British Association. Here we are enabled to quote again
the cousin who has described already the summer tour of
1869:
'The four years since our French expedition had
ripened Sidney somewhat; yet in all essentials he was
the same, with his old keen relish for all intellectual things,
but with a rapidly intensifying bias towards practical
science, which was perceptible even to an outsider like
myself. In my father's house, where he was staying, the
visitors during the Association week were chiefly physio-
logists, and there was, I think, no one skilled in those
branches of knowledge which were becoming specially my
cousin's own. Yet he impressed everyone with whom he
came in contact with his exceptional acquirements and
ability an impression which was certainly not marred
by the tact and modesty with which they were displayed.
That modesty he never lost, even after he had become
famous among all the metallurgists of the world. In
that, as in other things, he was genuine to the heart's
core of him ; in all earnestness his own estimate of him-
self was ever too low rather than too high.
' As of old, many were our arguments together. One
of our chief battlefields was the vexed question of the
use of alcohol. The younger school of physiologists were
then in the first flush of the reaction against this dangerous
agent which has marked the medical history of the last
twenty years, a reaction which has now perhaps some-
what spent its force. Sidney, who personally had always
been almost a teetotaller, had seen much in his official
capacity of the devastating effects of the drink scourge,
CH. v YEAES OF EQUIPMENT 39
and had gradually developed into an advocate of its legis-
lative prohibition. I did not meet him (as in later years
I should have met him) by arguing that drunkenness was
a result of misery, and not a cause of it, but (being then a
fanatical partisan of personal rights and " Mill on Liberty ")
I went rather on the lines of the Bishop of Peterborough's
famous saying about " drunken freemen and sober slaves."
Starting from entirely opposite premises, we were thus
enabled to retain our own opinions, despite all contradic-
tion, with entire satisfaction to ourselves.
( Sidney took advantage of this visit to inspect the
famous Low Moor Ironworks. Together we attended
many of the sections, and I was more than ever impressed
with the wide range of his interest and knowledge. Yet
he was always ready to discuss the last novel of import-
ance, even (if I pressed him) the last poem ; although he
would still maintain his old heresy anent the superiority
of prose to verse. He teased me (I remember) by speak-
ing slightingly of "The Earthly Paradise," as being in
truth unworthy of attention, since the book was no more
than it proclaimed itself the work of the " idle singer of
an empty day." I discovered, however, that he had read
the "idle songs.'"
It was out of this meeting that arose Thomas's first
contribution to 'Iron' (then edited by Mr. Chaloner),
' Letter on Bradford Hammers, and American Blowers.' l
From this time onwards for the next five or six years
Thomas was a regular contributor to this periodical. His
contributions range (as will be seen from the list printed
below) over a great variety of topics. 2 They were for the
1 Iron, vol. ii. p. 712 (Jan- furnished to us by Mr. Chaloner.
nary 3, 1874). Some six or eight small paragraphs
* This list, which includes all difficult to identify are excluded.
Thomas's articles in the first eleven 'He wrote,' says Mr. Chaloner,
volumes of Iron, has been kindly ' little or nothing in vol. xii.,
40
SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS
most part anonymous, ' but,' says Mr. Chaloner (' Iron,'
July 6, 1885), 'his characteristic honour and rectitude
appear in the fact that he never wrote a single line which
would promote personal ends.'
Later in this year (1873), in November, Thomas was
offered by Mr. Yallentine the post of analytical chemist
to a great brewery at Burton-on-Trent, with a salary of
150L a year to begin with.
This was through the kindness of Mr. Chaloner, already
so often mentioned. The anti-alcoholic convictions which
which was the last under my care,
and probably nothing but an occa-
sion il letter after that.'
' Bradford Hammers and Ame-
rican Blowers,' vol. ii. 712.
' Pollution of Rivers and its
Prevention,' vol. ii. 771.
* letter on the Refining and
CoEverting Cast Iron,' vol. iv.
227.
* Metallurgical Text-books,' ibid.
Heat without Coals,' ibid. 482.
' A New Philosophy,' ibid. 642.
' Current Thermics,' ibid. 674.
* Kinetics of the Future,' ibid.
802.
' A Budget of Heterodoxies,' v.
2.
' Oil Fuel,' ibid. 98.
' Coins and Coining,' ibid. 290,
355.
* Patent Cotton Gunpowder,'
ibid. 162.
* Gun Cotton,' ibid. 259.
* Some Recent Developments
in the Technology of Iron,' v.
290, 354, 418, 547 ; vi. 66, 418,
482, 578,674, 771; vii. 67, 322.
'The Zinc Process for Lead
Desilverising,' v. 424.
'Manufacture of Silesian Muf-
fles,' ibid. 643.
Percy's Metallurgy,' ibid. 706.
' Spectroscopic Estimation of
Phosphorus in Iron and Steel,'
ibid. 709.
' Historical Blast Furnaces,' vi.
4, 162, 323.
' A Gold Quest,' ibid. 194.
' Magnetism of Electricity,' i bid.
714.
' Charcoal-burning,' ibid. 802.
' A New Safety Tuyere,' ibid.
803.
' A Plea for Air Lines,' vii. 1.
'The Coming Air Lines,' ibid.
67.
'The Complete Bessemer Pro-
cess,' ibid. 407.
' The Loan Collection of Scien-
tific Apparatus,' ibid. 610.
' Recent Mining Literature,
ibid. 770.
' Class-books of Chemistry,' viii.
34
' A Furnace of the Future ' (first
signed article), ibid. 364, 386,
419.
1 Presidential Science,' ibid.
802.
' Technical Travel Talk,' vol. ix.
2, 66, 162, 258, 355, 451, 675 ;
x. 2, 259, 451, 546, 674.
'The Swedish School of Mines '
(qu. ?), xi. 98.
'A Policy for the Iron Trade,'
ibid. 321.
'New Light on Steel-making'
ibid. 804.
This list alone would show
Sidney Thomas's mental activity.
CH. v YEARS OF EQUIPMENT 41
his cousin had noticed above had, however, by this time
become firmly fixed, and he felt that he could not con-
scientiously accept such a berth. Thus influenced, he
declined what in itself would have been to him a most
agreeable occupation, and continued his drudgery at the
Thames Police Court.
Early in 1874 we begin to be assisted in our narrative
by a series of letters (fortunately preserved) from Sidney
to his cousin Miss Burton, already spoken of. Miss Bur-
ton was now settled at Wiesbaden. We give here some
of these epistles belonging to this period :
To Miss Burton
' 64 Camberwell Grove : March 20, 1874.
1 Dear Bess, . . . You don't say if that wonderful
Kursaal supplies books as well as everything else, I mean
looks as apart from periodicals. By-the-bye, I should not
go in for the Leben Jesu sort of literature. It will do you
no good, and unless you take up the whole question
earnestly and studiously, the impressions you derive from
it are valueless as conclusions, and to you particularly only
mischievous in their results. I don't send Latin Dic-
tionary; why waste your time on Latin? Far better [spend
it] on German and Science. If you really want a Dic-
tionary, you could get it better where you are, say in the
Tauchnitz edition. . . . For myself, since you ask it, I jog
on as usual. ... I find more and more I cannot work as
I would, and doubt the wisdom of not giving self up to the
reverse. I certainly shall after June, if not before. It is
still drawing and struggling with pencils which no longer
have sharp points or any points at all. I wrote to " Iron " to
say I could not do anything in that line but had after all.
... I have no taste for the pen. . . . Have just spent an
evening with W. . . . We talked at a great rate on in-
42 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. v
numerable topics ; disagreed on all, and he only resorted to
flat contradictions half-a-dozen times . . . Have been en-
joying Huxley's " Lay Sermons," one at a time, enormously.
They bear a second reading ; the ultimate test of a book.
Paget 3 has just published a volume of Essays, contributed
mostly to " Black wood "... One on Ruskin and one on
Rubens at Antwerp particularly good.'
' 64 Camberwell Grove : April 15, 1874.
1 Dear Bess, Went to a lecture at Society of Arts on
Friday, on a manufacturing subject ; very interesting. If
we were in town, I think I should go in for the Society.
' Nothing more suspicious about going to South Ken-
sington than a wish to consult some books. I find the
library there as good for many purposes as the British.
c I think of going in for examination in drawing next
week. Though I fail, I shall have worked at a subject I
hate, in itself the best of educational processes.'
This examination was at the School of Mines in
Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Drawing and was
successfully passed.
In May 1874 he passed two further examinations at
the Science and Art Department: on May 1, in Steam,
' second class advanced,' and on the 25th, in Applied
Mechanics, ' first class advanced.'
The following short extracts from letters belong to
April and May of this year :
To Miss Burton
( A re-reading of Trollope's "Australia" convinces
me that Tasmania is after all the ideal country, conjointly
with the South Sea Islands, and California perhaps.
3 Mr. Paget, the Metropolitan Magistrate, who then presided at
Thames Police Court.
CH. v YEAES OF EQUIPMENT 43
Everyone seems to concur in saying it is the most charm-
ing place for climate and productions in the world.
Everyone seems to make his fortune in Ceylon.
' My friends the magistrates are exceedingly happy just
now, having secured a long-sought extra 300Z. a year. I
am doing nothing now but a review of scientific basis &c.
of iron-smelting, which means a great deal of voluminous
reading with little result. Your account of your bird-pet
delightful. Caged birds are an abomination, and the cat
gets at uncaged.'
1 For ten days I have absolutely and entirely been idle,
and feel correspondingly despondent. All the rest of our
small world lively in the extreme. A tempting offer came
across me the other day of going to the South of France,
but I could not afford it, as the salary but trifling. I
long for change.*
In the summer of this year the household transferred
itself to Sussex Place, South Kensington, where for the
next three years the family dwelt. The next letter is
dated from the new abode :
' 18 Sussex Place, Onslow Square, S.W. : 1874.
' Dear Bess, I returned just in time to go [up] for the
last examination I have in view before settling down to a
peaceful and indolent old age, with what result I know
not, but will not post this till I do.
' Since then we have been in a whirl of move, move,
packing and packing, than which nothing can be more
abominable. Heaven defend me from being possessed of
any chattels of my own.
' As- 1 have been pretty regularly tied to the Thames
till 6.30 or 7, I am beginning again to consider how ex-
cellent a thing is rest. My chief solace has been Mill's
" Autobiography ; " it is quite a pearl amongst books,
44 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH, v
earnest, thoughtful, and carrying a conviction of entire
candour. Our present nearness to the [South Kensing-
ton] Museum Library will be a great boon, though one
cannot take books out.
4 Your life at Baden seems a very bright one. I suppose
it is, as you say, just the life to suit you. I myself some-
times feel quite a desire for foreign scenes and manners.
* Lil and I went to a spiritualistic seance at V 's
shortly since ; two lady cousins of his, a mutual friend
and ourselves, forming with the medium the " circle."
Though it was not considered a satisfactory perform-
ance, I saw several matters which I have as yet failed to
find an explanation of. V himself is a red-hot con-
vert, and is now firmly convinced of immortality, having
been previously a gross materialist.
1 Was at the " Throat and Ear " last night. The infir-
mities of humanity, as seen at any hospital, form anything
but a cheering spectacle, and I came away depressed ;
though Llewe 4 was very nice, and anxious to display foul
depths of his patients' throats and ears with the most
picturesque light of healing science.
i I start on August 3 for South Wales.'
His usual holiday this year was spent partly with his
cousin, Mr. Percy Gilchrist, then chemist to the Cwm Avon
works in Glamorganshire, partly at the British Association
meeting in Belfast, and partly at Bradford. The following
extracts from letters describe it sufficiently :
To Miss Burton
'Glamorganshire: August 3, 1874.
< Dear Bess, I have at last started fair on my holiday-
making, though I feel it rather selfish to leave the mother
4 The late Dr. Llewellyn Thomas, Sidney's elder brother.
CH. v YEARS OF EQUIPMENT 45
and Lil at home. I [am] so glad to get away. My last
month not overworked and worried. By-the-bye, I did
fall through both the final examinations I went [in] for,
though I have no particular gratification thereat now that
it is done. I had rather an amusing occupation lately the
correction of a translation of a French pamphlet ! The
idea of my correcting any translation I regard as rich
in the extreme. However, as it was a technical subject, I
was able to earn quite a reputation as a French scholar.'
To Ms Mother
My only excurse has been to Siemens's Works, 5 where I
spent five hours ; came out looking like a stoker, and was
thrice drowned coming back, all of which I enjoyed.
' When I go to works we generally go up in a superb
passenger car which tails on to the trucks always in transit
'twixt harbour and works.
c I shall probably go to Belfast on Monday or Tuesday,
but will let you know before I start. I feel it dreadfully
selfish for me to be down here ; should so enjoy having
you and Lil with me. Affectionately yours,
< S. G. T.'
Belfast, 1874.
c Dearest Mother, I have just got your letter ; very
glad to do so. Chaloner is here in great force. I am with
him a good deal, as he knows several amusing characters,
an Hour man . . . great fun, several other pressmen, and
others. Went with him yesterday to Giant's Causeway, a
dreadful railway journey, but magnificent cliff scenery ; not
quite up to one's expectations possibly ; but that is human
5 Thomas had been given by Mr. letter of introduction to Sir W.
Walter White (the late Assistant Siemens.
Secretary to the Royal Society) a
46 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. v
nature, or my nature at all events. We walked half way
from the nearest station, and then had a boat along the
coast, which I enjoyed immensely. On Saturday Odling's
lecture was a treat.
' I quite look forward to seeing you.*
To Miss Burton
c You will have read of the sayings and doings of the
associated savants. The two lectures of Huxley and
Lubbock you should not miss on any account. They were
reported in the Times, which I understand you see.
Tyndall's address, eloquent though it was, was hardly to
my mind satisfactory.'
Back in town, and now at Sussex Place, the routine of
his 'double life' was little changed. Only, instead of
walking the whole way to the court, as had been his
practice in Camber well, he would take train to the City
and thence tramp to Arbour Square. He was now sys-
tematically working at dephosphorisation and gradually
feeling his way to a solution.
The following letter tells something of Thomas's not too
numerous recreations :
To Miss Burton
'November 21, 1874.
< Dear Bess, I was taken to an Albert Hall concert
last night and heard Yon Bulow play marvellous tricks
with the piano ; tours de force they seemed to my
unenlightened mind. (How is your music going ?) The
Hall looks magnificent, but it is not half filled. They
are trying concerts every night, and the Briton soon
wearies.
1 1 have done a few articles for " Iron " lately, but only
regard it as education. It is not my forte, (if I have any),
CH. v YEAKS OF EQUIPMENT 47
and takes up too much time to pay. I am obliged to
husband my health resources, I find, after all.
( I had a pleasant little dinner at V 's shortly since.
He had what I regard as the infinite good taste and sense
to ask three or four men only and provide an entirely
simple meal, such as he would have by himself. An old
assistant of his has recently returned from Servia, which
appears a virgin country, ripe for the most profitable ex-
ploitation. It costs about 201. a year to live en prince,
with gold and silver and lead and forests of finest timber to
work on. Three English capitalists have gone out to found
a little state, starting with a few hundred square miles.
V is quite a pet of the mother's. His spiritualism is
a little coming down.
4 You will have heard of the immense success of Farrar's
" Life of Christ." Some one has insisted on lending it me.
I like the preface. You should read it if you can. What
is wanted now is an answer to " Supernatural Eeligion "
by a man at once able, erudite and wide-viewed, answer-
ing it on its own ground and not on quite another plat-
form ; and then the world may decide on adequate grounds
on the most momentous of all questions. Does " Nature "
penetrate to Wiesbaden ? It boasts an European circula-
tion and gives shortly a sketch of current science, I have
a dreadful budget of things from Chaloner 6 he wants me
to make something of. ... I have only seen abstracts
of Gladstone's pamphlets. He has, at all events, brought
out a latent Old Catholic party in England. Yours,
' S. G. T. J
Early in the following year of 1875 we find Thomas
again writing to his Wiesbaden correspondent :
See A Budget of Heterodoxies,' Iron, v. 2.
48 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. v
To Miss Burton
* 18 Sussex Place, Queen's Gate, Kensington :
' March 18, 1875.
'Your note just received starts me on my epistolary
labours, which I should otherwise have attacked very
shortly. It is pleasant to hear of your being in high
spirits.
' I shall certainly try to look you up this summer, but,
if the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must
come to the mountain, which is at present located at South
Kensington ; where its site will be in the autumn I know
not ; we have to settle shortly whether we stay here.
' I am over ears in a technical experimental investiga-
tion on Iron which is likely to last me considerably, and
then perhaps to have no result ; but, after all, life is very
little else but the pursuit of crotchets, the pursuit being
the best part of it. I recreated myself after a long spell
at references by a rink yesterday. I had not been for
some time, and found the wheels more popular than ever.
The elaboration of costuming it has developed is quite a
phenomenon. Do you read the English papers ? I under-
stand you have access to them. You ought not to allow
yourself to become behindhand in the manners and customs
and literature of your native land. I shall submit you to
an examination thereon when we meet. Yours,
< S. G. T.'
Of course the 'crotchet,' so lightly spoken of, was
dephosphorisation, the solution of which question was now
beginning to assume shape and consistency in Thomas's
brain.
The next letter is one of thanks for some birthday
present, and incidentally expresses certain humorously
distorted views of the German language and people :
CH . T YEARS OF EQUIPMENT 49
To Miss Burton
Sussex Place : April 17, 1875.
' Dear Bess, Your good wishes, which reached me
yesterday, pleasant to receive and appreciated ; though my
theoretic objections to presents are, you know, profound, I
also appreciate and thank you very much for the pleasant
and practical and most useful token of remembrance you
caused to be conveyed to me. I was, in fact, only waiting
till after the 16th was past to ask you to get me a techno-
logical dictionary. Your idea of my German scholarship
is delightful. Do you know it took me half an hour to
translate the first ten lines of the cutting you sent me,
and then I was not clear about them ? I consider, if I don't
have to look out more than two words in a line, it is a
special providence. As for the Germans, I consider that
their existence on this earth, taken in connection with
their barbarous, unintelligible, cumbrous, inelegant and
never to-be-sufficiently-deprecated so-called language, is
a blot and stain on the fair reputation of this continent.
I have pleasure in observing similar sentiments pervade
the appreciative periodical writers to whom you allude.
Your views appear to have been slightly modified by your
pleasant surroundings, but you will doubtless agree that
the independent and impartial opinion of the insular
observer is most calculated to come to a correct conclusion.
1 1 have some idea of getting up a little elementary
Spanish.'
The next letter seems written under the impression of
some temporary check to the dephosphorisation investiga-
tion.
To Miss Burton
Thames Police Court: May 15 [1875].
1 Dear Bess, My blunder shows the difficulty of com-
bining the inconsistent occupations of note-taking, with the
50 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. v
innumerable distractions under which it is performed, and
letter-writing. I am afraid my " Iron " contributions would
be hopelessly uninviting to you, or I should send them, but
mere " iron," " heat," " furnaces " and so on would be an im-
position on you. I went the other day to private view of the
Scientific Apparatus Exhibition at South Kensington, and
was greatly surprised at its extent and interest ; it is one
of the best strokes for science that an English department
has yet achieved. You are to be envied if it were only for
adjacent woods. It is pleasant to think of your being so
happily located. As for London, bah !
4 1 am all behindhand with work both here and at
home, with a pile of books to review. I have been spending
much time and labour over an investigation which has not
resulted in anything useful, and am considerably knocked
up, not to say ultra seedy. Yours,
1 S. G. T.'
The holiday this year was spent in Wales, and not in
Germany, as had been hoped ; visits to ' Works ' alternating
with long tramps.
The following letter tells us something of Thomas's
movements :
To Miss Burton
' B : Sunday.
{ Dear Bess, I walked over here from Neath. Have
been here since Tuesday, and am off again to-morrow. I
am with a man I have some slight acquaintance with who
is engaged at some works at B ; not a very lively
place, though on the sea ; and with a small dock, about a
mile of sandy flats 'twixt hills and sea. Three large metal
works and that is all. I amuse myself as best I can 'twixt
hills and sea. I have some idea of a two days' ramble in
the interior, then looking in on Percy's home. It doesn't
CH. v YEARS OF EQUIPMENT 51
come up by a long way to my anticipated German holiday,
but is the best I can manage.
' Now I have some assistance to ask of you. It is this :
Would you get Stumner's " Ingenieur " (published Vienna)
for June 18, 1875, through a bookseller or direct ? In it is the
continuation of an article " Hochofen, Anlage auf, &c.
Gleiwitz." I would send the paper, but it is mislaid. I am
making a summarised translation of the set; arid it would be
of great service to me if you could give me a literal transla-
tion of that number (leaving out any words that are quite
unknown to you) and send it with original to me, " Care of
P. C. G., Cwm Avon."
4 If it would weary or trouble you don't think more
of it.'
It is right to mention that these letters to Miss Burton
are filled with information and advice about investments and
finance, advice which it has not been thought necessary to
reproduce. As we have said above, Thomas, amid all his
numerous and engrossing occupations, found time in some
mysterious way to conduct the affairs of more than one lady
relative.
Here are two letters written about this time to his
sister Lilian (then at school at Richmond) which show
something of what may be called the domestic side of the
character of Thomas.
To his Sister.
{ Dearest Little Woman, Sentiments of the most pro-
found satisfaction inspire the fraternal breast at the
tidings of the moral and intellectual reformation which
has taken place since you left me, dissolved in tears, on
the South Kensington platform. All hail ! O taciturn,
virtuously at 6 A.M. arising, and much fasting sister !
52 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. v
Fail not in thy praiseworthy career, and receive a double
first class Local Cam., Oxford and London University
degree, with accumulated honours in the natural sciences,
notably in your favourite pursuit of chemistry.
1 To return to things sublunary. Grind muchly at
German. I have undertaken to do (or get done) another
German translation of prodigious dimensions and unutter-
able obscurity, solely with a view to keep up my imaginary
reputation for translatory capacity, so that I may shift it
to your juvenile and competent shoulders, as a step to-
wards a pleasanter independence than the scholastic.
4 Needless to say that mother's bulletin chronicles
minutely everything that does or does not occur chez
No. 18. The only event is Llewe's doctorate at Brussels,
which seems to have been gained with brilliant distinction
and with compliments on his facility in French. I shall be
off holiday-making on Saturday fortnight. I may possibly
look you up the Thursday before I start, and if so, and
you are very good, you shall have a row (you row and I
steer). We won't dine at the " Star and Garter," it might
make the rest jealous; but we will discourse sweet
Chemistry instead. Respectfully and affectionately,
( YOUR BROTHER.'
1 The Eve of the Birthday : September 11, 1875.
1 Dearest Little Maid, Let me, with due submission
and humility of mind, offer my fraternal felicitations to
one who has reached the dizzy altitudes of antiquity to
which your ladyship has scrambled. May the eventful
12th always pleasantly mark a step (or several) towards
that culminating day on which I may see you as good and
nice a little woman as I could wish you to be (which is
equivalent to wishing you a few centuries of progressive
existence). Enclosed a pair of prodigious wash-leather
CH. v YEARS OF EQUIPMENT 53
gauntlets, selected by the mother as suitable to your age
(and destructive habits). I had contemplated a daintier
pair ; but the perplexing question as to whether seventeen
or one was the proper size hindered my venture. ... In
haste, and with love, your brother,
' SID.'
' So sorry you will not be with us, but you are quite
right not to come. Work ! '
Later in the year come some more letters to Miss
Burton :
To Miss Burton
1 October 5, 1875.
DearBess, I, like you, not feeling remarkably brilliant ;
still send a technical paper to "Iron" every few weeks, though
I have no enthusiasm for that species of employment. I
have been seeing something of a rarity a student bond
fide who learns languages pour passer le temps, and lives in
a very pleasant studious retirement with that intent. I
have been reading Matt. Arnold on Prussian education
system, which certainly reads as approaching perfection, a
view which our Teuton professor endorses. The Times
in recent articles on their awny, exhibits well the causes of
their military superiority. The " Turkish question " not
long since promised to afford an opportunity for a general
European squabble. Chesney in c ' Macmillan " has proved to
his satisfaction that Prussia and Russia are to be the next
pair in the cockpit.'
In the next letter, already in 1875, and not then for
the first time, a warning note is struck as to health :
To Miss Burton
' November 1875.
1 Dear Bess, I hope to make sure of seeing you chez
vous in the summer, unless any unforeseen event should
54 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. v
intervene. I feel, however, slightly dubious as to my suc-
cessful progress, as I have absolutely no German, my good
resolutions in that direction having been interrupted.
" Iron " now offers me as much work as I can do, but as
the subjects I select require much reading, it is not re-
munerative. I am constantly " knocking up," a weakness
to which I imagine I shall some day " cave in," unless I
throw England up altogether.
' I should have sent you some " Irons " for criticism, but
as my last eight or nine articles have been on Blast
Furnaces I am not merciless enough to ask you to read
them. What do you think of the World? It has made
a great hit. Sells 39,000 a week. It started with a
trifling capital, on which it pays a few 100 per cent. . . .
A propos of art, of course you know Henschel's sketches
in the photos ; some are delicious. If I get time I will
write more, but I have a book on charcoal, another on
electricity, and two articles which I ought to be attacking.'
'December 15, 1875.
4 Dear Bess, . . . An American girl-student pretty,
too has been visiting London hospitals, and to the dis-
grace of the students thereat has been insultingly warned
off. She called at Llewe's hospital, where, of course, she
was received politely.
'The Suez question is the great subject of discussion ; all
enthusiasm at first, but now a growing feeling of hesitancy
about its benefits has supervened. The idle world is
frantic on skating-rinks ; they are springing up everywhere,
and are crowded at all times. Have you one about
Wiesbaden ? Among a skating people like the Germans
it would be a great success, both with natives and
foreigners.
CH. v YEAKS OF EQUIPMENT 55
' December 22.
' I have kept this back so as to make it a Xmas letter. To
my great comfort we are not going to have any Xmas
festivities or visitors of any kind. My namesake of
Bremerhaven is the most interesting problem that has
ever been presented to the analytical moralist. In
every relation of life he appears to have been perfect in
amiability and savoir faire, exceptionally so, and yet
throughout planning and carrying out the most infernal,
deliberate, wholesale murder. A magnificent hero for a
morbid psychological novelist. The man who wrote a
startling book on New Guinea, which you mentioned was
discredited in Germany, is by no means accepted here
except as a modern Munchausen. I have asked you
repeatedly what you do all day and every day.
' I send a new version of " Faust," the sketches in which
may amuse you. With all good wishes for Xmas, and
above all for 1876 and its successors, which I trust may
bring you all happiness, Yours,
4 SIDNEY.
56 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vi
CHAPTER VI
THE PROBLEM THEORETICALLY SOLVED A GERMAN TOUR
IN the latter end of 1875 the great problem was approach-
ing to, at any rate, provisional and theoretic solution in
the mind of Thomas. He had gathered together all avail-
able analytical and technical data. The first question to
be answered was obviously (as we have said above) the
fundamental one why was phosphorus retained in the
Bessemer converter? That preliminary difficulty sur-
mounted, the path might or might not be clear to cheap
elimination ; at any rate it would at least be visible.
Thomas came to the conclusion that the reason of the
non-elimination of the phosphorus was to be sought in the
chemical nature of the lining of the Bessemer converter.
This lining has been described above in Sir Henry
Bessemer's own words ; it varied in material, but the
material, whatever it might be, was acid in chemical
essence. The phosphorus in the iron was rapidly oxidised
during the process, or, in other words, formed phosphoric
acid. With an acid lining that phosphoric acid would
not combine, the two acids having no i chemical affinity '
or liking for each other.
If this were the cause of non-elimination, the path to
be followed was visible indeed. Not by any addition or
mixture of substances after the converter *had been charged
was solution to be found, but rather by a change in the
constitution of the lining. For the acid lining in use a
CH, vi THE PKOBLEM THEORETICALLY SOLVED 57
basic one must be substituted. A base is a term used by
chemists to signify a substance which will combine with
an acid, a substance for which an acid has c affinity.'
Some strong base then must be employed for the lining.
Thomas entered upon a series of experiments for the
purpose of investigating the material and duration of
various linings. Durability was essential to cheapness and,
therefore, to commercial success, and a substance which
would long survive the intense heat of the Bessemer process
was by no means easy to find. Thomas at this time came
to the conclusion that the required material must be either
lime or its congeners, magnesia, magnesian limestone, &c.
It must be remembered always that the aim to be
attained was twofold, as will be seen by the quotation
from Lowthian Bell, ante, p. 34. Perhaps the more im-
portant object was to separate the phosphorus from the
iron ; but it was also of great importance to preserve the
phosphorus, which (noxious as it was when combined with
iron) was in itself a most valuable product, at least in the
form of phosphoric acid. This could be done by creating
a basic f slag.'
So far, then, had theorising and experiment led Thomas
at the end of 1875. He was convinced that his conclu-
sions were chemically correct, but he found it impossible
to finally verify them under such conditions as were open
to him in his rough little laboratory. He attempted in
his top room at Sussex Place to obtain a Bessemer blow
by means of an improvised converter in the ordinary
domestic firegrate, which was alone at his disposal ; but
he naturally found it impossible to obtain the necessary
blast.
Thomas thought, however, that he saw his way to more
satisfactory trial of his theories. A cousin, Mr. P. C.
Gilchrist, already mentioned, was, as we have seen, then
58 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vi
chemist to certain Works at Cwm Avon, in South Wales.
It might be that Gilchrist, although, of course, he had no
unlimited command of the works and appliances, might
at least be in a position to experimentalise more satisfac-
torily than was possible in Sussex Place. Early in 1876
Thomas wrote to him communicating his theory in detail,
as well as the lines on which he thought it could be proved
or disproved. Gilchrist at first deemed the whole thing
a chimera, but undertook, nevertheless, to make some
experiments. The business, however, slumbered for long
months ; Thomas on his side still working at his idea in
the evenings at home and devising the best method and
the best materials to make the experiments a success. In
the summer of this year we find him writing to Gilchrist
under date of August 7, 1876, from the Thames Police
Court :
c My impression is, a biggish wrought-iron crucible
would be as good for experimental converter as anything,
and would be easy to try various linings in. The tuyeres, 1
subject to your emendations, might be pieces of wrought-
iron gas-pipe covered with fire-clay and with fire-clay
stopper perforated thus or laterally. I have not time
enough to do. I only go home to sleep and eat. Most
unsatisfactory.'
For some months yet, however, Sidney had to continue
to chafe at delay.
Meanwhile he had found time for a July holiday in
Germany, a holiday mainly spent in visiting Works. The
following letters to his Wiesbaden correspondent were
written before, during and after this time :
1 These, it will be remembered, (See Sir H. Bessemer 's description
are the air-holes of the converter. of his process, ante, p. 32).
CH. vi A GERMAN TOUR 59
To Miss Burton
' 18 Sussex Place : June 1876.
c Dear Bess, Plunged over head and ears in work. I
look forward to starting to your beloved Germany on
Monday night, the 3rd prox., if I can find time before then
to address myself to the necessary consultations of Brad-
shaw, &c., provided always that the mother is well
enough to get away to the sea without me. Now, though
my bourne is the Hartz, I need hardly say I contemplate
being in Wiesbaden, if not en route at least on my
homeward voyage, that is, if you care to see me. So I
want you to write when you will prefer my going, begin-
ning or end of July. I have a man who talks of accom-
panying me, but I shall probably be alone. All news such
as there is may be best delivered orally. I mean to
travel without any luggage but a pen and an umbrella, a
hat and a dictionary. Will you be shocked at the intro-
duction of so uncouth a traveller amid the refinements of
Wiesbaden ? Yours,
' S. G. T.'
1 Dear Bess, I formulated three conclusions before my
arrival at Frankfort :
* That I am very sorry I have come to you first and not
last, as I had intended, on the principle of keeping the
pleasantest of everything to the last.
' That I would try to bring my holiday in your direc-
tion next year.
c That if I had stayed a day longer the Hartz Bergwerke
&c. would have been shelved altogether. From which
reflections (added to one that I had not said half I in-
tended), I was aroused by arrival at Frankfort, which I
proceeded to do in the time I had to spare. I will not
trouble you with any hasty observations thereon. The
60 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. vi
seven hours to Eisenach were tedious, though the country
somewhat interesting ; more so my fellow-travellers, especi-
ally a young soldier and an artist, the latter just returned
from a sketching excursion in Schweitz. These with
two others kept up a lively interchange of jokes and
information. I, a silent spectator, could only catch one-
fifth of the points.
'At Eisenach we parted; the soldier gave us all his
name and address, and we him our cards. Hope he won't
call and borrow.
4 At Eisenach to a good hotel, and was off by 6 A.M. to
Wartburg, which I accomplished with a party of students.
Then through rain " fahrers " to Austhal, which I happily
stumbled on at one. Both Burg and Thai sehr romantisch
and so on. Dann hat ein teuflich Fahrer mir misdirected,
und habe ich zwei Stunde aus von mein Weg gegangen.
Then through forest to Rluhla, a curious miniature Bad
with Curhaus, and so on in a hill valley ; on again through
woods and over hills to a primitive Dorf, where I put up
at a primitive hostel with a getrunken Wirth wer zu mir
Deutsch sprechen insisted. My bedroom, shared with a
Fuhrmann, though deficient in some elegancies, was ziem-
lich bequem. Morgens friih iiber Friedrichroda another
Bad, nach Oberhof, on the way picking up a student. The
infamous Schurke had on me his infamous fraud perpet-
rated ; he said he Englisch konnte, aber Englisch kann er
kein Wort verstehen. Through a beautiful rocky valley, up
a series of hills, and then twelve miles of continuous wood,
brought us to a Gasthaus, wo ich ein wunderbar Milchkur
habe gemacht.
' Morgen friih nach Ilmenau by Berliners frequented
Wasser-Kur und Austall wo ich mit meiner Student with
much vergniigen parted. Then to Konigsee ; curious old
town, excessively hot, so I in a hasty Augenblick der Post
genommen habe. Der Post a wicked snare and vile delu-
CH. vi A GERMAN TOUR 61
sion, kann ein Meile in ein Stunde ; and as for the horses
Donner Blitz !
1 A postman entered into conversation with me, and
gave me a commission to execute in London with mystic
names and so on, on paper. I don't know what it was I
undertook, but we parted great friends. Half way to
Eudolstadt my post got emptied, and Kutscher wanted
me to ansteigen, which I declined to do, having my billet
further genommen. I argued the question in my native
tongue, and utterly routed Herr geehrter Kutscher. An
appalling nine hours' train to Chemnitz, where I got at
10.30. Asked a young person with a brilliant cap to direct
me to a Gasthaus, and after er hat das gethan, he insisted
on drinking beer and talking German to me till 12.30.
Oh, horrors! what I suffered with him ! also exchanged
cards, swore eternal friendship, and so on. I wondered
what he said all those two hours. I said 80? Ja ! Ja !
So ? which satisfied him.
' Morgen friih nach Freiberg, wo ich bin, got a fair on ;
queer place. I have been much longer getting here than
I calculated. In Thiiringen Wald, to get five miles in a
straight line, you had to go eighteen.
1 1 shall not go to Essen now. It is quite possible that
Herr F. may also not care to have strangers on his works.
I should like to know if this be so early. Would you
write me a card both to Mansfeld and Thale Hartz as
to this, and send my bag to Kreimsen ? Shall be in
Dresden Tuesday ; no time for Saxon Schweitz.
1 The only German who can speak English, I believe,
lives on the Ehine. We must push on the universal tongue.'
13 Sussex Place: Tuesday.
1 Dear Bess, Here I am at the end of my tether, and
preparing for stringent harness. I received yours and
62 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vi
cards (for wliicli many thanks to both of you) at Clausthal
and Goslar. In case you interest yourself in my remain-
ing travels, here they are. From Mansfeld, whence I
wrote you, and where I accomplished some works, I pere-
grinated to Hartz Gerode. Uninteresting works, hot and
dusty. H e nothing to boast of, but so-called castle
sleepy and primitive. Thence to Alexisbon, another
miniature Bad, buried in a valley, woods all round, a dirty
stream, said to be irony, and salubrious Band Curhaus,
and frequent refreshments. So over a hill through a wood
to a schoenes Aussicht. Had to climb up a tower my
tenth where a ruffian persisted in showing off his topo-
graphical lore by pointing out to me every village within
the horizon. Again to Rosstroppe and Tanzplatz really
a fine view where all the cits of North Germania were
drinking and singing to their great content ; sleeping at
Thale; on again by Blankenberg, striking the Bodathal
again at Rubeland last again pretty and halting at
Elbingerode. Hence a lovely walk in early morn through
woods up Brocken, whence I gazed my fill and lighted on
a delightful little sylvan inn by Andreasberg. Going
down a mine and over works at Andreasberg, which is
also now frequented by "fir needle " bathers, occupied most
of next day. My next stage Clausthal, where I stumbled
on a Londoner University student with whom I did the
"Lione," escorted by two German students. So round
Ochretal and on again to quaint old Goslar, and on again
to Kreimsen, where I picked up my bag. By train to
Mulham near Ruhrort, and by seven on Monday morn-
ing I had the audacity to call on Herr Dr. F., whom I
found at breakfast with Mrs. F. and an amusing young
lady of two. Was received most courteously, and taken
to Phoenix, where I was left to satisfy my curiosity, which
I did at length, finding the works well constructed and
CH . vi A GERMAN TOUR 63
worked. I was to see Herr F. again, but unfortunately
he did not return to his office before I was obliged to leave
to catch the only train to Kotterdam. I left a card ex-
pressing my thanks. There are several points on which
I may possibly write to him for information. Does the
director read English I wonder ? Yours ever,
< S. G. T.
4 P.S. My opinion of German scenery is is reserved ;
of the folk I can say I have a much better opinion
than I started with. If they would only learn English
they would be civilised.'
'Dear Bess, Here everything going much as usual.
My editorial acquaintance just back from America; speaking
well of things American, particularly of their extraordinary
capacity for work and rapidity in executing it. Awaiting
my return I found a letter from my friend in the "Western
States saying that he was relinquishing the Professorship
he has hitherto held, and suggesting I should take his
place. It was a temptation ; but, of course, in my mother's
state of health it would have been out of the question.
' I find so much to engage me that it is doubtful
whether I shall have time to turn my German visit to any
literary account, particularly as a great part of my notes
got lost in hurry to catch a train for Ruhrort.
' By the way, as to " hurry," you seem to think my time
is unlimited ; I had twenty-six days for all.
* I enclose a number of queries, of which the director
may answer some in German or English possibly, if you
would kindly undertake their transmission. They are
simply what I had jotted down at the time to ask the
director before I left. Of course it is a considerable
trespass, on the strength of your introduction ; but I find
64 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vi
German scientists so courteous in giving information that
I have become a hardened interrogator.'
' Dear Bess, I am intensely obliged to all of you, the
Doctor, Fraulein N. and yourself, for the trouble you have
taken over my troublesome interrogatories, which I cer-
tainly did not expect to get so answered. You say that
Phoenix had forty-eight furnaces at work in 1872-73, now
only eighteen. Does that mean blast furnaces (Hohofen)?
for if so, Phoenix is larger than I imagined ; few English
works have more than twenty in all. By asking the name
of the hot-blast stoves I meant this : I observed in par-
ticular one new hot-blast stove (i.e. an apparatus for heat-
ing the blast before it enters the Hohofen) of a construction
new to me. I know the Whitwell stove, the Cowper, the
Pistop pipe stove and so on. This appeared to be filled
with circular discs of iron (?), so I asked by what name it
is known that I might find a description of it. In einzeln
etc. means " is more tenacious." Hartenummern I should
translate as " scale of hardness " I fancy, but I am not
quite clear ; what is your idea ? The director's answers are
admirably clear and to the point.
' I will send " Iron " to Herr Dr. F. as you suggest.
It is simply appallingly hot, and I find Thames has
effectually taken all the good I derived from my trip to
itself. The amount of work accumulated is quite a feature,
and I have a new magistrate. Wish I could exchange
Kensington for Wiesbaden for a week or two. Yours,
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TEAVEL TALK ' 65
CHAPTER VII
' TECHNICAL TRAVEL TALK '
THOMAS did * turn his German tour to literary account ' by
the contribution of a series of articles (under the heading
of ' Technical Travel Talk ' ) to the columns of ' Iron/ We
reproduce some extracts from these articles (published in
the course of 1877) here. Much of them is, of course, too
technical for these pages. The opening paragraph is very
characteristic of the writer :
' Freiberg.
4 There is a curious delusion very prevalent among
vacation-tourists, that it is inconsistent with the purpose
of true holiday-making, and indicative of a certain poverty
of spirit, to concern oneself about aught else than the
picturesque and artistic features of one's holiday-ground.
By such a limited interpretation of the available resources
of pleasure-travel, not a few are condemned to hours of
ennui, which they would escape effectually if they would
only recognise that the industries and institutions of
a strange locality are as legitimate objects of interest as its
scenery, buildings and pictures. Of course there are those
who are so profoundly convinced that instruction and
amusement are hopelessly incompatible, that they are
consistent in refusing to desert the beaten tourist track,
lest perchance they should fall into the pitfall of instruc-
tion. It cannot, however, be believed that, of the thou-
Y
#6 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vn
sands of Englishmen who sojourn in or pass through
Dresden yearly, all labour under this singular prejudice,
and believe that it is incumbent on a true holiday-maker
to utterly bury and forget all the interests which constitute
the chief concern of his everyday life. Yet it is sur-
prising how few of our practical countrymen find their way
from the art-capital of Germany to the old mine-city of
Freiberg, the birthplace of technical education, and of the
systematic application of scientific methods to the conduct
of industrial enterprise, though the two places are barely
an hour's ride apart.
1 The district of the Saxon Erzgebirge (Ore-mountains),
of which Freiberg is the centre, would, indeed, be well
worth a visit, even though its only attractions were the
quaint and picturesque architecture of its towns and the
primitive customs of its people, among whom the eerie
superstitions and legends, which filled so important a part
in the lives of the old miners, still linger.
' Freiberg itself has seen fluctuations of fortune beyond
the experience of ordinary cities. To have been the scene
of many sieges, the cradle of the Saxon Reformation, and
the seat and city of refuge of the royal family of Saxony
are only a few incidents in its chequered political career.
Its real prosperity, however, fluctuated with that of the
mines of the district, and the depreciation and apprecia-
tion of silver was a question of deep moment to its
burghers long before the dwellers in Lombard Street had
begun to dabble in the intricacies of finance. In the
sixteenth century, when its mines were at their best, the
population of the city is said to have been five times as
great as it was at the beginning of the present century,
and considerably larger than it is at present.
' The contrast between the mediaeval streets and fan-
tastic buildings of the old town, and the costumes and
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TKAVEL TALK ' 67
manners of the crowds that thronged them was particu-
larly striking as I made niy way from the station and
found the Jahrzeit, or semi-annual fair, in full swing, with
all the accompaniments of bands, shows, jugglers and
vociferous cheap-jacks. Strolling through the good-
humoured multitude I came on a little group of American
academy students, who were laughingly engaged in
showing the heathens (as they designated the non-English-
speaking portion of the community), in some trials of
strength, that transatlantic skill could prevail over Saxon
muscle. High over the busiest part of the fair loomed a
mining engine-house, perched on the inevitable rubbish
mound, requiring no great stretch of the imagination to
picture it as the genius of the place. The monotonous
periodical clang of the engine-bell, which throughout the
mining region serves to indicate that the pumping
machinery is in order and at work, readily lends itself to
this fancy, by giving to the stranger an almost painful
consciousness of automatic, never-tiring watchfulness.
' As some salt carriers from Halle were making their
way across the Freiberg heights with their salt, on their
way to Bohemia, it chanced that one of them picked up by
the roadside a lump of lead ore. Being evidently shrewd
and enterprising men, they abandoned their Bohemian
journey and betook themselves with their find to an emi-
nent assayer at Goslar. A certificate having been obtained
that their specimen assayed much richer in silver than the
ordinary Ramrnelsberg ores, the fortunes of Freiberg were
made, for divers Gosla rites emigrated forthwith, and
speedily opened up the rich silver deposits which soon
rendered Freiberg one of the most prosperous cities of
Central Europe. What became of the original enterprising
prospectors, Agricola, who is the authority for this account,
F 2
68 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. vn
does not chronicle. The author of a curious little work on
" The Origin of the Saxon Mines," published at Chemnitz
in 1764, discusses the question of the exact date of this
discovery in great detail, but if we follow Agricola again
in fixing it in 1164 we shall not be far wrong. Between
the years 1164 and 1824 the Saxon mines are said to
have produced 4,100 tons of silver, valued at thirty-six
millions sterling. Their greatest productiveness appears
to have been reached in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, when there can be no doubt that some of the
richest veins were struck and almost exhausted, large
masses of ore, yielding sixty and seventy per cent, of
silver, being found.
'In 1810 the product of the Saxon silver mines was
estimated at 53,000 marks, or, say, one-eighth of a million
sterling. In 1817 it had sunk to a considerably lower
value. In 1850 we find it still at about the same figure,
though the total value of the mineral products of Saxony
had doubled in the interval. In 1856, however, the pro-
duction amounted to 55,000 Ib. of metal, and in 1865 to
80,000 lb., while by the last returns from the Freiberg
smelting works the value of the silver produced has again
declined.
* At the date of the last official return there were in ex-
istence, in the four Reviere into which the ore-mining
district of Saxony is divided, 344 mines. In this numera-
tion, however, are included drainage and extraction adits,
and over 150 mines which are not in work at all. Of the
balance, only nine were in the dividend list, while sixty-
four of those reckoned as " going concerns " were raising
no ore, The total ore raised in 1874 amounted to about
50,000 tons, representing a cash value of something over
250,OOOZ. sterling. Of the 76,OOOZ., which was the value
of the ore raised from Himmelfahrt, the most prosperous
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TKAVEL TALK ' 69
of all the mines, only 11,OOOZ. went into the pockets of
the shareholders.
' The Himmelfurst mine at Brand, some two miles or
more from Freiberg, is one of the most important in the
district after Himmelfahrt, which is the show-mine to
which visitors are usually directed, and where there is
accordingly less opportunity of seeing the normal course
of mining operations than elsewhere. Soon after five on a
rainy morning I met, by appointment, in the Freiberg
market-place, a figure clad in coarse miner's dress, patched
from top to toe with earth stains, and duly adorned with
leathern apron and belt, a knife and a lamp. This costume
is the regular mining costume of Saxony, where miners
dress, not, as is the wont at home, as individual taste or
convenience suggests, but just as their fathers and fore-
fathers did before them. The wearer, however, is an
English student, a chance acquaintance, to whose courtesy
and intelligence I was much indebted. After a wet trudge
along an elevated highroad, bordered by a monotonous
country, which, hedgeless and almost treeless, looked
bleak enough even in summer-time, and recalled the fact
that agriculture in the Saxon uplands is a precarious
pursuit, we arrived at our destination. At intervals along
the road we had exchanged a friendly " Gliick auf," the
universal salutation for all times and occasions in mining
Germany, with individuals accoutred like my companion,
hurrying to their respective mines ; but as we entered the
group of offices " Gliick auf" is heard on all sides. My
friend having interviewed the presiding official and shown
his academical voucher, and the usual preliminary of
entering our names, domiciles, and the whence and whither
of my journeying being duly performed, I changed my
clothes for a miner's suit, and, lamp in hand, we proceeded
to descend one of the several shafts by which the mine is
70 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. vn
worked. That " we," however, now included a Steiger, to
whose care we had been confided. There are Steiger and
Obersteiger, and (I believe) Untersteiger, their functions
being to overlook the works and generally superintend the
conduct of mining operations ; their position varying be-
tween that of mining captains and of foremen or gangers.
Though their pay is very scanty, averaging considerably
under thirty shillings, and often not exceeding a pound a
week, they have nearly all received an excellent technical
training at the mining school, and possess an acquaintance
with the theoretical principles of mining which it would
be hard to find a parallel for among English miners of far
greater pretensions. We spent some four or five hours
underground, our conductor taking care that no instructive
or interesting feature should be passed over, or be unap-
preciated for want of a commentary, and never tiring of
explanations. The mine, of which the set contains five
rich veins, produces zinc ores and pyrites, besides the
argentiferous galena and silver ores, which are its main
support. But though it employs over 1,000 men, it only
turns out about 3,000 tons of ore a year, valued, according
to the last return at hand, at some 45,000?. The sale of
SOL worth of " specimens " is one of the items which makes
up this total. A generation ago, when only one-fifth of
the present output was realised, it appears that the returns
of ore sold were over 18,OOOL, which indicated that the
richest veins have been exhausted.
1 As in most German mines, dead work bears here a
much larger proportion to paying work than would be long
tolerated by English adventurers. We find, by a recent
return, that while only 1,000 metres were driven in the
Freiberg Revier in rich ore ground, 1,800 were driven in
poor though ore-carrying ground, and no less than 7,000
metres in perfectly barren ground. In other words, 70
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TEAVEL TALK ' 71
per cent, of the total year's work done was of an unremu-
nerative character. This mode of working, not for the
present alone, but with a view to maintaining the existence
of the mine for the longest possible period, has many and
solid advantages, which are not to be obtained on the
" quick return " system. Nothing gives a better idea of the
strong hold this desire for permanency has on those who
have the ultimate direction of mining works than the
extraordinary solidity and finish of the masonry which is
so largely used in the lining of the shafts, and the support
of the roof and sides of the working levels. The regular
thickness for the arches protecting the junction of galleries
with the shaft, or supporting the masonry of a few fathoms
of lined shaft, is one metre.
' It is the custom to inscribe the date on which any im-
portant sinking or driving was finished in situ, so that
the mine itself bears its own chronology graven on its
walls, and we have a clue to the exact course the works
have taken for a century or two. Thus, it will often
happen that at one stage in the descent of a shaft you
will find the date of say A.D. 1760 ; on getting still lower
you will be surprised to find you have got back to 1700,
and then, at the lowest depth of all, you are confronted
with a freshly carved or painted " 1876." This, of course,
indicates that in 1760 a shaft was sunk upon an old gallery
from another shaft (possibly only by accident, as it was not
continued down to the level), and that subsequently, the
original ore bodies being probably exhausted, the shaft has
been continued to its present depth, or a shaft driven
upwards.
' The shaft by which we descended was a rectangular
one, measuring two metres by six, and is to be carried
to a depth of some 500 metres. The main drawing and
pumping shaft, by which we ascended, was driven on the
72 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vn
veins, and follows its inclination, and is of very much
larger dimensions. The greater part of the ore is got out
by overhead stoping, though the underhand system is
also in use. There is one tool which is very much used
by the miners, which is not, I believe, common in England.
It is almost exactly the shape of the ordinary miner's
poltpick on a small scale (weighing only two or three
pounds), and being held in position by the handle, is driven
into the rock by a sledge ; the handle enables the gad or
wedge, which is what the tool really is, to be used in
positions which it would be hard to get at otherwise.
1 The Saxon mining lamp, though not unknown in Eng-
land, seems such an obvious improvement on the naked
candle, so largely used, that it is worth description. It con-
sists of a flat box of wood, about eight or ten inches high, with
a rounded top and the front open. The interior is lined
with polished metal, and the open side may be closed with
a glass sliding in a groove. This glass, when not in place,
clips into a recess at the back of the lamp. Either a
candle or oil-lamp can be used, and the whole is swung by
a string round the miner's neck. The hands are left free,
the flame protected from draughts and wet, and the light
reflected on the work in hand. All these advantages are
obtained at an insignificant cost.
1 The miner's cap, common to all Germany, is of the
shape once known in England as the " porkpie " hat, made
of stiff felt, and is an admirable protection to the head,
which, as every novice in mining knows, is exposed to
grievous attacks in underground life. Gunpowder is alone
used in blasting, and all the holes are put in by hand. As
far as I could learn, Himmelfahrt is the only mine in the
district in which machine drills had been fairly tried, nor
do modern explosives seem much in favour. The miners
are, by general testimony, as steady and industrious a
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TEAVEL TALK ' 73
class of men as could be desired. Of late years Italian
(probably Piedmontese) hewers have been employed in the
Saxony collieries, and in driving adits and other heavy
work, and it is said that they can turn out more work than
the native miner. I was informed that a heading through
moderately hard rock, which we watched being driven,
was paid for by piecework at a rate which would give the
miner, a first-class workman, something less than 15s. per
week. The ordinary rate of payment appears to be a
mark (or shilling) for a six-hours' shift, and two marks for
a ten-hours' shift. Low as these wages are, they probably
do not represent a less purchasing power than the average
English mining wage. Indeed, they are even absolutely
but very little lower than the regular Cornish rates of a
few years ago.
'An excellent system of miners' unions, or friendly
societies, to which nearly all the men belong, contributes
largely to improve the position of their members. The
contributions of the men are supplemented by a propor-
tionate subscription from the various mining companies
and the income derived from various charitable endow-
ments. The distribution and management of the funds are
mainly undertaken, I was informed, by a committee of the
oldest members of the union. The objects on which they
are expended are : the relief, by allowances, pensions and
medical attendance, of sick members ; pensions to widows
of deceased members; the maintenance of co-operative
stores, and the education of orphans and the children of
indigent members. The annual expenditure of the com-
bined Saxon societies and foundations amounts to between
60,OOOZ. and 70,OOOZ. The whole body of ore-miners is
bound together by the Bergknappschaften, or unions
which are of great antiquity into a body corporate, with
elaborate regulations and ceremonies. To be expelled
74 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. vn
from the association is the greatest social ignominy, and its
established customs have the force almost of law. One of
the periodical musters, or reviews of the Freiberg miners,
was due a few days after I left Freiberg. On these occa-
sions they are grouped into companies and brigades under
their officers, adorned with the insignia of their craft, and,
after attending church, spend the balance of the day in
certain traditional exercises and festivities. Of late years
a considerable tide of emigration of miners from Saxony
to America has set in, and so relieved the pressure which
the decrease of mining activity would have caused.
' Saxon Mining
' Neither women nor boys are employed in the metal
mines of Saxony, and comparatively few in the coal dis-
tricts. The Saxons, though rather a stolid race, are, as a
rule, well educated, and believe in educating their children
rather than sending them prematurely to work, a view
in which the law supports them. The total number of
miners employed in the ore mines is only about 8,000, but
about twice that number are engaged in the bituminous
collieries, and over 3,000 in the brown-coal mines.
The colliers are a very different class of men to the ore-
miners, whose morale and judiciously recognised esprit de
corps , combined with a traditional good understanding with
their employers, render labour troubles among them of very
rare occurrence. I think there could hardly be a better
indication of the old-world flavour which pervades Saxon
ore-mining than the nomenclature of the mines themselves.
A singular contrast to the matter-of-fact names which figure
in our mining-share lists, and the ambitious and often
grotesquely humorous labels which the Californian and
Comstock miner delights in attaching to his workings, is
afforded by a list, in which capital and dividends, and pro-
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TKAYEL TALK * 75
fit and loss seem incongruous items, when connected with
undertakings trading under such pious blazons as God's
Blessing, God's Hope, Good God, Trust in the Lord, God
with us, God trusted Daniel, the Green Twig and the
Grace of God; sometimes lapsing into such mundane
though comprehensive appellations as the Morning Star
and Noonday Sun. Does not this seem to take us back to
a far-off age, when work or, perhaps, speculation and
religion were on intimate terms, though no one had yet
formulated the " Gospel of Work " ?
1 Saxon Metallurgy
1 The Fiscal Metallurgical Works of the Freiberg district
consist of two great smelting establishments, one known
as the Muldener Hiitte and the once celebrated but now
less important works at Halsbruck. In connection with
these there are certain subsidiary industries of consider-
able local importance, notably the Cobalt Blue Works at
Oberschlema and Pfannenstiel (the latter of which is a
semi-private undertaking). The manufacture of shot and
leadwork generally, of whitelead and pottery are the most
flourishing of these subsidiary industries ; but they do not
possess any features of special interest. At the several
Fiscal Works about 1,400 men are employed. Tin-smelt-
ing is still carried on at six or seven small furnaces in close
proximity to the mines, of which the most important are
situated in the Altenberg district, but this branch of metal-
lurgy is now labouring under considerable depression, owing
to the fall in the value of tin. The Mulden and Halsbruck
Works (which may be practically regarded as one), how-
ever, have certainly done more for the advancement of
metallurgical science than any other establishment of the
kind in the world, and possess many features of the
76 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vn
greatest technical interest. The prominent position they
have taken may be traced to a combination of several
causes.
' In the first place, the intimate connection which has
existed between the Academy and the Hiitte since the
foundation of the former, and the fact that for at least a
century the direction of the works has been carried on
under what, having reference to the current state of
metallurgical knowledge, was unquestionably the best
scientific advice, were alone sufficient to elevate the conduct
of these works far above the dead level of empiricism which
so long prevailed in metallurgy. The joint reputation of
the Academy and the Works also brought to Freiberg a
constant succession of intelligent visitors, whose sugges-
tions for modifications of any process or accounts of the
modes adopted for like ends in other countries were always
attentively considered by experts, whom an academy
training had freed from local prejudice, which so often
prevents the adoption of improvements. The remarkable
complexity of composition, which is a characteristic of the
Freiberg ores, also calls for the exercise of an unusual
amount of skill in devising processes by which the largest
number of metals may be profitably isolated from each
other and turned out in a marketable condition. The
absence of those restraints upon the pursuit of investiga-
tions of which the immediate pecuniary result is doubtful,
more or less inseparable from private enterprise, has also
had a most happy effect on Saxon metallurgy.
' During the most prosperous period of the Saxon mines
the ores were smelted at a number of private works in a
very rude fashion. Towards the commencement of the
eighteenth century, when the succession of rich bonanzas
which had astonished Europe and enriched Saxony had
been about worked out, and the effects of the vast importa-
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TRAVEL TALK ' 77
tion of silver from Mexico and Peru in depreciating the
value of the metal had not been recovered from, the Saxon
Government came to the rescue of the impoverished mining
industry by founding metallurgical works, under the
administration of a special department, with the object
of utilising to the utmost the mineral treasures of the
Erzgebirge, by bringing the advantages of capital, concen-
tration and skilled management to bear upon the extraction
of the metals from their containing ores. The results of this
direct Government interference with private enterprise,
repugnant as it is to English ideas of the limits of the
functions of the State, have been certainly more favourable
than could have been anticipated. Aided by the economical
Jesuits achieved by the Government works, of which the
miner shares the advantage, not only in receiving originally
a better price for his ore than private smelters would or
could give, but by a subsequent participation in the profits
of the undertaking, many mines have struggled through
periods of adversity to which they must have otherwise
succumbed. In looking over the visitors' book at the
Muldener Hiitte, one is struck by the cosmopolitan
character of those who (as indicated by their names) avail
themselves of the unreserved liberality with which the
direction permits access to all the Government establish-
ments. My own visit was paid in company of two Greeks,
our predecessors being Germans, Spaniards and Americans.
1 Of the 130 ironworks of Saxony of which only some
half-dozen have blast furnaces located for the most part
in the neighbourhood of Zwickau, Chemnitz, and Plauen,
with a gross production valued at about one million
sterling, I have no personal knowledge. I was informed,
however, from several sources, that, notwithstanding
journalistic denials, the engine and machine makers of
78 'SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS en. vn
Chemnitz and Leipzig always use English metal, especially
steel, for any purpose in which the highest quality is re-
quired.
' From Freiberg to Dresden the railway passes through
decidedly attractive scenery, while, for the technical
tourist, the attractions of the picturesque valley which the
line traverses are not diminished by its being the seat of a
thriving brown-coal mining and iron-working industry
at Potschappel, and the celebrated forest nursery and
forestry academy of Tharandt. On the many attractions
of Dresden, the most charming of German cities, this is
not the place to expatiate. It may be suggested, however,
that the geological and mineralogical collections which
form, perhaps, the least frequented section of the magnifi-
cent series of museums of which the Saxons are justly
proud, are worthy of their reputation, their strength lying
in the completeness of their sets of Saxon ores and fossils.
The Saxon Switzerland, which commences a few miles
south of Dresden, originally an elevated tableland of
sandstone, has been chiselled, by fluvial and aerial agency,
into a series of fantastically-shaped peaks and pinnacles,
and isolated and precipitous rock fortresses, while those
portions which have suffered least are penetrated in every
direction by deep ravines. As it is given only to few to
visit the Colorado canyons, an excursion to the Sachsische
Schweiz may be taken to be, perhaps, the most favour-
able accessible illustration, on a great scale, of the power
of water as a geological tool, since the cause and effect are
here seen in close juxtaposition, and under the most
striking conditions.
' Bohemia, a country which lies somewhat out of the
regular tourist track, holds out many inducements to the
student of metallurgy or mining who has got so far as
Freiberg or Dresden to extend his explorations thither.
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TRAVEL TALK ' 79
Amid scenery often in the highest degree wild and
picturesque, mining has been carried on in Bohemia for
considerably over a thousand years.
c In the narrow gorge of Joachimthal, where the first
thalers were coined, and whence their name is derived,
maybe seen mines still in active work, producing silver,
lead, cobalt, bismuth and uranium, in which some forty
successive generations of miners have laboured. Near the
fine old city of Prague, one of the most interesting in
Germany, are the wonderfully rich silver-lead deposits of
Przibram, which have been worked continuously for eleven
centuries. Large deposits of lead, and smaller ones of
copper, tin, and cobalt, are also mined in many other
districts of Bohemia, the systems of exploitation and
dressings being hardly, if at all, inferior to those adopted
in Saxony and the Hartz. Indeed, much of the most
approved modern dressing machinery has its origin in
Bohemia and Schemnitz.
' The iron industry of Bohemia is of hardly less anti-
quity than its silver mining. Great deposits of haematite
and other iron ores are spread over the country, the ore
being smelted chiefly in charcoal furnaces close to where
it is raised. In no district in Europe is the charcoal
blast-furnace seen to greater advantage than in Bohemia
and the adjacent Austrian States. At Kladno, however,
and elsewhere, coke furnaces have been recently erected
on a considerable scale. Though both bituminous and
anthracite coal is worked to some extent, the chief fuel
resources of Bohemia are found in the enormous supply of
brown coal which it possesses, much of it consisting of
deposits considerably exceeding ten yards in thickness.
It is now about eleven centuries since the Bohemian
gold-fever broke out, and the washing and digging of that
day appsar to have been pretty thorough, since nothing
80 SIDNEY GTLCHRIST THOMAS CH. vn
has been left for their successors but heaps of washed sand
and gravel. In short, the metalliferous industries of
Bohemia are hardly less varied and interesting than those
of Saxony ; while by extending one's excursion to Hungary
on the one side and Styria and Illyria on the other, one
would have a tour in which an absolutely complete acquain-
tance with all that is remarkable in Continental mining and
metallurgy might be gained, in conjunction with an ex-
ploration of the almost unique beauties of the Austrian
Alps and the Hungarian forests and highlands.
4 But there is another region of Germany, very much
more accessible from England, almost, indeed, at our
doors, which possesses within a very limited area many
very diverse claims on the attention of the sober holiday-
seeker. The Hartz offer a rich harvest to the geologist,
mineralogist, metallurgist and miner, and have no mean
attractions for the artist and antiquarian. Till some
twenty years ago a region almost entirely primitive and
out of the world the summer hordes of Berliners, Ham-
burgers, and other denizens of the plain, who have since
been induced by railway facilities to invade its more
accessible districts, have not yet succeeded in changing
entirely its former character, though the simplicity of the
inhabitants and quaint picturesqueness of its towns will
probably soon be things of the past.
' Eisleben, of which the principal claims to distinction
are that it is the birthplace of Luther, and the seat of
administration of the Mansfeld'sche Kupferschieferbauende
Gewerkschaft, fairly illustrates the close juxtaposition of
things new and old, so apparent to a traveller in the byways
of Germany. In the architecture of the town, the Luther
period is the most prominent ; in its life, nineteenth-
century industrialism. The Mansfeld Copper Company,
which now carries on the mining and smelting of the
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TKAVEL TALK ' 81
copper schists, which were first attacked in Hesse in the
tenth century, and at Eisleben in the sixteenth century,
by the Counts of Mansfeld, is a consolidation of five
companies, united under one management some nve-and-
twenty years ago, which now, under the direction of
Bergrath Leuschner, has the reputation of being one
of the best managed, as it is one of the most prosperous,
industrial corporations in Germany. In 1876 the com-
pany managed to earn the very respectable sum of
126,0002., giving a dividend of 37s. on each of the 69,120
shares into which it is divided.
' Over a considerable area of Central Germany there is
found a fossiliferous and bituminous marl-slate, covered
by the Zechstein or magnesian limestone, and overlying
first the WeissliegendeSj a sandstone containing in places
small quantities of copper, and under this again the
Bothliegendes, a red sandstone mixed with conglomerate,
basalt, &c. These deposits lie in a great basin, and at
various points on the rim, where the marl-slate crops out,
attempts have been made to work it for the copper which
it contains, mainly as pyrites. It is only, however, in the
neighbourhood of Mansfeld and Eisleben, where an undu-
lation in the strata brings a large quantity of this slate
within a short distance of the surface, the dip being only
about 6, that it has proved permanently to pay for
extraction. Indeed, even here it is only by working on
the largest scale the Mansfeld Company raising last year
235,000 tons of cupriferous schist and sandstone by which
the standing charges are spread over an enormous output,
that remunerative results are obtained.
c The works and mines together give employment to
8,000 men. The system by which this army of employes
and their families is supplied with the necessaries of life
G
82 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. vn
by the company is well worthy of attention. Throughout
the Hartz district the mine-owner, who is for the most
part the Government itself, is looked to to supply the
necessaries of life, or at least the chief of them, to those
he employs. The reason of this custom, which has pre-
vailed for centuries, is to be found in the fact that the
forest-clad hills and bleak tablelands of the country are
scarcely capable of bearing corn enough to supply the
wants of the sparse population which cultivates them,
leaving no surplus for the mining population and its
tributary industrials. Thus, imports of grain on a large
scale have always been necessary. So we find the Mans-
feld Company distributing annually nearly 4,000 tons of
rye-meal to its workpeople, or at the rate of over a
hundredweight per man per month. Rye-meal at Mans-
feld costs nearly 91 a ton. It does not appear that this
peculiar modification of the " truck " system, by which the
employer undertakes the duty of feeding his men as well
as paying them wages, has been accompanied by any of
the abuses which seem inseparable from it in England.
1 A. benevolent, or friendly society, not less admirable in
its provisions than that which exists at Freiberg, is in active
operation here also. To its funds the company contributes
largely, no less a sum than 8,OOOL a year being at present
devoted to this purpose, besides a considerable sum spent
in special gratuities and allowances in cases outside the
regular operations of the society. The amount of the in-
vested funds of the society at the beginning of 1877 reached
the satisfactory sum of 27,000?., while the disbursements
during the year 1876, in pensions, sick-pay, medical relief,
&c., amounted to over 16,000?. Thrift is fostered by a
savings bank, in which the men are encouraged to deposit.
It appears, however, that only some 800 of the 8,000
employed are depositors, the average deposit being about 61.
CH. vir ' TECHNICAL TRAVEL TALK ' 83
( From whatsoever point of view it is regarded, the
Mansfeld Copper Company may fairly be considered one of
the most interesting of the great industrial establishments
of the Continent. Having successfully solved, thanks to
the persevering and unassisted investigations of its own
officers, some of the most difficult problems of metallurgy,
no one can deny that it deserves to enjoy the prosperity to
which it has attained, while its management continues to
be marked by the same technical skill and energy, and care
for the welfare of the employed, which now characterises
it.
' From Mansfeld it is a four hours' walk, through a not
very attractive region, to Harzgerode, where the beauties
of the Hartz really begin. In the vicinity are several
silver-lead mines, which changed hands at high prices
during the company mania which raged so fiercely after
the war, but have not proved much of an acquisition to
the Berliners into whtfse hands they finally passed. A
beautiful walk through a hilly and richly wooded country
brings one to the old established ironworks of Madesprung ;
and after traversing a long stretch of closely wooded hills,
we arrive at the flourishing little town of Thale. Thale
occupies a very advantageous position on the extreme
border of the great plain which stretches away to Berlin
and Hamburg, at the point where the river Bode emerges
from the wild and singularly picturesque gorge which it
has cut through the mountains, which at this point rise
almost perpendicularly from the plain. It is the terminus
of a railway which brings every summer a yearly increas-
ing crowd of visitors, attracted by the beauties of the
Rosstrappe and Bodenthal, and which by placing it in
direct communication with Hamburg, Magdeburg, Berlin,
and the Prussian coalfields, puts this little town in a
position to develop the industrial position to which it has
G 2
84 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vn
already begun to aspire. An abundance of water from
streams which by a slight diversion of their course might
be made to yield considerably more water-power than is at
present utilised ; enormous supplies of wood and charcoal
from the adjacent hills, which also contain large deposits
of iron ore ; these, with cheap labour and comparatively
cheap land, make Thale a place worthy the attention of
manufacturers.
6 Last summer the Thale ironworks, which are in the
hands of a company, were in brisk work, turning out bar
iron and rods, light rails and plates, and, I fancy, wire,
and a large variety of small forgings. A small establish-
ment adjacent to the ironworks, occupying itself apparently
chiefly with agricultural implements, and remarkably well
supplied for so small a place with machine tools, was also
well occupied, being engaged in turning out in large
numbers a very convenient kind of light iron wheelbarrow
of very convenient shape and easy to handle.
' A mile or two on the road to Blankenberg I found a
small brown coal pit being vigorously worked ; a powerful
portable engine was engaged in hauling the trucks of
coal up an incline and at the same time driving a centri-
fugal pump by which the pit, which was an open working,
was drained. Indications are not wanting of the presence
of a brown coal not many degrees removed from peat, in
many localities hereabouts, and if worked in the inexpensive
but effective fashion I saw in operation it must be a cheap
and useful source of fuel.
1 Blankenberg, a quaint old town with steep streets and
a picturesquely-dominating chateau, is another border-
town of the Hartz which is being rapidly invaded by the
new ideas that follow in the wake of railways. Some three
or four miles from the town, among the hills, are great beds
of ironstone, in a situation almost inaccessible from tha
CH. vii ' TECHNICAL TKAVEL TALK ' 85
steepness of the roads leading to them. By means, how-
ever, of a tramway carried through the hill by an expensive
tunnel, these have been reached, and two first-class blast-
furnaces erected on the edge of the plain to melt the ores
raised from them. Projected during the epoch of inflated
prices and feverish prosperity in the iron trade, it seems
that these furnaces have had a hard struggle to secure even
an entry into the arena of competition. Last summer
there was every indication of a shortness of funds having
been encountered even before their completion. As there
was, at the time of my visit, no one on the works in a
position to give any reliable information, I could only get
a general impression of the intended arrangement of the
furnaces. The furnaces appeared to be designed as cupolas
of good modern design, with four tuyeres, a slag-hearth
at the back, a water balance hoist, a central gas- tube, and
excellent blast-stoves. The blowing engines, of the hori-
zontal type so popular on the Continent, are particularly
fine ones, and there is abundance of room for dumping the
ore, which appears to be of excellent quality, storing coke,
and forming slag tips. A branch railway has been con-
structed to the furnaces, by which they will receive fuel
and send away their iron.
i Leaving behind this infant establishment, designed
on the most modern and approved principles, and
representing an enormous expenditure of money, but
having, it is probable, far from bright prospects of success,
it was curious to find in the midst of the hills, not many
miles away, another ironworks, ancient, primitive, with
no expensive plant or modern facilities for carriage,
and yet busily occupied and flourishing exceedingly.
The Riibeland Hiitte, in a beautiful situation in the
valley of the Bode, almost confines itself to the manufacture
of castings, for which it has a great reputation. The ore,
86 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vn
partly haematite and partly brown ore, containing from 30
to 40 per cent, of metal, is brought in carts from work-
ings in the vicinity, and smelted in low and old-fashioned
blast furnaces, of which one is now worked with coke, the
other with charcoal. The blast cylinder, a very ancient-
looking machine, is worked by a water-wheel, though this
sometimes fails in dry summers and severe winters. The
charcoal, of which large quantities are used, is made in
iron retorts, the tar and other products of distillation
being collected and sold. This mode of preparation is
found considerably more economical than the ordinary
system of burning the wood in heaps. I was informed
that an average yield of twenty to twenty-five per cent, of
charcoal is obtained in the retorts, against only fifteen or
sixteen per cent, in the meiler, but this latter yield seems
unusually low. The manager, a Freiberg graduate, stated
that it required something over twenty hundred-weight of
charcoal to produce a ton of pig-iron ; with good blast-
stoves and improved furnaces, probably a fourth of this
consumption might be saved.
c There is an enormous demand throughout Germany
for cast-iron stoves, and the Riibeland Foundry is largely
occupied in supplying these. The design of the ornamental
open-work castings of which the sides and fronts of these
stoves are constructed, offers a good opportunity for the
exhibition of taste and skill, and some of those I saw in
the storehouse were really fine specimens of art workman-
ship, and the perfection to which castings in iron (which
is, perhaps, of all metals the most suitable for taking
accurate reproductions of intricate patterns) may be
carried. The moulds are made in a material which seems
intermediate between our own loam and the celebrated
casting sand used in Berlin. Some of the castings are
made with the metal run direct from the blast-furnace,
CH. vii 'TECHNICAL TEAVEL TALK' 87
others after remelting in cupolas in the ordinary way. The
ores here contain a considerable amount of phosphorus,
which may probably contribute to render the iron suitable
for fine castings.
c Clausthal, now the most busy of the seven mining
towns of the Hartz, having in its recent technical activity
far outstripped the venerable imperial city of Goslar,
possesses no ordinary interest for the student of mining
science and advocate of organised technical education.
The Mining Academy, with its museum, the Aufbereitungs-
Werke, or dressing-floors, the mines and their drainage
adits, and finally, the smelting works, are each among the
most instructive of their kind. Of these various institu-
tions the Mining Academy is perhaps the most worthy
study, as offering an example of what such an establish-
ment should be, not less instructive than that of its more
celebrated rival at Freiberg.'
The articles close with an elaborate comparison between
German, Belgian, French, and English metallurgical
schools.
88 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH, vm
CHAPTER VIII
EXPEBIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND
UPON his return from Germany, Thomas again pressed
Mr. Gilchrist to undertake experiments. A little later in
the year he spent a few days of his remaining leave at
Bradford (in view of the autumnal meeting of the Iron
and Steel Institute in Leeds) ; there he met Mr. Gilchrist.
The projected experiments are spoken of in the following
letter.
Thames Police Court, 1876.
Dear Bess, Last week I had five days at Bradford,
which I found a pleasant break. The Iron and Steel
Institute were holding their meeting at Leeds, and I went
over every day nearly. One day a picnic at Kirkstall
Abbey, and so on, the ironmasters of the neighbourhood
coming out strong in hospitality. . . . Percy also at Brad-
ford for the meeting. ... I go down to him for a few
days if I can get away, to try some experiments which are
at present engrossing all my attention.
c I have just finished some rather elaborate technical
articles for " Iron," and am going to take a rest. . . .
Yours,
<S. G. T.'
During this autumn, Mr. Gilchrist left the Cwm Avon
Works and removed, still as analytical chemist, to the
Blaenavon Works, then under the management of Mr.
Edward Martin, who was afterwards to play a considerable
CH. vin EXPERIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 89
part in the development of the basic process. Curiously
enough, Thomas was a friendly competitor with his cousin
for the Blaenavon appointment. Mr. Martin selected Gil-
christ because he was a ' practical ' chemist, and Thomas
apparently was not. In the preceding July, Sidney had
failed to be elected a ' Fellow of the Chemical Society ' l
on a similar ground, because he declined to describe him-
self as a chemist, when he was a police-court clerk.
On December 20, 1876, Thomas writes to his Blaen-
avon cousin, making certain financial proposals and say-
ing '
c I have not been able to make any head with
private steel-making. I still cling to the idea that our
idea has something auriferous about it. . Whether we
shall either of us be able to devote the time to it it re-
quires (and I find the coin) is quite another matter. I
am always expecting some wretch to walk in and do the
thing.'
Mr. Gilchrist answered on the following day :
' My dear Sid, I think your proposal too advantageous
to me. I really hope in January to manage some experi-
ments with it. Yours,
< P. C. G.'
This Christmastide, Thomas writes to Wiesbaden in a
somewhat despondent tone, perhaps because so little progress
has been made during the year with the enterprise he had
so much at heart :
To Miss Burton
' 18 Sussex Place, December 1876.
'Dear Bess, All good wishes for '77, and all thanks
for your good wishes for me. I can't say I have any very
1 He was duly elected in June of the following year (1877).
90 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. vin
brilliant anticipations for my own, short of the achievements
of the year, which I regard mainly as a bore succeeding to
another bore. It is pleasant, however, for once to know of
your so enjoying yourself at the festive season. We have
had it rain continuously here for the past month, a state
of things which, though gloriously grumbled at, doesn't
seem to me undesirable.
' Went yesterday to inspect a real ice rink, established
in a floating structure on the Thames. Had a copious
interview with the inventor, who seduced me into an ex-
perimental tour on skates. The place thronged (only
holds thirty or forty) four times daily for two- days a week
at five shillings per two hours. The apparatus by which
it is arranged, very interesting. ... I have just finished
" Our Mutual Friend," which I have protracted over a
period of three weeks as a prandial bonne bouche with
immense enjoyment. I meant to send you the annual by
Farjeon, who is a colonist from New Zealand who aspires
to be another Dickens. These tales, however, made such
a hit, that every copy was sold before I could secure
one. I have a short note on Freiberg this week, which I
will send you. Lie we has now published a pamphlet, a
very good one, which I as critic duly u noticed." Such is
life. Yours,
' S. G. T.'
The new year of 1877 crept on with little done for
dephosphorisation ; but in the early summer of that year,
Mr. Gilchrist began experiments in good earnest, Thomas
constantly (as his letters show) criticising results from
London, and suggesting further trials.
The following epistles to Wiesbaden belong to the
earlier part of 1877 :
CH. viii EXPERIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 91
To Miss Burton
'Dear Bess, Lil was immensely pleased with your
music. ... I should like to hear you again. I heard
scarcely anything from your gorgeous ebony instrument.
We shall be flitting certainly in June ; so, unless you are
speedy, you will never see us in our West End mansion,
but rather in some tiny domicile in the most unfashion-
able of quarters. . . .
' Have been reading Browning, so feel more than usual
difficulty in writing anything intelligible. Met several
Australians at G s the other night. They are fervent
in praise of the antipodes, so we got on well. . . . Yours,
' S. G. T.'
18 Sussex Place, Onslow Square, London, S.W. 1877.
1 Dear Bess, We have grown bad correspondents ;
you, I am inclined to think, being considerably the worst,
though you have fresh excuses to tell of and I only old
ones. So you won't pay us a visit this summer? Oh
that furniture mania which obstructs so much that is
desirable! When I establish a house of my own (in the Far
West, Australia, or Africa) my chattels will certainly be
confined to a fold-up campstool and possibly a portable
table and a tin can. I loathe town more year by year.
My colleague proposes to settle some twenty-five miles
down in Kent. A letter this morning from my ex-professor
in America, now " Metallurgical Manager " in Colorado,
urging me as usual to go out and make my fortune. . . .
'The lady medical students in London have gained
their long desired objects a hospital to study at and a
right to enter for the two degrees, the London Univer-
sity M.D., and the Dublin Medical degree. I have just
finished Bulwer's " Parisians," which I am inclined to
92 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. vm
believe is his best novel though his political sentiments
are very far from being mine.
1 1 am not very brilliant in a sanitary point of view ;
talk of running down to Wales for a week, if I can get
away in May or the end of this month.
* I have been doing little in the scribbling business
but pure and bristling technicality, and of that I am
pretty tired. Miss Martineau's life is chiefly autobio-
graphic ; it has caused some excitement. Her criticisms
are anything but flattering on her distinguished acquain-
tance ; bishops, lords, lawyers, and authors are impartially
dissected. I have been reading also a curious book on
Spain, which makes one think Spain a country worth ex-
ploring. Lily is making me groan under the burden of
social duties ; has absolutely led me into two dinner parties
lately. I hear A. H. thinks Wiesbaden Elysian. Yours
ever,
< S. G. T.'
18 Sussex Place, May 25, 1877.
4 Dear Bess, I have been househunting ad nauseam,
productive of nothing but weariness and disgust. I have
found several which would suit according to my modest
views ; but the M. and Lil are not so easily satisfied.
' Lil went to the Hospital Ball last night. . . . The
G s chaperoned her. I cried off, the effort being too
much for my endurance to be bored for six consecutive
hours. . . . Calling on a man last night, I was dragged
off to a Bradlaugh meeting, that very vigorous contro-
versialist having been persecuted for the publication of a
rather incisive and vigorous pamphlet on an important
socio-physiological topic. I anticipated being bored, but
found it great fun. Bradlaugh an orator, I find, of
singular readiness and force. Several ladies who have
CH. vni EXPEEIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 93
espoused his cause spoke admirably, and the proceedings
were enlivened by some students medical making a
disturbance resulting in a fight and general melee.
( Other news comes but slowly, and events seem to drag.
MacMahon in France has blundered to an extent which
must be satisfactory to your German friends, and will
probably on the whole duly serve to consolidate the Re-
public and the anti-clerical party.
' I am going down to Sevenoaks on Sunday to see a place
my colleague has taken there, and which he vaunts as a
very paradise.
' Wiesbaden will be looking just charming now before
the baking season has set in; not so London.
' I am not defined on my holiday plans shall probably
go to France or stop in England. Have had no time to
touch German since last summer, and have forgotten the
modicum which then served me. Have been very seedy
indeed for some months ; had to vegetate under medical
threats of dire pains and penalties. Yours,
< SIDNEY G. THOMAS/
Here again we have the warning note presaging the
ultimate breakdown in health.
In June 1877 Thomas, as already noted, was elected a
Fellow of the Chemical Society. In this month, too, the
household removed from Sussex Place to Queen's Road,
Battersea, where was the family dwelling-place for some
two or three years to come. Shortly after this removal
Thomas went abroad for his summer holiday, to be spent
this time among the Belgian ironworks, with the late
Mr. Edward Grosvenor as a companion Sidney being
armed by Mr. Chaloner with a letter of introduction accre-
diting him as the authorised correspondent of ' Iron/ He
was unable, however, to resist the temptation of a preliminary
94 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS en. vin
dash into Switzerland on his own account, and the following
spirited letters therefrom may come pleasantly to some
readers.
To his Mother 2
' Meiningen, 1877.
' Dearest M., You see the mountains prevailed, and
here am I, finding Schweitz even more unique and lovely
than I had imagined far before the Tyrol. I have been say-
ing all day what a shame I should be here and the M. and
L. at Battersea. Left Wiesbaden on Sunday at noon, sur-
feited with hospitality almost. Had a heart-rending eight
hours' ride to Strasbourg. Walked about the town &c.
till 2 A.M., then to Basle ; on again to Lucerne, which
looked just charming, like the drop-scene in the opera
(music and all). Then a delicious sail up the lake : each
turn fresh sets of beauties. Landed at Alpacht. By
coach to Lungern (this coach a concession to you, of which
I was thoroughly ashamed). A ruinous and gorgeous
dinner (4s.) and then walked here, picking up a Scot on my
way then a Swiss, with whom I am now on intimate
terms, if I understand him rightly, sharing his room &c.
Our window looks on superb waterfalls and the snow-clad
Wetterhorn. Write to Chamounix.'
To his Mother 2
'Niederwald, 1877.
c Dearest M., I fear you will have grumbled at pencil
scrawl, but ink was at the moment unprocurable. From
Meiningen (my last night's quarters), I started at 3 A.M.
with my Swiss, soon picking up a Fahrer as a companion
(not as a guide). When my Swiss spoke before it made
my hair rise to understand half his speeches ; but when he
got talking to the Fahrer, he became a linguistic sphynx,
Written on a post-card.
CH. vni EXPERIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 95
With rests and coffee on the road we passed over the Grimsel
(near 7,000 feet high) and had investigated the great snow
glacier by 1.30 P.M. It was a respectable walk and climb,
two hours being in the 'tarnal' snow, which nearly
blinded rne with its glare. The scenery a succession of mag-
nificent pictures, glaciers, wild rocks, torrents, waterfalls
(of a size and beauty to make the fortune of an English
county). The hospice not far from the top, with 4-feet
walls, where two nuns exist all winter through as receivers
of the lost, dogs, &c., in orthodox style, we using it for
coffee supplies only. At Ehone glacier I adieu'd my Swiss,
as the Fahrer was becoming a bore, and took a long piece
summd diligentid, which is an excellent way of seeing the
country, though extravagant. I turned in here to
country inn (not hotel), and have just discussed four eggs,
salad, wine, cheese, &c. The room, with walls and ceilings
of painted wood, has long windows from which I see first
a great stretch of green slopes (the infant Rhone inter-
vening with turbulent roar), the pastures dotted with
chalets, magnified copies of those you have : then, higher,
a fir-wood : higher still, rocks and great patches of snow,
a few waterfalls thrown in. Roses outside the window
and in the room. Would you not enjoy it, and Lil, and
A.?
To his Mother 3
' Martigny, 1877.
c To resume. At 5 A.M. started for Viesch, from whence
a long pull up to a hotel, some 6,000 feet. Three young
Englishmen outside, more inside: in fact all English.
Then to a glacier, when a climb ! On way, met a girl and
her father, who thus from a distance : " I suppose you
speak English : if so, don't go that way." However, I did,
and got rather in a fix, but extracted myself, and getting
3 On a post-card.
96 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. vm
to top, had a glorious view over the greatest glacier in
Europe, a lake of ice, and some score of snow peaks.
Then down. Of course I would not stop at the hotel with
English mob ; so, after copious milk at cowherd's chalet,
I adjourned for the night to a hay-chalet, where I saw the
sunset to perfection, and rose from my hay to see it rise.
My first camp-in (or out) a great success. This morning,
down to Viesch, and Fruhstuck at a pleasant new hotel,
where alas, a maiden who to a rather nice face added per-
fect English (gained as nursery governess in Lancaster).
With whom a long chat, followed by a heavy disbursement
(comparatively). Tearing myself away, by the Rhone
back to Morel. The Rhone rapid and turbulent, be-
tween rocky banks, and the high valley sides forest-clad on
each side. Most interesting ; though I confess to being
haunted by the Yankee idea of utilising its fierce cu-rrents.
Horse's and man's muscles should alike be spared here.
Here, near the entrance of the Simplon, German, French,
and Italian meet. The climate Italian. Grapes and
chestnuts &c. make the valley greenest after a five-course
dinner and a pint of wine. I wonder what the rechnung
will be ? Have j ust been out chatting to the passengers
of the passing diligence. All English. Would you could be
here. Have been discussing with Italian metallurgists
Italian metallurgy. Our views differ.
To his Mother
' An Touriste, Les Figues : Saturday.
4 Dearest, At an open window, looking over a small
wood direct on to the Mer de Glace, which is backed up
by the Hignelle, sharp pointed rock, 10 and 13,000 feet
high ; the side window, also my bedroom window vis a vois
de Mont Blanc (as my landlady says). Once more, here
is a place where you ought to be. To resume my postcard
CH. viii EXPEKIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 97
diary. Just as I finished my card to you on Thursday,
two young Scotchmen in regular tourist style came into
the 40 ' salle a manger,' of which I had before been sole
possessor. We struck up an acquaintance at once
gentlemanly fellows from Edinboro', law-students I fancy.
Had a lot of tourist talk and great fun over ordering their
supper and a bath for next morning. I found they only
mustered about thirty words of bad German between
them ; so I, with my sixty, came in as a swell linguist and
deliverer. The bath floored us all. However, the girl
knew a bath, such as they have establishments of, and she
knew the slop-basin, which is the regular substitute for a
basin. I explained (or thought I did) a wash-tub would
do ; she then would have it we wanted a saucepan, and so
on, till I laughed my viscera into jelly. Next morning up
at 4.30, couldn't get breakfast till 5.30, so felt awfully
late ; hadn't gone to bed till 9.15, which also made me
feel dissipated. I and my Scotchmen parted, they to do the
Eggischhorn ; they had been out three weeks, had three
weeks more. I told you about my charming waitress and
ex-governess. I implored the Athenians to call on her
and part freely with their bawbees for the good of the
house ! After a smart run of five miles caught the dili-
gence as it was leaving Brigue, and found myself suddenly
among French-speaking folk, or at least folk who speak
French first, and German and Italian with equal ease. I
found I could not muster ten words of French kept re-
lapsing into German, and then making a hash of both till
I bewildered the conductor to perfection. A long drive
along the Rhone valley; here flat and marshy, though
with big hills on each side, little clusters of chalets
perched up in places where you would think everyone
must be always giddy and hold on by the grass. Fearfully
hot ; turned out at a new railway-station, and on by rail
H
98 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. vm
through more steaming valley, with ruins now and again
along the hillside, till we got to Saxon, where I turned out
and wandered in full marching costume into the Casino,
where some two hundred well-dressed people, mostly
.middle-aged and oldish men, and some twenty middle-aged
and young women, with diamonds &c., were hard and deep
at Rmge et Noir and Trente et Quarante, earnest and intent,
and calculating as if their lives depended on it, the women
only going through the routine of smiling when they lost.
It was a sight not to be missed. The croupiers excited my
admiration for their quick eyes and calculating powers.
After an hour thus spent (and without staking the regular
five francs) I moved on, my movements (a sort of Robinson
Crusoe in a ball-room) being quite attentively watched
and commented on. A hot five miles to Martigny, where
(at entrance to St. Bernard Pass and that to Chamounix)
I moved on some 3,000 feet up to a tiny restaurant
where I found two French families (eleven persons)
en pension, and yet a diminutive room for me. The
French families very polite, painfully so, inasmuch as I
found I could not put two words together without German
interpolations ; the terms four francs a day. They seemed
wonderfully happy, Papa telling me that with a glacier,
les lois, les montagnes, et les voyageurs passants, les vaches
et les chevaux, what could children want more ? To which
I replied, Pas de tout. I, however, got charged six francs,
and didn't get a dinner. (N.B. I had had a big dinner
at the station. N.B. N.B. I am feeding prodigiously;
if I did not walk it off I should speedily emulate Daniel
Lambert.)
1 This morning soon after five of the eleven had tortured
me with Bon jour, monsieur, fespere que vous avez lien
dormi, I bolted from the salutations of the other six, and
trotted down into a valley, and then up another 7,000 feet
CH. vni EXPERIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 99
high pass, the Col de Balme, where I invaded a dirty
hovel in which butter and cheese were in process of manu-
facture, and consumed about two quarts of milk, to the
astonishment of the very grimy proprietor. Then down
the other side and investigated a glacier which possessed
a good big waterfall and a moraine (vide Arthur) which
evolved, when I determined on examining it, about ten
feet in height and fifty long ; but I found it took me
half an hour to climb to the top. Then on down the
Chamounix valley to this place, a roadside inn, which I at
once perceived would suit my purse and tastes better than
Chamounix. Old-fashioned people and place. Have just
had a monstrous cafe complet (i.e. about a pint of milk
and coffee, bread, butter, and honey), to which I added
five eggs ! Call no man happy till he dies or I should say
I'd made a discovery. Switzerland (by the way this is
France) might be called Cow Land, cows and travellers
being the staple industries. The cow-bell is everywhere,
at the top of the hills and the bottom of the vales, ever
tinkling, not unmelodiously. On the hills a man or boy
has charge of some twenty cows, by the roadside a boy or
girl has one or two. The cow-girls knit by the way
generally, and have an eye to passing business. Thus to
me, one : " Son jour, monsieur ; monsieur est fatigue, n'est-
ce-pas ? " I : " JV<m, merci,pas de tout" (N.B. That was a lie).
" Ah, non ? J'en suis heureux (there's sympathy for you) car
meditatively si monsieur veut prendre quelque chose
comme (piano) un (diminuendo) petit verre, mais bon . . .
Monsieur sait qu'il y a une auberge avec de bons lits pres
did" . . . I involuntarily exclaim, " Ah !" "Etjevaisy
conduire monsieur" which she (and the cow) proceeded to
do. Five young women have just passed, separately,
taking four individual cows to their slumbers ; one cow
had two guides, one holding her tail (the cow's) and
H 2
100 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. vm
knitting, and one holding her horn and ditto. The Her
de Glace has been going off, and cracking considerably.
It is a curious noise, like musketry fire. By the way,
mindful of my promise, I am doing no hills, or anything
else with a tenth per cent, of a spice of danger, which is
painful but meritorious. Poste Kestante, Liege, Belgium,
my next address. I hope to get at least one letter from
you to-morrow, and to hear you are blooming. Your
letter of Saturday I've just had. I am miserable ; it is
eleven ; I've been up since five, and it has been pouring
all the time. I shall have to go to church shortly ! It
is dreadful ! The place steams ! Yours.'
To his Mother*
' Chamounix, Sunday, 5 P.M.
'Desolation! Misery! Toujours la pluie. I went to
church : first looked in at Catholic, but found them steam-
ing full ; then at English, a rather pretty building where
I found some 120 of my compatriots, dressed a outrance
and going right through the whole service as though they
had been in a Queen's Gate Tabernacle ; two clergy, con-
ventional sermon, piety rampant, For myself my leggings,
alpenstock, waterproof and pockets stuffed with books and
papers, constituted an individuality. Got this afternoon
your card as well as letter. So pleased all is going well.
I have told them to send on any other letters. Just had
an excruciating conversation with hostess. I am rapidly
aging under these efforts. I confirm her idea that we do
not see the sun for nine months, chiefly because it is
easier to say ouil She informs me meat is dreadfully
dear 9c?. a pound. Oh, the misery you caused by ab-
stracting my old leggings ; there is a void of three inches
4 On a post-card.
CH. viii EXPERIMENTS A DASH INTO SWITZERLAND 101
which makes me vulnerable, which they were destined to
cover. Let it be a warning !
* The Her de Glace looks as if the rain did not agree
with it any more than with me. Shall be at Liege on
20th and 21st. I am thinking how I could run a railway
up Mont Blanc, and work it by the stream at the foot.
The superfluous water power here torments me.
' Tuesday. Did Her de Glace on Sunday after all.'
The visit to Belgium was as pleasant to Thomas
(although in different fashion) as that to Switzerland.
Mr. Grosvenor speaks of the delightful enthusiasm with
which Sidney explained to him the working of the
Cockerill manufactory at Seraing, where the travellers
were thanks to Mr. Chaloner's letters of recommenda-
tion received by M. Greiner with great hospitality.
102 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS
CHAPTER IX
THE BASIC PROCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED
ON our inventor's return to London, we find him again in
constant communication with Mr. Gilchrist. On Septem-
ber 11, 1877, he writes :
c Have some idea of going to Newcastle, just for a
change. Have been uncommon seedy for past fortnight ;
have just struggled through work at Court, that's all.
Sore throats and so on are making life a misery. " P " is a
great and promising subject/
On October 2 he writes again :
4 1 fear question of blast will be troublesome. I made
a lot [of] inquiries about blowers. How would the steam
engine answer by reversing its action ? Don't laugh.
Instead of the steam driving the piston, would not the
blast be turned on instead of steam ? '
Thomas did escape to Newcastle, to the autumnal
meeting there of the Iron and Steel Institute, as here pro-
jected. Mr. Chaloner was with him upon this occasion.
He well remembers Sidney's going, during this expedition,
to the theatre at Middlesbrough, and being much affected
by Miss Jennie Lee's wonderful impersonation of ' Jo '
an impersonation which has moved many men to tears
CH. ix THE BASIC PEOCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 103
which were no shame to their manhood. The following
letter refers to this visit.
To Miss Burton
' 3 Queen's Koad Villas, Queen's Road, Battersea,
London, Sunday, October 5, 1877.
c Dear Bess, I guess I am a considerable delinquent in
the matter of correspondence, but I have many excuses,
which I trust you will accept on credit. I have had very
little spare time since I have been back, work at Thames
being heavy, and the getting out to Battersea long and
tedious matter, consuming nearly three hours a day. I
had six days in the north, while the Iron and Steel
Institute had meeting at Newcastle. We went all over
the place with special trains, and saw the Works of the
place to our hearts' content, and wound up by a walk from
Middlesbrough to Whitby. I have been reading Mac-
aulay's Life quite charming, but one doesn't know which
most to admire ; his stupendous menfcal capacity, including
the vastest memory mortal ever possessed, or his character
as a man. I have embodied your finance into a condensed
addendum. I wish you would check everything directly
you get it, as I keep no memorandum of your transactions
beyond what I send you. Yours,
'SIDNEY G. THOMAS.'
Meanwhile Gilchrist was now fairly infected with belief
in his cousin's theory, and was working away with a will.
In the rough shed on the Welsh hillside many scores of
' blows ' were made with the greatest energy and enthusi-
asm ' blows ' chiefly conducted in the late evening or
night, for the Blaenavon analytical chemist had naturally
to work in secrecy in his leisure hours. On October 19,
1877, Gilchrist writes to Thomas :
104 SIDNEY G1LCHRTST THOMAS CH. ix
' I want you to come down that we may get some ex-
periments made. I can manage the analyses all right ;
but I should like your assistance in the experiments so
say you will come.'
About this time, as letters of this sort arrived, and
good news of successful results, there began for Sidney a
new phase of anxious and feverish activity. He found it
indispensable to be on the spot at Blaenavon, and this was
only possible by means of hurried trips to South Wales in
days snatched from his regular avocations at the Thames
Police Court days which had to be reimbursed, so to
speak, by extra toil at other times. He would often go
down by midnight train on a Thursday night, and return
only just in time for court on the following Monday
morning. He had always, as his cousin has told us when
speaking of the French tour in 1869, been habitually
careless of needful nutrition and rest, and in these months
he became more careless than ever. The constant letters
to Mr. Gilchrist, some of which we have quoted, were
generally written from Arbour Square during the midday
adjournment which should have been devoted to a meal ;
but Thomas still, despite remonstrance, cherished his view
that lunch was a superfluity. The strain of anxiety and
labour, the midnight journeys and the life at high pressure
called urgently for double fuel to be supplied to the
machine ; but the demand was too frequently disregarded.
There is no doubt, unhappily, that at this time, when a
great triumph of vast importance to the whole world was
in preparation, there were developing also the seeds of the
malady which was to cut short in but a few years more a
bright and really glorious career. Grave mischief was
especially wrought by a long run along a railway line to
catch the train back to London. The strain on the lungs
CH. ix THE BASIC PROCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 105
was too much for the over-worked and under-nourished
frame, and manifested itself by a sudden fainting-fit and
fall. To this strain on the lungs may perhaps be ascribed
the ' emphysema ' which was eventually set up, and which
little more than seven years afterwards resulted in a death
premature indeed.
The contributions to ' Iron ' were, meanwhile, still
going on, no complication of work seeming too much for
Sidney's eager and indefatigable spirit. On November 3,
1877, he writes to Mr. Gilchrist :
c I went to Chemical [Society] the other night. Awfully
slow. To my intense surprise, Yallentine came up to me
and paid me an elaborate compliment on my ferric essays.'
An additional field of work, which absorbed an im-
mensity of time, was contemporaneously opening out
Patent Law, both British and Foreign, had to be studied,
and where Thomas was the student, study meant exhaus-
tive study. British Patent Law is by no means simple,
and in 1877 was probably less simple than now ; but
Foreign Patent Law is frequently troublesome indeed to
an Englishman. Sidney mastered the whole subject in
all its branches, his legal training, although in so different
a field, being doubtless of advantage to him. The gentle-
man who afterwards became his patent agent and a
valued personal friend as well, testifies that he has learnt
much Patent Law from him.
Beyond investigating the law on the subject, the
records of the Patent Office had naturally to be searched,
that full knowledge might be gained of what had already
been done in the direction of dephosphorisation.
Towards the end of November Thomas writes to Wies-
baden :
106 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. ix
To Miss Burton
'November 22, 1877.
1 Dear Bess, All best wishes for so long a succession
of 24th's as you may wish to enjoy, some, I hope, with us ;
but, if not, wherever you may be, may you be happy. I
had the idea of writing you a long letter for the 24th ; but
a week ago some experiments in iron metallurgy in which
I had been long occupied came, under Percy's care, to a
sufficiently successful issue to have kept me ever since
at the Patent Office for every spare moment. I am afraid
it won't bring any fruit but anxiety ; but the result is
satisfactory, nevertheless, as confirming theoretical deduc-
tions I had arrived at by much toil.
c I am due now and overdue, so, with all best greetings,
' Yours ever,
' SIDNEY G. T.
c You will accept my intentions as equivalent to the
longest and pleasantest letter I have the [power] to scribble.'
On November 23, 1877, Thomas writes to Gilchrist :
'Your letters are the events of the day. Though I
have less to record, I have not been quite idle. I have
hunted up every specification that abominable indexes for
past ten years give any clue to.'
Later in the month he writes :
* I have been asked to go down to Cwm Avon as
Commissioner for dissatisfied shareholders, to investigate
sale. I don't think I shall. As you are known so well
there, it might be unpleasant to you.'
This last note illustrates both his careful consideration
for others' feelings and the confidence that was already
placed in this still unknown young man of twenty-seven
CH. ix THE BASIC PEOCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 107
by those who had come in contact with him. In this
month of November, a busy month indeed, Thomas
actually did take out his first patent, although the com-
plete specification was not filed until the following May. 1
On December 3, 1877, he writes to Mr. Gilchrist :
' I have told Chaloner not to expect anything from me
but one article I had promised, and which will bring in a
little coin, of which I am anxious to secure and save all I
can for " the cause." I have therefore nothing but trans-
lations and revisions, which don't take long, to divert me.
Unfortunately Thames is progressing very fast in severity
of work. We get now nearly a thousand convictions
a month, besides a multitude of cases which, though
investigated at length, result in acquittal or dismissal.
' If additional coin will hurry up construction of blast
engine do not scruple to use it. You must have worked
tremendously to get such a magnificent crop of results.
Take care of yourself. Have had two and a half hours'
interview with Patent Agents.'
Thomas, however, amid all these occupations found
time to send Christmas greetings to his cousin in Ger-
many :
To Miss Burton
1 Dear Bess, All good wishes for the 25th and still
more for the first and all other days of 78. I am I fear
a hopelessly bad correspondent just now. The epidemic of
invention has found me an easy victim and possessed me
body and soul, though not to the eternal exclusion of all
1 Events, however, moved so somewhat out of date,' and, in
quickly that in July of next year point of fact, patent succeeded
(1878), and long before his disco- patent down to the day of his
very was generally known, Thomas untimely death,
says 'I regard this patent as
108 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. ix
thoughts of the absent. I have now nearly finished
reading the 500 and odd specifications of my predecessors
in the field, " all of whom have failed," and I have made
suitable arrangements to add my bones to theirs, though
I am just now tied up for want of immediately available
funds. My first trial comes off in January down in Wales,
some experiments on a small scale having given results
remarkable in a scientific point of view. The problem is
the separation of phosphorus in the manufacture of
Bessemer and Martin steel. Yours,
c S. G. T.'
However, the specifications of former adventurers in
the same field were gone carefully through a second time ;
for on January 29, 1878, he writes :
' I have gone through the last twenty-two years'
specifications again with Lily's help.'
At the end of 1877 and the beginning of 1878 the
results of the experiments which had been continued for
now something like nine months with constant energy and
zeal had proved thoroughly satisfactory. After trials in
crucibles, a miniature converter had been obtained, which,
although it only held eight pounds, instead of eight tons,
sufficed for experimental purposes. Soon after Sidney's
return from abroad, Northampton pig-iron had been
partially dephosphorised by lining the converter with
bricks of limestone and with silicate of soda. For some
time, however, from some defect in the apparatus, the
experimentalists were not able to get a cast fluid, so as to
finish the operation. Later in the year complete success
was achieved, still of course upon the miniature scale ; and
they obtained a number of casts of eight pounds each,
which upon analysis were found to be excellent steel. 2
2 Creators of the Age of steel, by W. T. Jeans, London, 1884, p. 305.
CH. ix THE BASIC PROCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 109
The old difficulty of inventors was, however, rising as
an obstacle in Thomas's path, the difficulty of finance. In
his case, although the difficulty existed, it was minimised,
partly by his own wonderful frugality and forethought,
partly because he was fortunate enough to meet, not with
the typical capitalist, but with just and straightforward
men. Thomas had contrived during his ten years' servi-
tude at the Police Court to save out of his not too
abundant salary 3 no less than 800Z., which was to be
devoted to f the cause.' It was a large sum for him at
that time ; but expenses were heavy and he was becoming
anxious as to what would happen when it should be
exhausted. He was determined not to accept the offers of
further supplies which were made to him by his mother
and by one or two family friends who knew he had a big
scheme on hand.
For this reason, therefore, if for no other, an event
which happened in the earliest days of 1878 came in good
time.
The manager of Blaenavon Works, Mr. Edward Martin,
said to Mr. Gilchrist, ' I know you young men have some
secret work on hand. I think it would be well if you put
confidence in me.' Confidence was put in him and Mr.
Gilchrist 's analyses were submitted to him. Mr. Martin
was so much struck with the basic theory and the proofs
afforded of its truth that he at once afforded facilities for
further experiments at Blaenavon on a larger scale and
obtained for the ' young men ' promises of similar facilities
at the Dowlais Works, of course upon terms favourable to
the two companies should the process continue to succeed.
He also undertook personally to purchase a share in the
patent.
Thus the financial difficulty was removed. Moreover,
3 See ante, p. 12.
110 SIDNEY GKLLCHRIST THOMAS CH. ix
the adhesion of a clever, practical, business man to the
process was in itself an immense moral support.
From that time forth Thomas had to the last day of
his life Mr. Martin's loyal co-operation, the loyal co-
operation of a whole-hearted friend and ally whose word
was his bond. Such help could not fail to be in itself a
great pleasure to him who was aided by it. Mr. Martin,
having committed himself to the enterprise, threw himself
into it with characteristic energy, and his suggestions
and experience were found to be invaluable.
The adhesion of Mr. Martin gave an immediate impetus
to the investigation, and the promised experiments were
at once carried out both at Dowlais and Blaenavon. At
Dowlais the trials were not entirely successful for reasons
which will appear presently ; at Blaenavon they were con-
tinued with satisfactory results throughout the spring and
summer. Thomas shall describe them presently in his
own words.
Shortly before the Dowlais trial, Thomas writes to
Wiesbaden :
To Miss Burton
< 3 Queen's Road Villas, February 20, 1878.
' Dear Cousin, Your letter was a very pleasant one to
me. I should have written you some weeks since had I
not been pressed on all sides for time. Last week was
down at Blaenavon for three days to coach my pet through
some infantile disorders. We are a long way yet from a
commercial success, though the indications are very favour-
able. I arranged while in Wales for the Dowlais Works, the
largest in the world after Krupp's, to give me a big trial in
a month. After that I shall be more clear as to my chances.
Percy has been working hard as to details and analysis.
1 1 am thinking of plunging into foreign patents to the
CH. rx THE BASIC PEOCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 111
amount of 100Z. or so next. Money is a commodity which
goes but a small way in these matters.
{ I too have been eager in politics of late. I should
be exasperated if we blundered into a senseless war. The
danger is now much more remote than it was last week, when
we hourly expected a collision. Going down to Wales I
travelled with an intelligent man who had been much in
India, Bosnia, and the Danubian Principalities. We had
much talk, from which I gained more information than
from a legion of articles. He by the way writes for the
" Nineteenth Century," which, with the "Contemporary"
and " Fortnightly," represent the cream of modern thought.
Tve had a note from Percy this morning of more
difficulties encountered ; I shall have to go down to see
them, I expect. My light reading now is Patent Law, most
contradictory of studies.'
In March, however, the first public announcement of
the new process was made, although the announcement
attracted no particular attention.
At the spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute,
Mr. I. Lowthian Bell read a paper on the separation of
phosphorus from pig-iron in a furnace lined with oxide of
iron. The whole question of dephosphorisation was dis-
cussed by several speakers, amongst others by Mr. Snelus.
At the end of the discussion Thomas, who was present as
a visitor and who was probably the youngest man in the
room who certainly with his clean-shaven face looked
the youngest managed to get an opportunity of utterance.
His words have been preserved and show a characteristic
quietude of phrase. He said :
c lt may be of interest to members to know that I
have been enabled, by the assistance of Mr. Martin at
Blaenavon, to remove phosphorus entirely by the Bessemer
112 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. ix
converter. Of course this statement will be met with a
smile of incredulity, and gentlemen will scarcely believe
it ; but I have the results in my pocket of some hundred
and odd analyses by Mr. Gilchrist, who has had almost the
entire conduct of the experiments, varying from the very
small quantity of 6 Ibs. up to 10 cwt., and the results all
carry out the theory with which I originally started and
show that in the worst cases 20 per cent, of phosphorus
was removed, and in the best I must say that 99*9 was
removed ; and we hope that we have overcome the practical
difficulties that have hitherto stood in the way. 5
Mr. Chaloner, who was at the meeting, described long
afterwards in ' Iron ' (February 6, 1885) the reception given
to this declaration. ' We well remember the sneer as well
as " smile of incredulity," which spread over that meeting,
and can testify to the scarcely veiled antagonism exhibited
to the unknown youth who had presumed to proclaim the
solution to a problem which the leaders of metallurgy had
pronounced well nigh insoluble.' No observation of any
kind was made by anyone.
We need not be angry with the assembled experts.
Their attitude is probably very fairly described and explained
by Mr. Jeans. i The meeting did not laugh at the youthful
Eureka, nor did it congratulate the young man on his
achievement, much less did it inquire about his method of
elimination. It simply took no notice of his undemonstra-
tive announcement.' 4
Thomas went on quietly working with the aid of Mr.
Martin and his cousin at his experiments. He was, as
appears by the following letter to Miss Burton, by no
means displeased at provisional absence of interest by
scientists in general. This letter, too, brings out strongly
4 Creators of the Age of Steel, p. 303.
CH. ix THE BASIC PEOCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 113
the estimation in which Thomas was held at the Thames
Police Court by the magistrates under whom he served.
No external occupations, however engrossing, ever inter-
fered, we cannot too often repeat, with his zealons and
whole-hearted discharge of his official duties :
' Thames Police Court : April 8, 1878.
' My dear Bess, I have had to send your Italians to
Florence for fresh coupon sheets, as old ones exhausted.
. . . My experiments are rather at a standstill. Some
great Works promised me a trial two months ago ; but
have not made the necessary preparations yet.
' However, nearly 300L has been spent in patents, in
anticipation of things turning out well.
1 1 said a few words on the discussion on Bell's paper ;
but we wish to keep quiet at present. I forget whether I
told you of the sudden death of my colleague as he was
returning to the office after a short holiday . . . His suc-
cessor has only just come, sol have been over full of work.
The Magistrates went down to the Home Office on their
own account, to try and get the rule of seniority set aside
in my favour, which was rather gratifying. Of course they
were unsuccessful. . . .
' Here the east wind is on the rampage, and has knocked
up most people.
1 1 utterly abjure all breath of war and slaughter, and
am utterly ashamed of the miserable position we have
blundered into. The Russian may be as black as he is
painted, but neither he nor we will be improved by
slaughter. Yours always,
' S. G. THOMAS.'
The next two letters to Germany give further glimpses
of the many cares pressing on the restless and indefatigable
mind of the writer.
114 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. ix
To Miss Burton
f May 19, 1878.
* Dear Bess, A friend of Lil's, whom I think you
know, wants to get languages with a view of getting a
better engagement.
' They are three orphans, and coinless nearly. She has
been over here to-day, proposing to go to Paris on Miss
H.'s recommendation. I suggested she would do better in
Germany, to which she assents. Now could the B.'s take her ?
It seems she would about fill the vacancy for which your
advertisement was. She is I am told about twenty-two,
has been three or four years teaching, and would be
willing to pay something. If the vacancy is filled up, as
from your last you seem to think probable, what would
you advise ? Do you know of anything else ? She knows
no German, can teach English well, can't pay more than
25J. per annum. The mother is very anxious to do some-
thing for her. I should think lots of German families
would like to get an Englishwoman to teach for nothing.
I am up to my ears still in patents. I shall have a hard
fight, but even if beaten, fighting does one good. I have
not heard yet if they have granted my German patent.
They refuse a great number. I go down to Wales again
in a week, and hope to do something on the big scale.
Have had to go to the Opera twice lately ; Euy Bias last
night, TannMuser a fortnight ago. I was dreadfully bored
by both. I have an impression that I used to enjoy the
two or three times I went with you. We have been read-
ing Heine's life, very interesting, discursive on German
and European literature and politics. Have now the third
volume of "Prince Consort's Life," which of course has
especial bearing on the policy of the day. I do not think
you would gain anything by selling South Italians unless
CH. ix THE BASIC PKOCESS PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED 115
at a high price. It is almost impossible now to get a de-
cently safe 6 per cent. Still more difficult in Germany.
Please answer by return as to your opinion on the second
question. Yours,
1 S. G. T. J
' July 20, 1878.
' Dear Bess, I don't know if you or I am the worst
correspondent, but I think if you knew how I was driven
you would absolve me with honour for all my failings
therein. Phosphorus is a subject which engrosses an in-
credible amount of time. My visit to South Wales showed
that while scientifically my views are entirely confirmed,
there is much money (some thousands) to be spent in
putting things on a fair technical footing, and much more
in legal defence of my position. As I do not possess
these thousands, I am not going to bother myself about
trying to force my views commercially, but let them rest
with doing what I can to establish them, for the benefit of
people at large. I am now fighting Krupp of Essen and
the Bochum Steel Co. As they write their objections in
German, and require to be confuted from German authors,
this is not easy. So I shan't see you in Paris, whither I
hope to go for a week or two in September. I hope you
will have a pleasant holiday in the Schwarzwald. I saw
your last protege off on Saturday. It made me think I
should like to run over.'
A day or two after Thomas writes to his sister, who
was away from home on a visit :
' Thames Police Court, London, E.: July 22, 1878.
c Dearest Child, The mother nourishing and dashing
about all over country. Being free from surveillance, I
am increasing in weight daily, through the adiposing effect
i 2
116 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. ix
of a peace and quietness which I don't always enjoy.
You seem to be leading a "jollies" (not jolly) existence,
which ought to do you a world of good. Don't go drown-
ing yourself not too frequently. I enclose as a matter
of benevolence something for you to do to fill up the
vacuity of your existence. Will you on enclosed ruled
paper make two copies of also enclosed results as neatly and
legibly as you can, and let me have them back not later
than Thursday morning, and receive my blessing ? I have
put in two or three to show how I should like them done,
only neater. Use your sense in locating remarks, &c.,
and leave spaces when clearness improved thereby. I am
over ears in work. Krupp of Essen, and another, are
attacking me in German, and I have to refute them by
German authors. Fighting with your head in a bag is a
trifle to it. Yours,
' S. G. T.'
CH. x THE BASIC PROCESS DESCRIBED 117
CHAPTER X
THE BASIC PROCESS DESCRIBED
DURING this summer Thomas in collaboration with Mr.
Gilchrist wrote for the approaching autumn meeting of
the Iron and Steel Institute a paper on c the Elimination of
Phosphorus in the Bessemer Converter.' We cannot do
better than give here the substance of this paper (omitting
technicalities and distasteful figures as much as possible J,
since it furnishes the results of the experiments and
describes the point at which the process had arrived and
its rationale in the words of Thomas himself.
4 The non-removal of phosphorus in the Bessemer Con-
verter,' write the authors, ' owing to which the great bulk,
not only of British, but of French, German, and Belgian
ores are still unavailable for steel-making, is a fact too
familiar to metallurgists to need insisting on. The
inquiry whether this unfortunate circumstance is due to
causes absolutely inseparable from the conduct of the
Bessemer process, or to others which are merely the acci-
dents of a particular mode of constructing the apparatus,
is obviously of vital importance. If the non-elimination
be due to the intensity of the temperature or to the
fe^ort duration of the operation, or to both these causes com-
bined, it is almost hopeless to expect that we shall ever
be able to use ordinary unpurified pig-iron in the Con-
verter.
118 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH, x
'That it is to these essential accompaniments of the
process that the phenomenon of the retention of phosphorus
by Bessemer metal is to be ascribed, is it is believed the
generally received opinion and one which has comparatively
recently received the sanction of the weighty authority of
such eminent metallurgists as Mr. Lowthian Bell, Dr.
Wedding, Professor Kerl, and M. Euverte.
c An examination of the general conditions attending
the removal of phosphorus in puddling and refining
operations taken in connection with the well-known action
of silica on phosphate of iron at high temperatures, and the
fact that in many other processes in which the temperature
is very high the elimination of phosphorus is not apparently
effected, seems, however, to justify the belief, which may
have probably suggested itself to other members of the
Institute, that it is to the silicious lining of the ordinary
converter and to the consequent necessarily silicious
quality of the slag, that the one defect of the Bessemer
process is due. Under this conviction, at all events, experi-
ments were commenced by the authors about three years
ago on the effects of basic lining and basic additions in
the several steel-making processes. Unfortunately the
appliances at command were of a very imperfect character,
and the results obtained, though highly encouraging, were
owing to defects in the miniature Converter employed,
which prevented our ever completely finishing a blow not
entirely conclusive as to commercially complete purifi-
cation being possible.
' While awaiting the completion of an improved Con-
verter which was unavoidably delayed for some time, we
were encouraged by finding that M. Gruner, the distin-
guished professor of the Ecole des Mines of Paris, laid great
stress on the silicious character of the cinder and lining in
the Converter. M. Gruner, however, seems at that
CH. x THE BASIC PKOCESS DESCRIBED 119
to have regarded this as one only of three causes which
prevent elimination of phosphorus, and proposes as a
remedy the preliminary refining of phosphoretic pig before
it is attempted to convert it.
1 With a new Converter, a large number of experiments
were made in the autumn of last year, which gave much
more definite results. The lining used in these experi-
ments consisted of limestone and silicate of soda, a mixture
which had been found to answer well in earlier trials. . . .
' On laying some of the first results obtained from
this 6 Ib. Converter before Mr. Martin of Blaenavon,
he at once recognised their importance, and from that
time we have been deeply indebted to him for his un-
failing and liberal support and much valuable advice and
assistance.
' The Blaenavon Company without hesitation undertook
to put up apparatus to carry the experiments further, and
has with great spirit fulfilled its promise to test the value
of the theories thoroughly.
' In a vertical Converter, taking from 3 to 4 cwt. of
metal, results confirmatory of those previously observed
were obtained. In the six-pound Converter liquid decar-
bonised iron could not be obtained ; but in the new vertical
Converter this was readily done. . . .
' Some fifty or more blows were made in this vertical
Converter, and the products analysed ; and it was found
that, using a basic lining, it was generally necessary to
continue the blow for about forty seconds after the flame
dropped in order to bring down the phosphorus very low.
With this proviso, the elimination of phosphorus could be
secured with absolute certainty. With a silicious lining
the retention of all the phosphorus in the metal was, as
usual, equally invariable even when, as in Mr.. Bell's ex-*
periments, the blow was continued till a considerable pro-
120 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. x
portion of the iron was oxidised. At the same time more
phosphorus and less silica would be found in the slag
obtained under these conditions than appears to be the
case when large quantities of metal are treated under
similar circumstances. . . .
f It would seem that the presence of a considerable
amount of lime in a not too silicious slag is highly favour-
able and on a large scale essential to the removal of
phosphorus. As it was manifest that phosphorus was not
removed until the slag was sufficiently basic, the effect of
large basic additions in combination with a basic lining
was tried. With the object not only of obtaining a highly
basic slag at an early stage of the blow, but of rendering
the operation independent of the wear of the lining by
which alone the basic character of the slag is otherwise
obtained and maintained, advantage was taken of the fact
that lime and oxide of iron are fusible in many propor-
tions. . . .
* With a 1 2 cwt. Converter of the ordinary pattern, ex-
pressly put up by the Blaenavon Company, only a limited
number of casts have been made, owing to a deficiency of
blast. . . .
' By the kindness of Mr. Menelaus, for whose invaluable
assistance we tender our warmest thanks, we were enabled
to try, at the No. 3 Pit at Dowlais, if the superior intensity
of heat which might be expected from the conversion of
five or six tons of metal at a time affected the conclusions
to which smaller experiments pointed. It was intended
to line this Converter with highly burnt basic bricks.
The bricks intended for this purpose were, however,
accidentally under-burnt, and so spoilt, hence recourse was
had to a rammed lining of limestone and silicate of
soda. . . .
4 These results appear to confirm the conclusion that
CH. x THE BASIC PROCESS DESCRIBED 121
for the process to be of technical value, waste of lining
must be avoided by making large basic additions, so as to
secure a highly basic slag at an early stage of the blow.
In these trials, however,. it was thought prudent to feel
our way, and not add at once the very large amount of
base which our theory demanded, the more so as we were
not able to add the bases in a heated state. It is also
made clear that a slag containing under 14 percent, of iron
may be very effective in removing phosphorus. . . .
' It is obvious that without a sufficiently durable as well
as refractory basic lining, the simultaneous dephosphorisa-
tion and conversion of cheap pig in the Bessemer vessel
cannot rank as a commercial process. Our early experi-
ments rendered it clear that ordinary nonsilicious lime
and limestone did not constitute by themselves a satisfac-
tory lining material, nor were renewed trials, made after
becoming acquainted with a patent dealing with their
application, more successful ; magnesia, the use of which
as a furnace lining has been suggested by M. Caron and
others, is at once very expensive and, when used by itself,
very tender. After a very extended series of trials it was,
however, found that by firing bricks made of an alumino-
silicious limestone at a very intense white heat, a hard
and compact basic brick is formed. These bricks unfortu-
nately labour under the defect of a liability to disintegra-
tion when exposed to the action of steam. By the use
of certain aluminous magnesian limestones and equivalent
combinations, and an otherwise similar mode of manu-
facture, this difficulty has been, after many failures, over-
come. . . .'
Here we have the problem clearly stated, namely : ' The
simultaneous dephosphorisation and conversion of cheap
pig in the Bessemer u vessel," in such fashion as to make
the process a commercial success.' The problem is solved
122 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. x
by substituting a reasonably durable basic lining for the
former silicious, and therefore acid one, and by avoiding
' waste of lining, by making large basic additions, so
as to secure a highly basic slag at an early stage of the
Now. '
'TKIUMPH 123
CHAPTER XI
TRIUMPH
ANXIOUS as these times of waiting were, while this paper
was being written and the experiments continually
watched (the regular toil at Thames Police Court still
going on), it is characteristic of Sidney that he should have
found time to take lessons in French conversation. Regu-
larly for three months he was an hour late for dinner every
other day, nor was any explanation obtainable by his
relatives for a long period. The real explanation was that
he would stop in the City on his way from Arbour Square
to Battersea (where, it will be remembered, the family
were now dwelling), to have an hour's educational talk
with an old Frenchman. It was only later, when all were
gathered in Paris, that upon being complimented upon
his fluent Gallic speech, he revealed the little secret.
In September the autumn meeting of the Iron and
Steel Institute was held in Paris held there, especially,
because of the Great Exhibition of 1878. Thomas arranged
his annual holiday from his official duties to coincide with
this meeting, and went to the gay city in company with
his mother, sister, and a friend. Mr. Gilchrist also
attended. The paper on the i Elimination of Phosphorus '
was put down for reading, and originally placed near the
top of the list ; but belief in the alleged discovery of an
unknown youth had not much spread since March, and
the paper was removed to the end, and then left by the
authorities unread for ' lack of time ' ; a course not
124 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xi
altogether disagreeable to Thomas, who was anxious to
further secure the patent position. This action attracted,
however, some attention especially as a portion of the
paper had appeared in ' Engineering ' before news of the
change of programme could reach that journal. Moreover
the paper was freely distributed among members. But
even if the non-reading of it had been a great disappoint-
ment, there would have been ample and unlooked-for
compensation.
Thomas accompanied other members upon an excur-
sion to the great Works of Creusot, and there, as good luck
would have it, fell upon talk with Mr. E. W. Richards, the
manager of Bolckow, Vaughan, and Co.'s huge Works in
Cleveland. Sidney's remarkable personality, and vivid,
lucid discourse never failed to impress those with whom he
came in contact ; and Mr. Richards proved no exception
to the rule. Cleveland, it must be remembered, is the
district in all England which suffered most from the non-
elimination of phosphorus in the Converter ; for the whole
of its ores (and it had an annual output of 6,500,000 tons)
were phosphoric, and, therefore, as was then thought,
useless for making steel by the Bessemer process. Natur-
ally, the conversation turned upon the alleged discovery
which was to change all this. Thomas explained to Mr.
Richards the position in which the experiments stood, and
the desire that was felt to continue them on a larger scale.
A meeting was arranged to discuss the matter further, and
it is not too much to say that the further discussion at that
meeting secured the immediate commercial success of the
process.
Mr. Richards had better tell the story in his own
words : l
1 Words taken from Mr. Eich- Cleveland Institution of Engineers
ards's presidential address to the (November 15, 1880).
CH. xi TRIUMPH 125
1 Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist prepared a paper,
giving very fully the results of their experiments, with
analyses. It was intended to be read at the autumn
meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute at Paris in 1878 ;
but so little importance was attached to it, and so little
was it believed in, that the paper was scarcely noticed, and
it was left unread. . . . Mr. Sidney Thomas first drew my
particular attention to the subject at Creusot, and we had
a meeting a few days later in Paris to discuss it, when I
resolved to take the matter up, provided I received the
consent of my directors. That consent was given, and on
October 2, 1878, accompanied by Mr. Stead of Middles-
brough, I went with Mr. Thomas to Blaenavon. Arrived
there, Mr. Gilchrist and Mr. Martin showed us three casts
in a miniature cupola, and I saw sufficient to convince me
that iron could be dephosphorised at high temperature. I
also visited the Dowlais Works, where Mr. Menelaus
informed me that the experiments in the large Converters
had failed owing to the lining being washed out. We
very quickly erected a pair of 30 cwt. Converters at
Middlesbrough, but were unable for a long time to try the
process, owing to difficulties experienced in making basic
bricks for lining the Converters and making the basic
bottom. The difficulties arose principally from the enor-
mous shrinkage of the magnesian limestone when being
burnt in a kiln with an updraught, and of the failure of
the ordinary bricks of the kiln to withstand the very high
temperature necessary for efficient burning. The diffi-
culties were, however, one by one surmounted, and at last
we lined up the Converters with basic bricks ; then, after
much labour, many failures, disappointments and encou-
ragements, we were able to show some of the leading
gentlemen of Middlesbrough the successful operations on
Friday, April 4, 1879. The news of this success spread
126 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xi
rapidly far and wide, and Middlesbrough was soon besieged
by the combined forces of Belgium, France, Prussia,
Austria, and America. We then lined up one of the six-
ton converters at Eaton and had fair success.'
Meanwhile Thomas, while following and taking part in
these anxious experiments, thus finally crowned with definite
triumph, had not been idle in other directions. His
energies had been devoted to safeguarding the patent
position at home and abroad as though he had no other
work on his hands. The patent of 1877 had been rapidly
followed by other dephosphorisation patents of January
1878, March 1878, and two of October 1878. Other patents
were taken out in 1879. In January of the latter year
two patents were taken out for basic bricks, and a series
of patents for treatment of slag begin in November 1878.
In foreign countries the same activity was displaved.
Thomas in the following letters gives us some glimpses
of his proceedings during the period between September
1878 and April 1879 the period which assured the com-
mercial success of his process and which has just been
described by Mr. Eichards.
To Miss Burton
1 Thames Police Court : October 3, 1878.
{ Dear Bess, I was so sorry you did not make your
appearance in Paris. I had quite looked forward to it and
had the impression you had promised it. The fortnight
spent there was most enjoyable, the weather beautiful, the
city ditto, and the Exhibition magnificent. I went to the
Exhibition seven times and only saw half imperfectly.
The Mother was happy all day long and our quarters ex-
cellent and, considering the prices current, not dear. I
think the city much improved since I saw it in '69 with
CH. XI
TRIUMPH 127
you and Robert. I spent my first three nights on the
sixth floor of a queer old inn close to our old quarters ;
this time in the Rue Montmartre. Our paper was post-
poned, the preference being very properly given to foreign
papers, and the course adopted suiting us very well. It
still occupies a great fragment of my attention. I returned
to England last Friday and have been living a la Crusoe
in the empty house. Tuesday night, however, I had a
telegram which sent me down to Wales by the mail, to
meet some great North of England guns who had come
to Blaenavon to see our experiments. They were well
impressed with what they saw and I returned last night.
... I shall probably be in Belgium to try to start some
Works there early in next month. On the whole my hands
are pretty full. Whether we shall succeed in getting any
pecuniary advantage remains to be seen, I am afraid of
the funds which are a necessity for victory being wanting.
However, of exciting employment it seems we shall have
enough. Yours always,
'S.G.T.'
c I will send you a copy of our paper when I can/
'November/ 18 78.
c I am awfully busy, or should have written you before
this. Things are in statu quo, but I am much more
occupied. I go to Belgium to-morrow to superintend
some experiments. I shall have rather a cold time of it.'
' December 23, 1878.
4 D r Bess, Y r letter found me at Middlesbro', where I
think things are progressing fairly. Percy was with me,
he is director of all practical details, and works like any-
thing. His Co., the Blaenavon Iron Co., have just failed.
He doesn't know yet how it will affect him, but it can
128 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xi
hardly fail to be detrimental. It is also very unfortunate
for our patent interests, as the Co. had engaged to give
us a large trial at once. From Middlesbro' I went to
Cumberland, and came home by mail last night, being
from 7 P.M. to 9 A.M. on the road. I was nearly frozen.
I am getting rapidly ruined, but having plenty to do
induces me to regard the contingency with equanimity.
We shan't know how we stand for another six months at
least . . . There is a terrible amount of distress through-
out England . . . My Belgian visit was quite enjoyable
and the result on the whole quite satisfactory, i.e. fairly
good steel to the amount of seven or eight tons made from
stuff that had never made steel or anything like it before.
'I see a good deal of Americans just now. I have
struck up an alliance with one I encountered abroad, and
had to stay a few days to the home folks' amusement.
1 Ever y rs always,
' S. G. T. f
When the news of the experiments of April 4, 1879,
spread abroad, would-be users of the process on the
Continent found themselves face to face with the patent
rights which the forethought of Thomas had secured. A
literal race to the quiet home in Queen's Road, Battersea,
at once began. The present writer well remembers Thomas
telling him, with some glee, a curious story of the eager-
ness of foreign ironmasters to secure licences, a story
which is also a sermon on the text of striking while the
iron is hot. One April Sunday night, two Belgian steel
manufacturers from the same neighbourhood crossed
together in the same boat. M. A and M. B
conversed the whole way, but neither said a word of their
errand to Albion. They both drove to the Eoyal Hotel
on the Embankment, upon their arrival at Charing Cross
CH. xi TRIUMPH 129
at some unearthly hour on Monday morning. M. A
thought he might safely go to bed for a couple of hours
and then have some breakfast before pursuing his journey
to the wilds of remote Battersea. M. B was wiser
in his generation ; he chartered a hansom directly he had
shaken off his fellow-traveller and rang up the quiet house-
hold in the Queen's Eoad at 7.30 A.M. He secured an
audience with Thomas and proceeded to negotiate terms
for the use of the process. The interview lasted for three
hours and was just concluding, when a telegram arrived
from M. A announcing that he was on his way. At
noon he duly arrived, congratulating himself on his
promptitude. Alas ! M. B - had secured the monopoly
of the process for the district.
It is probably to this Belgian arrangement that allusion
is made in the following letter :
To Miss Burton
' 3 Queen's Eoad Villas, April 12, 1879.
' Dear Bess, Many thanks for your congratulations
of 10th. Of your sympathy I of course felt myself sure.
It is, however, not the less pleasant to receive them. Yes,
after some work, we have solved the greatest industrial
problem of England ; so at least people who have been
themselves trying the solution for twenty years say.
' We have certainly secured some reputation, and may
(or may not) secure some money.
c This last we shall know in two or three months, but
not before. Till this is ascertained I do not want to give
up Thames, as I have to spend about 50?. a month still
on one thing and another. Of course I pay all Percy's
extra expenditure. I have just concluded an arrangement
with some Belgians, and shall probably have to take a
continental trip in a few weeks. You may imagine I am
K
130 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xi
pretty busy ; I spent three nights out of six on the rail
last week. Yours,
< S. G. TV
The deferred paper of Thomas and Gilchrist was duly
read at the spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute
which was held in London. ' That meeting was,' says Mr.
Richards, c perhaps the most interesting and brilliant ever
held by the Institute.' Mr. Bessemer (not yet Sir Henry)
came forward with a cordial recognition of the new and
wide-reaching development of his epoch-making process.
1 Phosphorus,' he said, < has been my difficulty and my
bane.' If it had not been for discovering that steel could
be made from Swedish pig without the necessity for dephos-
phorisation, he might have continued on the road he had
entered upon. ' Whether I should have arrived at the
results which the present inventors have arrived at I can-
not tell. ... I hope and believe they will be able to receive
the recompense which their talents and industry deserve.' 2
' Directly this meeting was over,' says Mr. Richards in
the presidential address already quoted, * Middlesbrough
was again besieged by a large array of continental
metallurgists, and a few hundredweights of samples of
basic bricks, molten metal used and steel produced were
taken away for searching analysis at home. Our con-
tinental friends were of an inquisitive turn of mind and,
like many other practical men who saw the process in
operation, only believed in what they saw with their own
eyes and felt with their own hands. And they were not
quite sure even then, and some are not quite sure even now
(1880). We gave them samples of the metal out of the very
nose of the Converter.'
On May 10, 1879, Thomas resigned his junior clerk-
2 Iron, May 17, 1879.
CH. XI
TKIUMPH 131
ship at the Thames Police Court, after nearly twelve years
of service service as energetic as if his duties there had
been the sole object of his life. We have seen (ante, p.
24) what Mr. Lushington has said upon this point. Thomas
left nothing but good wishes behind him. The constant
drain upon his energies, otherwise fully, more than fully
occupied, must (especially during the last three anxious
years) have been serious indeed. Yet daring as he was
(often indeed seemingly reckless), it was very characteristic
of him that he did not abandon this modest certainty
until the path to fortune was clear before him. Neither
the acceptance of the new process by Mr. Martin nor its
adoption by Mr. Richards was sufficient to induce him to
burn his boats behind him ; it was not until continental
ironmasters were competing for concessions that he made
up his mind definitely to break with the Civil Service.
Let us say, once for all, here, that the Sidney Thomas,
the triumphant inventor, was in every respect the same
Sidney Thomas he had been years before, when simply second
clerk at Arbour Square eager, strenuous, and energetic,
but ever preserving the equal mind, and no more puffed up
by victory than he would have been cast down by failure
always anxious to ascribe success to others more than to
himself.
In the following letter he seems even now somewhat
doubtful of the future :
To Miss Burton
'May 11, 1879.
4 Dear Bess, We have scored I think one. Delivered
paper on Thursday before the largest meeting ever held ;
it was well received by all, both continental and English
metallurgists, and we became pro tern, junior lions.
* I have based my foreign patents nearly all on terms
132 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xi
which may pay us well, and I hope we shall eventually do
some good business in England, though they are much
behind their continental rivals in enterprise.
( We were introduced to everyone, and the effect of
the whole is by no means disappointing. Even Krupp's
engineer paid us high compliments. I have done my
best to give the Phoenix Works a good chance, though
German patents are largely out of my hands. I resigned
" Thames " yesterday, as I found I could not drive so dis-
cordant a team any longer ; so I am now on my own
resources. We have still a lot of new work to go through,
and not a few risks to run on account of the magnitude
of the stake. Whatever happens, I think we have been
fully rewarded for our work. Of course I have your con-
gratulations ; you had better come and bring them.'
The resignation at Thames brought little relief to his
incessant labour ; the vacant hours were instantly filled by
other toils. The whole of the negotiations for his foreign
patents fell to him to conduct. In some countries and
districts he sold his rights ; in others he conceded licences
to individual ironmasters ; in others, again, he appointed
agents to receive royalties. The basic process spread with
the greatest rapidity on the Continent, where phosphorus
had been even a more formidable foe to steel-making than it
had been here. Thomas's note-books and account books
during this year show him to have been continually crossing
the Channel, and his striking figure became as familiar in
Westphalian Works as it had been in Arbour Square.
In Germany, however, there was a short but severe
contest with a powerful combination of North German
steel manufacturers. These gentlemen attempted to work
the process regardless of patent rights, and fought the in-
ventor in the law courts, partly on technical legal grounds,
CH. xi TRIUMPH 133
partly on other pretexts. Sidney's letter-book gives a
voluminous correspondence on this matter, and he was also
constantly present on the field in person.
The courts decided in his favour in November 1879.
This in the end, although not, as we shall see, immediately,
settled the question. ' The courts held the validity of the
patents to be thoroughly established, and considered the
substantial novelty and great value of the invention to be
proved and to be such as to amply cover any minor tech-
nical defects. This decision was generally welcomed, as
showing that the German Patent Court was determined to
administer the new law on just and equitable principles,
and not on the narrow basis of the old law, which refused
protection to the inventions of Bessemer and Siemens.' 3
The following letters refer to this contest :-
To his Sister
' Berlin, November 20, 1879.
' Dearest, After short conference in my [case], had
two days' dissipation preluding Berlin doing under P 's
guidance. He is an excellent cicerone. City very fair
particularly museum ; shops brilliant. Went to theatre
in evening nothing very characteristic comic opera.
To-day conference; to-morrow and Saturday the fight.
Thirty-six against us. I think we are fairly certain to
lose ; but my spirits are good. I shall not forgive you for
neglecting your duty in not having taught me German.
It is a horrible nuisance.
' Look after the mater ! . . .
' Yours very affectionately,
'S. G. T.'
3 Creators of the Age of Steel, p. 314.
184 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xi
To Miss Burton
'Berlin, November 22, 1879.
* Beaten the enemy on own ground. Sorry I can't call
at Wiesbaden.
' S. G. T.'
To his Mother
'Hoerde, November 25, 1879.
' I am visiting at Hoerde. Spent yesterday morning
with Dr. Wedding ; also dinner with him on Sunday. A
very jolly little party. We had great fun. He was one
of my judges ; another guest was one of my chief oppo-
nents. Two very pleasant German girls, an American
student and an engineer. They are all coming to stop
with us in London for an indefinite period. By March 1
shall know if I am the proud possessor of 20,000. or not.
The historic name of the family has certainly won notoriety
if not distinction. I am stopping with Massenez. I leave
to-morrow morning for K.
' Spent last morning in Berlin School of Mines, a
wondrously perfect place. Was coached over by Dr.
Wedding and an American youth, who regards my
humble self as a mirror for aspiring engineers to imitate ;
but is (nevertheless, or in consequence) a very bright lot.
c It is an awful nuisance not speaking German. I sat
at writing for two days, feeling I must get up and make a
rattling speech in some tongue known or unknown.
' You will hardly, I fear, hear from me again. I shall
be on the move all along, till Saturday, when I expect
to be home for some hours at least. I have been fed and
alcoholised to an appalling extent. Hope you are taking
care of yourself. Yours,
' S. G. T. J
CH. xi TE1UMPH 135
Meanwhile a difficulty had arisen in this country,
which fortunately was at once amicably settled without
recourse to litigation. We have said (ante, p. Ill) that
at the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute in March
1878, when Thomas made his little regarded declaration,
Mr. Snelus had also spoken on the dephosphorisation
question. This gentleman had indeed had a patent in
existence for several years which (it was contended) es-
tablished the principle of basic linings, although there
might be practical difficulties in its application. This
patent had been kept alive, but it was not suggested that
a ton of steel had ever been manufactured under it. It
might also perhaps be said that the many steps in the
complete Thomas-Gilchrist process not at all hinted at in
Mr. Snelus's specification established a very vital distinc-
tion in favour of that process, and indeed that Mr.
Snelus's specification had not expressed dephosphorisation
as the aim of the patent at all ; but it would be both idle
and ungracious to pursue a vain discussion of rival claims
which both sides from the first treated in a friendly and
loyal spirit. 4
The claims then of Mr. Snelus and of one who became
Thomas's valued colleague, Mr. Riley, who had zealously,
independently, and ably devoted himself to the lining
question, had of course to be considered.
It was agreed to refer to Sir William Thomson's arbi-
4 Mr. Snelus in 1883, after de- the theory of the basic process, and
tailing his experiments, said : ' Mr. he induced Mr. Windsor Richards
Sidney Thomas, shortly afterwards, to take it up. It was a piece of
with very much more energy than very good fortune, I consider, that
I had shown, followed in the same Mr. Thomas succeeded in enlisting
line, and Mr. Gilchrist and he the sympathy of Mr. Richards ;
developed the process of making this was due to Mr. Thomas's
basic bricks on a large scale. perseverance and to his determi-
Af ter this he demonstrated much nation to make the process public
more publicly than I had done and to make it go.'
136 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xi
tration the question of how the profits of the British and
American patents should be divided between the parties
Thomas being left in sole possession of all continental
rights. Sir William Thomson made his award, an award
ever since cordially accepted and acted on by all con-
cerned, towards the latter part of this year of 1879.
Patents were taken out in America early in 1879, and
led afterwards to much litigation. The quantity of non-
phosphoric iron in the United States is so large, that
probably no country in the world had less need of the
basic process. Yet, as we shall presently see, in no
country in the world was there more interest in the in-
vention and nowhere did Thomas himself receive a more
enthusiastic welcome.
CH. xii DUSSELDORF A GATHERING CLOUD 137
CHAPTER XII
DUSSELDORF A GATHERING CLOUD
THE next year of 1880 opened brilliantly indeed for
Thomas and the little family of which he was the life
and soul. The household gods were in the course of this
year removed from Battersea to Tedworth Square, Chelsea,
which was Sidney's London home for the remainder of his
brief and narrowing span, a span the narrowing brevity of
which was still happily veiled from him and those to whom
he was dear. Tedworth Square, however, saw but too
little of him ; for most of his time was in this year, as in
the preceding one, spent in railway trains, steamers, and
English and foreign ironworks.
We have before us many of his post-cards and letters
which show something of the intense stress and hurry of
his life at this period, and we select a few of them as
specimens.
To Miss Burton
' Paris, November 28, 1879.
' Acceptez mes salutations (un peu en retard, je crains,
mais pas moins sinceres) pour votre birthday. All going
well, I believe, Shall know how I stand by March 1. Am
rather tired, having been en wagon two nights. Have two
more before me. Heute abends muss ich zuriich bis
London und dann nach Sheffield, Middlesboro und so weite,
so bin ich immer en route. The rout of the Teuton, even
if only temporary, was angenehm.'
138 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xn
' Liege, February 21, 1880.
1 Cara B, I am toujours en route vous voir, mais
toujours si confoundedly presse que je n'arrive jamais.
Wir miissen ein rendezvous en Coeln oder Coblenz haben
one day, for a long chat. Have now been Paris, Luxem-
bourg, Hoerde, Kuhrort, Liege, travelling all night (almost
every night) and working all day. I had to run through
Coeln beide Zeite or should have run up to Wiesbaden.
It seems dass ich soil nimmer mehr ein jour entierement
libre haben. Your German friends are appealing and
causing me a lot of extra Arbeit. Excuse my writing in
my ordinary colloquial language, which astonishes some
de mes clients. . . .'
Newcastle, March 13, 1880.
( Dear Cousin Bess, Though I am, / expect, the busier
of the two, I am still the best correspondent. . . . As
usual, I am wandering over the earth's face. Last week,
Sheffield, Blaenavon, Ehymney, London. This week Glas-
gow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, &c. Hard at it all the time.
It is uphill work and complicated ; but it is, I trust, to
be a big work, and I am satisfied. It is only sometimes
rather more than one set of brains can do, to drive so many
different horses.
' I think we shall succeed in selling in America for a
pretty fair sum. If so, I shall try and secure fair help.
.... I may be in Germany again in a week or two ; if
so, I shall try hard to run up to you for a few hours, but
I never get nearer than Coeln, and am always driven even
for an hour. . . .
' I have come quite to look forward to having a whole
week at home. . . . We are still fighting in Germany,
though there is some chance of a settlement. Among
prospective journeys I have one to Sweden and another to
CH. xii DUSSELDORF A GATHERING CLOUD 139
America. . . . The last time I was in Germany I was in
the Siegen country. I thought, as I passed through by
rail, it was the best scenery in Germany, bar the Bavarian
Highlands. . . . Yours always,
< S. G. T. '
'P.S. I have now a pile of some thirty letters to
answer. I ought to answer half before going to bed.'
1 3 Queen's Road Villas, Battersea : April 14, 1880.
' Dear Bess, I have again been to France, Belgium,
and Germany for a few days, during which I hoped to run
up at least as far as Coblentz, if not to Wiesbaden. I
would not write you till I knew if I could come, but was
called home from Ruhrort, where I had a long and tedious
business, to meet a man from America, and so was prevented
doing so, much to my disappointment. It becomes more
of a drive every week. Everything both abroad and at
home falls on me, and it is enough.
' I am negotiating for a sale of my German rights, so
as to have something in hand. There is also more fighting
to do in Germany and elsewhere. We have had nothing
in papers now, except now and again a paragraph such
as enclosed. The affair is going well ; but it is so big that
it requires perpetual attention, and guarding and watching
with practical work. Percy takes most of the practical
supervision at home and I the rest, and all abroad.
' This is an egotistical spin !
' . . . We are trying hard to get rooms in town as
soon as we can. Probably shan't succeed till June. . . .
< S. G. THOMAS.'
Already the inevitable effects of this over-worked
existence were visible, and doubtless deadly disease was
already at work sapping the very citadel of the vital
140 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xn
forces; but he had no suspicion as yet of the need for
care. It can have been no unhappy life that he led ; that
which for years had been his supreme object had been
achieved ; his remaining anxieties were of no poignant
kind, and ceaseless activity (however it might physically
wear and tear him) was always a keen pleasure to his
eager nature. Meanwhile the process was everywhere
triumphant on the Continent, and at Middlesbrough Mr.
Richards, with the co-operation of Thomas and of Gilchrist,
was still perfecting mechanical details more and more.
At the spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute
the basic process was still the main topic of interest (as
it continued to be at many successive meetings), and of
course the meeting brought new cares to Thomas. The
next letter we quote refers to it.
To Miss Burton
' Queen's Koad Villas, May 10, 1880.
' . . . I am awfully ungrateful not to have written
before to thank you for your charming letter and delight-
ful and most useful little present. ... As usual I am
fairly busy. Last week the Iron and Steel Institute meet-
ing, which went off fairly well. I enclose a report.
' I had to be entertaining people every evening, which
was the most fatiguing thing of all to me. I introduced
Lil to a dozen of the leading engineers of the world in
one evening, which amused her considerably.
'There are still many questions open which cause
anxiety and work; but on the whole things going not
amiss. . . .
I am trying to get things in order, so that I may go
to America in the autumn if possible. . . .'
In constant journeying to and fro, the summer of 1880
CH. xii DUSSELDOKF A GATHEKING CLOUD 141
wore away, until the time came for the meeting of the
Iron and Steel Institute at Diisseldorf in August. Thomas
took his sister to Miss Burton in Wiesbaden early in that
month, and the former attended the meeting with him.
Thomas writes from Wiesbaden to his mother on
August 8 :
1 Got here at seven yesterday. A gorgeous reception
from B., who looks well. Stopped in, chatting, all evening.
I sleep at the best hotel. We are now going to Wood ;
shall be here to-morrow night. All very kind and nice.'
Dephosphorisation was as usual the leading topic at
Diisseldorf. Sidney's sister sent home the following report
of her brother's speech on the subject :
' Sidney's speech on dephosphorising. Friends all
round ; room crammed ; perfect quiet. Prof. Turner spoke
first, then Siemens and Wedding then Sid. Splendidly !
Clear, ringing, metallic utterance good delivery, to the
point, i.e., cost and general results. No nervousness
perceptible to the outer world (Mr. Justice l was the only
one besides myself who saw he was nervous; shows he
knows him well). I was frightfully nervous for him at
first, but soon I found I had no need to be. He was the
only speaker during the whole week's meetings who was
clapped on standing, and he was so clapped warmly, and also
interrupted for applause. President Ed. Williams requested
him to stop on the platform to be questioned, and many
friends chaffed him afterwards about having struck a theatri-
cal attitude. Then Snelus and Eiley spoke and Massenez. 2
I was quite an impartial witness, prepared to criticise
severely, as I always do him ! '
1 Thomas's Patent Agent a Hoerde Works, was an early and
personal friend. zealous supporter of the process,
2 Herr Massenez, Director of the and gave it much help.
142 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xn
During the meeting there was an excursion to the
Rhenish Steel Works in Meiderich, where the process was
seen in operation. The excitement and interest in the
* blows ' were intense. Mr. Richards says :
c It was most difficult to get near the workmen who
were testing the samples, so great was the crush and the
desire to obtain a piece of the metal ; and the wonder was
that the metal was so well blown and so low in phos-
phorus, considering the circumstances under which the
operation was performed.'
The meeting was wound up by an excursion to Cologne
and Coblentz, of which Thomas gives brief account to his
mother on one of his customary post-cards :
' Coblentz : August 1880.
' Dearest Mother, Another awful round of pleasure
yesterday. First by train to Bingen, with lunch on the
way, 800 of us, about. Then special steamers down to
Cologne ; lovely weather and lovely scenery everywhere.
Lil introduced to thirty or forty new acquaintances. At
Coblentz taken through wine cellars, then through
Empress's Palace; then a gorgeous dinner. Stopped
there too late to go on to Wiesbaden, so remained here.
We go on to W. at ten this morning. The meeting a
great success. I have been feted and petted ridiculously.
At Essen on September 3.'
A little later he writes (still on a post-card) :
' Bochum : September 5, 1880.
f Here all day yesterday ; over Works adjoining, &c.
Dinner with the Director ; more Works. Wine in evening
with three directors ; very hot. ... I am now on way to
Hoerde and Magdeburg ; at Stassfurt on September 7.'
CH. xii DUSSELDOKF A GATHERING CLOUD 143
From Magdeburg he writes to his mother :
1 September 6, 1880.
' Dearest M., Here I am again on the move. Now
on way to Stassfurt, to see the great Salt Works, which I
hope to utilise in phosphate-making. I then go through
Dresden (half an hour to see the Picture 3 again) to
Wittkowitz. ... I expect and hope to call at Wiesbaden
about the 12th, but may not be able to stop out so long.
Spent yesterday afternoon with Massenez and the H. Y.
.(HiMn Mind you have rides with aunt and Miss B. regularly.
Love to all. Yours ever,
' S. G. T.'
From Stassfurt he writes to his sister at Wiesbaden :
' Tuesday, September 7, 1880.
c Lieber Kleinchen. Hie bin ich angekommen gestern
at eight (nicht unterstrichen), habe besucht grosser
Fabrik wo vu insisted on mich die thur zu zeigen, bis ich
habe developed das ich in solchefalle, it would be my
painful duty to obliterate aller spuren von ihren Fabrik
wurden.'
Meanwhile his sister had been writing home from
Wiesbaden under date of September 4 :
' Dearest Mother, Sid arrived yesterday at four ; we
were at station to meet him. He has a cold and we insist
on his staying a day or two to get right. He goes back
to Luxembourg and Longwy ; will be back on Monday.'
This ' cold,' which was to ' get right ' in a c day or two,'
8 The Sistine Madonna. This ever he was near Dresden, for a
was such a favourite with Thomas pilgrimage to it.
that he always made time, when-
144 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xn
has a mournful and knell-like sound to us who know the
end, and the short but sharp attack which he was nursed
through in Wiesbaden was a matter of serious anxiety to
his sister and cousin. As yet, however, he persisted there
was nothing seriously wrong with him, and the wearying
journeying to and fro was continued throughout this
year.
The fatigue involved will be sufficiently obvious a
fatigue especially dangerous in the severe winters of 1879-
80 and 1880-81.
Early in 1881, however, it began to be clear that such
voyaging (with all the necessarily concomitant changes of
temperature) must, at any rate in winter time, be dis-
continued. The cough persisted, and his uncle, Dr. Burnie
of Bradford, whom he consulted, detected grave lung
mischief. Even London fogs must be avoided. Thomas
was persuaded with difficulty to go for a time with his
sister to the Isle of Wight, and to take for a brief period
such rest as his enormous correspondence would allow him.
The following letters, belong to this time :
To Ms Mother
' Esplanade, Ventnor : February 1881.
'Dearest Mother, Two bedrooms, large and facing
south and sea, and a ditto ditto sitting-room. Bright,
sunny, but cold here. Thermo, outside, at three to-day, 45 ;
yesterday 50. Am really much better cough only very
little in evening. Been out all day. Lil as good as can be.
I fear we shan't be able to quarrel ; she looks after, pets,
bullies, worries and amuses me to perfection. You have
nothing at all to bother about as regards your robustious
children. Hotel slow ; though good of its kind. Ventnor
prettyish. Love to all. Look after yourself. Yours ever
lovingly.'
en. xn DUSSELDORF A GATHERING CLOUD 145
To Mrs. Burnie
1 Marine Villa, Esplanade, Ventnor :
March 1, 1881.
1 My dear Aunt, It is very kind of you all to trouble
about me and my small ailments. I am certainly the
better for coming here decidedly so ; though still weak
as to breathing arrangements. The weather here is bright
and fine, and sunny most days. Some days have been
exquisitely bright and blue-skied. It is, however, dull
enough, as I can only walk to a limited extent, and there
are too many hills to make riding very attractive. Lil
has got a girl with her who amuses her much, and me
somewhat. My " Bricks without Straw " was bought. I
fancy Triibner publishes here. I am. in hopes of seeing
you in March, that is, if I am able to get North as I
expect to, about the 15th, for a meeting. I rather chafe
at being so absolutely tied up just now, when there is
plenty to do elsewhere ; but it might be worse. Lil is,
I think, enjoying herself as she does generally, and is
certainly wonderfully well; she is a bright little com-
panion. Your friends have done well to go to Grange. It is
a v % ery pretty place in itself, and within reach of still
prettier. Please tell my uncle I am following his advice
as nearly as may be in all things. With best love to all,
' Yours ever affectionately,
<S. G-. THOMAS/
146 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CF, xm
CHAPTER XIII
A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES
HOWEVER, he did not go to Yorkshire on March 15, as he
seems here to have contemplated ; for by that time he was
on the Atlantic. Circumstances induced him suddenly to
determine upon a visit to the United States, with a view
to defence of the patent position there. He sailed for New
York in the < Marathon' on March 11, 1881. He was
received with open arms by the worlds of iron and steel
and applied science. The following letters have been pre-
served :
To Us Mother
' March 26, 1881.
c Dearest M., Got into New York at seven Thursday
evening. Laureau came on board to ask me to stop at
Holley's. Went with him to concert and to see Broadway.
At concert met the Swede Lilienberg. Next morning
Maynard came on board and we went to Holley's. Made a
lot of calls ; saw chief buildings ; travelled four times on
elevated railroad. Was introduced to about twenty people ;
dined with Holley at a Palace, far and away above our
Criterion. Evening dined at Hewitt's, late Mayor of
New York, and with Cooper, the founder of Cooper
Institute, a bright, intelligent, and active old boy of
ninety-two, who has donated about $2,000,000 to public
CH. xni A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES 147
purposes, and now educates in highest branches 1,800
folks yearly. Absolutely in evening went to Opera with
Miss Hewitt and her father. ' Favorita.' Fine house, but
overpowering amount of talking. From Opera to Century
Club. Am already a member of three great clubs, with
free access to Society of Engineers &c. Have invitations
for summer to Lake Champlain, North Jersey, and the Lord
knows where besides. I am to be dined by forty men next
week, alas ! If I don't get spoilt, I shall be surprised.
New York is a quarter of a century ahead of London, (1)
in telegraph facilities, (2) in buildings, (3) in elevated
railways and tram cars, (4) in size and convenient
arrangements, (5) decoration of houses, (6) in small con-
veniences.
c Monday evening called on Carnegie and others.
Lunched at Delmonico's. Introduced to more people.
Dined at University Club with Holley ; beautifully deco-
rated. I find they are tremendously ahead of us in decora-
tion. After to Brooklyn Club.
4 Sunday, went to Beecher's with Mrs. H. and Miss G.
Plymouth Church hideous, but crammed. B. preached
for one and a quarter hour most eloquent, original, and
sometimes outre sermon or address. He is obviously a
man of immense power. Parted with regret from Mrs. H.
and Miss A., and to Maynard's pleasant afternoon.
Called on Raymond, a very clever fellow, who is engineer,
poet, novelist, editor, man of business, musician, composer,
and Sunday school teacher, all at the same time.
' I want to get out of New York as soon as possible.
I only regret not having you both. I don't like American
girls so far bar some. They have vivacity and dash enough
to set up a city, and have a good time, in other words,
have their own way, undoubtedly.
i. 2
148 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CIT. xm
'March 31, 1881.
' Yet more dissipation and enjoyment ; calls, dinners,
opera with Carnegie, &c. Tuesday evening, up Hudson to
Albany in palatial steamer with Holley. Arrived Albany
6 A.M. ; over State Capitol, an enormous building still in
progress. Senate and Eepresentative Chambers superb;
some of architecture finest I have ever seen ; decoration
massive and grand, in excellent taste.
' Charming dinner in fine old-fashioned house of prp-
prietor of Works. Mrs. C. very pleasant and lively. Next
morning I wanted to go to Works ; but Mr. C. insisted on
driving me to his country house, and showing us some
miles of hothouses with wonderful varieties of plants from
every quarter of globe ; plants worth some 20,000. Collec-
tion of 13,000 butterflies.
c Back to New York by train down Hudson Valley,
which is very lovely, more so than the Rhine on whole.
< That confounded dinner comes off to-morrow. Con-
tinue brilliant ; but love hard work, not to be over-dined.
* The people have to a stranger few deficiencies, except
a too evident money-worship, and (whence the money-
worship proceeds) a reckless way of spending. They are
hospitality itself.'
The next letter is written in the margin of a copy of
the ' Iron Age ' :
' Saturday, April 2.
c Dearest Mother, The dinner is happily past and I
actually enjoyed it, partly. It was dreadful sitting for three
hours and being bepraised ; but the speakers were really
clever and witty in the extreme alternating between
flights of real eloquence and the most fanciful word-fun
and wildest jokes. The actual dinner was, of course,
superb, costing about 200?.
CH. xin A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES 149
' I trust the sale is practically settled. I go to Phila-
delphia to-day about it ; then back here for a day or two ;
then to Bethlehem, &c. I am invited to about twenty
dinners, and to stop at about a score of houses all over the
States passes on lines where I don't want to go, &c. &c.
Of course it is evanescent, but amusing.
'I got through my speech fairly, I think. I had
brought over a first-class one, but couldn't think of a bit,
so started on quite another line . . . Yours ever affec-
tionately,
' SIDNEY.
Alter this comes a sort of post-card and letter diary
to his sister and mother, which we partly reproduce :
4 April 7, 1881.
' Back from delightful two days at Bethlehem. Bound-
less hospitality ; enjoyed and benefited by it much. Fritz
is a charming fellow. Go to theatre to-night. Bessemer
matter still hangs.
' April 8.
1 Was last night at theatre : sawDaymond in " Fush ; "
a wild comedy, great fun, but absurd. This morning, long
interview with lawyers ; shan't get business done for three
weeks at least. Then more interviews. Then Dr. Raymond
drove me through Brooklyn's beautiful park to Coney
Island, eight miles away ; beautiful spin behind splendid
horses. Am now at theatre, having been at Cooper
Institute. All right.
' Chattanooga, April 14.
1 Left Washington yesterday at 7 A.M. ; travelled there
by palace car, got here at 8 A.M. Country very picturesque,
but very few substantial houses, wood shanties being the
bulk. Travelled very comfortably ; went to bed regularly
at night, eating copiously by way. All country, but
150 SIDNEY (HLCHKIST THOMAS CH. xm
indeed mountainous. Shall be here three or four days.
Constantly thinking of you. I came south now, which I
ought not to have done, to keep promises to you and avoid
cold of the north. Have had long morning's interesting
and instructive interviewing. A beautiful country and
lovely day ; feel quite brilliant. Am thinking of settling
in the U.S. if the mother and you will come.'
' Grand Hotel, Chicago : April 20.
' Dearest Mother, Wrote you yesterday from Cincin-
nati. Came over here by sleeping car very comfortably.
Been all day at the Works; of course well received.
To-morrow more Works ; then to Joliet [Works], Springfield
[Works], and back to Pittsburgh, and so to New York.
Weather here coldish, but bright mornings. Some snow
left in streets and lake frozen. Chicago certainly is a
--marvel ; one can't credit it with being a fifty years old
town, and a ten years old phoenix. It looks enormously
prosperous and substantial ; the country flat and unin-
teresting enough. I take to palace-car sleeping travelling
greatly ; it truly makes distance no object, except to the
purse. Constantly thinking of you ; sometimes somewhat
home-folk-sick. Yours,
< S. G. T.'
'April 21.
4 Got yours and L.'s. Please always say specifically if
you are well. I have written by every mail since I have
been away. Two Works to-day. About Chicago a mass
of fine residence houses, and also as fine business places.
Forsythe very kind. Hotel 500 rooms, good specimen of
caravanserai ; ground floor, railway bureau, barbierstube,
assurance office, electric baths, &c. &c. Bonne cuisine, but
not much real comfort.'
CH. xiii A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES 151
' Fort Wayne, Illinois : April 23.
' Joliet Works very interesting. Well received. Splen-
did day there ; dining and supping with manager.
Arrived at Springfield, Illinois, at 10 A.M. All day at
Works. Has pleasant houses, a gorgeous State Capitol, and
streets in which the mud, without exaggeration, two feet
in thickness ; fine houses and shops of brick and stone are
jostled by wood cabins in the most curious way. Works
very interesting to me, as they are working Pernot pro-
cess, in which I am greatly interested.'
' The pleasant little wife of explained to me the
social points of Springfield thus. She belongs to a French
class, an Elocution class, a Shakespeare class, an Art Club
and a Married Folks Club. I find all the married women
here go to classes for languages,, or literature, or something/
Next comes a regular birthday letter to his mother :
1 Pittsburgh, April 28, 1881.
' Dearest Mother, I calculate this should reach you on
your birthday. I only wish I could be with you too, or
you with me. I shall be thinking of you, then, specially,
and hoping you may be bright and well, and as happy as
the best little mother in the world should be. What
Carlyle says of his wife I often feel of you, especially with
an ocean between us that I never can or shall appreciate
one tenth of what you have been to us all. Now to my
usual egotistical chronicle. I left myself on Monday
morning, when, after a pleasant call I adjourned to the
great Edgar Thompson's Steel Works of Carnegie's.
Spent there many hours with advantage; dining with
manager a vigorous and singularly able man. Home to
hotel and business till bedtime. Tuesday morning, was
joined by Holley from New York ; spent all day driving
about to Works. Admirably received, of course. Much
152 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xin
interesting, and all shown without reserve or hesitation.
In evening went to theatre with Andy, Carnegie's brother ;
much amused. Early next morning to Edgar Thompson
again, with Holley ; then to another Bess. Works, a party
being made up to accompany us. In evening (last even-
ing), a dinner by a dozen or so of leading iron men to
S. G. T. Brilliant dinner ; then Chairman called on every
individual to make a speech. I poor I was lugged in
by every speaker, of course. I had to orate twice, which
I did with commendable brevity. It is a dreadful
nuisance, this being talked at, and expected to talk, and
what is worse, be funny. The American does, however,
manage to let off a wonderful lot of clever and humorous
things. By practice, I think I should learn to grind out
a good thing once a month or so. We got home at 1 A.M.
and left Pittsburgh at 8 by palace car to Johnstown, through
beautiful scenery, along the Pennsylvanian Road. At
Johnstown, one objective was the Cambrian Works, an
enormous and most nourishing concern. Met there a lot
of people dining and supping with the manager. Came
by sleeping car to New York (29th) morning. The Bess,
people have paid money ; but I haven't yet received it.
6 P.M. Yet another pause : at last I have received a good
bit, at least, of the Bess, money.
' I shall now be in New York some days. I give a
lecture at School of Mines on Tuesday. Century Club
to-morrow. Go to Worcester on Wednesday. Ever so
much love, dearest mother, and ever so many happy returns
of the day. Yours ever affectionately.'
To his Mother
' Near Buffalo, on Erie Eailway : May 7, 1881.
' Dearest Mother, In last I was starting for Hartford.
I met L. at station, and waited till last moment for
CH. XTII A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES 153
the entertaining young person I had looked to escorting
down; but alas ! she appeared not, so like a philosopher
I consoled myself with "Well, it's just as well not!"
We had a very pleasant journey down, as we found the
leading American landscape painter in the cars and L.
introduced us. We talked no end. He [is] just back
from Mexico has been all over Europe, Greece, Turkey,
&c. and much in South America ; very pleasant.. H.
met us at station drove to hotel. He had wired his
daughter not to come, as no ladies were there. W r ent to
meeting of Mechanical Engineers ; then to State Capitol.
Such a magnificent place, in a Moorish-Venetian style
all in white marble outside, with much coloured marble
inside, the staircases and panellings massive carved marble
altogether as nearly perfect as an architectural thing
can be, on a little hill, laid out as a park with river
running nearly round it. If it were in Italy, you would
have said " Now, there's a thing you modern architects
could never do, nor any of your men of the Steel Age,"
and troops of pilgrims would go to see it. In evening a
banquet, I located between President and ex-Governor
H. Had to respond to Iron and Steel Institute, and spoke
very badly, after which three cheers for S. G. T. No, I
am not spoiled ; I take it just for what it is worth. A
number of brilliant witty speeches and two worse than
mine, " to my great content," as Pepys has it. Next day
visited Works : very interesting. I was only introduced
to sixty people at Hartford : asked to stop, but declined,
and came back to New York, and on direct to Niagara. I
am now on way there, of course in a Pullman. Am always
well. Weather bright. Ever yours.'
Next follows a series of post-cards :
154 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xin
* May 9.
' On train from Niagara. The big Falls are certainly
well worth seeing. I arrived at Niagara at noon yester-
day : drove [over] a light and graceful suspension bridge
to hotel on Canada side. At dinner picked up amus-
ing young Englishman, fresh from a visit to Texas. We
spent afternoon under and over the Falls, which I won't
attempt to describe.
' In evening arrived a young London banker, known
to . We had a pleasant trio talk and a glorious view
of Falls by moonlight. This morning viewed them again
from all possible points, to my great pleasure, and finally
I go at 2 P.M. for New York. I start Tuesday morning
for P. R. run on Pennsylvania.'
' Belleforte : May 13, 1881.
'Dearest Mother, Have really had a good time for
last three days. On Monday, as I wrote, I stopped at
Windsor. Tuesday, 9 A.M. I, Carnegie, and a Dr. Gilchrist
started for a place near Tyrone on the Pennsylvanian Kail-
road. We arrived at 9 P.M., having picked up on our way
a special car, with a railway man and two Pittsburgh
partners of Andrew Carnegie's. In this car we have slept
for three nights, and fed gorgeously. Real fun. Gorgeous
scenery, beautiful mines, grand furnaces, and lots of new
people. Had several long drives, and saw no end of the
interior country. It has really done me good. I now
go back again, three hundred miles or so, to Philadelphia,
Washington, &c. The woods are delicious in their first
greens. I am always longing for you two folk, which
spoils my enjoyment and makes me look forward to June 8.'
* Harrisburg : May 15.
' Dearest Mother, Slept at Altona, pretty place chiefly
remarkable for containing all the works of the Great
CH. xni A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES 155
Pennsylvania!! Railroad. Carnegie introduced me to some
engineers, and at 7 A.M. was round the " shops," that is
engineering ; then came down with Dr. Dudley here,
a four hours' ride through beautiful scenery. Afternoon
at very interesting Steel Works; slept, and now off to
Philadelphia/
' Philadelphia : May 15.
'Rather tired of hotel life, with its monotony and
numerous dishes. Have been so busy that I have presented
no introductions ; only seen young Conway and Mr. Holland,
a friend of Aunt A.'s. Carnegie and his party sail on
June 1. Want me to go with them : am afraid I shall be
unable to sail till 25th.'
' New York.
' As I post-carded, was at theatre last night. Enjoyed
it much ; that is, it made me quite miserable. A melodrama,
remarkably well acted and written. Working hard all
day ; am tired ; been only introduced to six people to-day.
All the men I meet are the most remarkable in America,
are also "gorgeous," "lovely," "princely," "magnificent,"
" superb," "heroic," &c. Have not been introduced to an
ordinary mortal yet.'
These epistles from the United States seem to us to
give a real picture of Thomas, with all his eager energy,
vivid sensibility, and keen delight in life and its spectacles.
It will be perceived that he took as much genuine pleasure
in architecture or scenery as in converters and smelting
furnaces. He was still the same Sidney Thomas who
knew his Dulwich Gallery by heart, just as he was
still the same Sidney Thomas who had stood for hours
in Grove Lane watching the construction of the main
sewers.
He hardly, however, gives us an adequate idea of
1-56 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xin
the reception accorded to him by the hospitable American
ironmasters and scientists. His ingenuous modesty leads
him constantly to understate the interest that was exhi-
bited in the solver of the dephosphorisation question.
He has given us his own impressions of the country
and people. The following extracts from the New York
i Iron Age ' 1 give something of the impression he pro-
duced.
' On Thursday last Mr. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas,
whose name is now so familiar to every one even remotely
connected with the iron and steel industries of the world,
arrived in this city from England.
' The hospitality upon which Americans justly pride
themselves, and a desire to tender Mr. Thomas the cour-
tesies to which his genius and achievements entitle him,
will undoubtedly assure him a reception worthy alike the
hosts and the guest. His youth, ... his modest bearing
and unassuming manners, will gain for him many strong
personal friends. Though appearing to be rather a scholar
than a man of business, his familiarity with the practical
details of his profession and enlightened and broad views
of matters pertaining to the trade rapidly efface the first
impression. More perhaps than any other man now
living, Mr. Thomas represents a class of inventors to whom
the future belongs, and his success is a striking instance
of the correctness of the principles which have guided his
work. His efforts will be an encouragement to those who
seek for improvements of present appliances and processes
by the slow and laborious method of studying the causes
which arrest further progress and devising means for their
removal. In the popular mind an invention is little more
than a lucky idea, which, if it happen to hit the right
Of March 31, 1881, and February 26, 1885.
CH. xni A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES 157
thing at the right time, brings wealth and glory to the
one who has been favoured with the inspiration, and there
is a large class of men who do little more than hold them-
selves in readiness for such fortunate accidents. Mr.
Thomas does not belong to this class.'
In a long memoir published four years later, after
Sidney's untimely death, the same paper gives a sketch
of his personal appearance as it struck his American
friends :
' Mr. Thomas will be well remembered in this country.
His personal appearance was striking and peculiar. He
received honours and awards modestly, and his boyish face,
careless dress, and exaggerated forehead strongly sug-
gested struggling genius rather than world-renowned
success. He was . . . always companionable, bright and
entertaining. Those who knew him felt for him a strong
attachment/
Mr. Carnegie of Pittsburgh (the author of 'Triumphant
Democracy ' ), who is so often spoken of in the foregoing
letters, says of Thomas :
' The first thought that passed through my mind when
I saw him was, "He's a genius." I never saw one who
so completely separated in himself talent from that
indescribable thing we call genius. I cannot think anyone
would use the words " able " or " talented " in connec-
tion with him. All about him seemed extraordinary.
Appearance, manner, dress, voice, gesture, all said without
saying, " Listen to me, attend ! I am not of the routine
world, I walk no beaten track ; from the unexplored and
unknown I bring you fruit." He did not need to speak
this ; his manner and gaze made you see and feel it. He
had only to appear and we bowed before his power. I have
158 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xm
never met a man who carried me so completely away as
Sidney Thomas did.'
Mr. Carnegie has also described Thomas (the 'pale
Gladstonian-looking youth' as he calls him) in his 'An
American Four-in-Hand in Britain.' 2
2 At pp. 85-90.
en. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EAENEST 159
CHAPTER XIV
HEALTH FAILS IN EARNEST
EARLY in July of 1881, Thomas, having accomplished his
purposes across the Atlantic, returned to England. Upon
his return he prepared, in conjunction with Mr. Gilchrist,
a 'Note on Current Dephosphorising Practice,' for the
autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute. This
* Note ' is mainly concerned with technical details, but
furnishes some interesting statistics of the progress already
achieved, just three years, as it then was, after the famous
Paris meeting when the original papers of the two cousins
had been passed over, and but little more than two years
since working on a large scale had been begun.
c The present current manufacture of dephosphorised
steel amounts,' said the young authors, 'to between 27,000
and 29,000 tons a month. It may be added that the make
for November, and probably for October, will considerably
exceed 30,000 tons, or say at the rate of 360,000 tons a
year, 1 while, in the course of the next few months, twelve
more Converters, now nearly finished, will come into opera-
tion, bringing the yearly make up to considerably over
half a million tons.
...
' As to the quality of the steel produced, the rapid
1 In our final chapter we give had been even two years after this
some particulars of the growth of paper more than doubled. Sed cf.
basic steel-making and the present * Conclusion,' post.
rate of production. The figures
160 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xiv
extension of its employment for every purpose for which
Bessemer steel has ever been used (excepting perhaps the
manufacture of Bessemer tool steel) is the best evidence.
That dephosphorised steel is even superior to hematite steel
for certain purposes, such as rails and other plates and
wire, is now pretty well agreed. The total number of
Converters at present regularly working on phosphoric
iron is thirty-six, of which, however, eight or nine are less
than four tons capacity. Thirty more Converters, specially
designed for the process, are now under construction.
Several Siemens furnaces have been in regular work for
some time, but details of their operations must be reserved
for the present.'
Thomas spent a portion of August with his mother and
sister at Sandgate ; but soon betook himself to renewed
continental journey ings. The following correspondence is
of this period :
To his Mother
' Vienna: September 12, 1881, 8 A.M.
1 Came here last afternoon. Went to theatre, and bed,
after walking about a magnificent city, all bright. People
pleasant looking. The Kupelwieser charming to last mo-
ment ; hospitality almost too great. Kupelwieser wanted
to come to Vienna with me, in order that he might show
me about. Lil to go there next year if she behave. They
will probably visit us in spring for a day or two. Shall go
to-night to Wiesbaden, then Luxembourg, Longwy, to
Bonn, where I shall be very glad to get. Frankfort, Sep-
tember 13.' .
Metz : September 18, 1881.
' Dearest Mother,- Confirm mine of this morning.
Got here at 5 P.M. Do some Works ; on in morning I
expect, for a few hours to Wiesbaden; then down to
CH. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EAKNEST 161
Dortmund on Sunday night or Monday. Again a lovely
day, just hot enough and very bright. Holley not very
brilliant. I all right.'
<Biebrich: September 19, 1881, Sunday, 5 P.M.
( Got to Neuen Kirchen at 5 last night. Deputation to
meet us at station ; did Works. Dined with owners, then
beer and wine with all engineers till 12. Up at 6 A.M.,
off to K. Saw W. off at noon on a six hours' rail ride to
Wiesbaden.'
< Dortmund : September 20.
f Got here at 11 last night. Spent three hours in
Cologne and good tim^around Dom, which is magnificent.
This morning went to H. M. M. J. returns to-morrow night,
so I shall stop here till Thursday night, then to Kuhrort on
Saturday. We shan't join the Holley party after all.'
Alas ! with the returning autumn it became absolutely
necessary to suspend activity, if, indeed, Thomas could
ever be said to suspend activity. We all of us remember
the story of the man who was placed in a chamber from
which there was no escape, and the walls and floor and
ceiling of which very slowly, but very surely, contracted and
drew together. In such a chamber was the bright young
life now, as it were, imprisoned. Manifestly this winter
could not be spent as former ones had been ; for the lung
trouble grew worse rather than better. Thomas was
strongly pressed both by medical and lay advisers to
spend the dangerous months in the south of France.
There is before us a letter from Mr. Lushington in which
this view is forcibly urged. He writes in November :
' I am very sorry to hear that you have got out of
health and are recommended to go south for the winter. I
hope you will lose no time in complying with the recom-
mendation, and get out of this climate and through France
M
162 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xiv
before the winter sets in, even if it is only a matter of
extra precaution. The old French proverb, la lame use le
fourreau, is not one which is safe to neglect ; and it would
be very foolish in you to overtax the sheath of your in-
tellectual identity by hard work, in despite of any temporary
weakness just now. I trust you have every right to an-
ticipate a long and prosperous career as the reward of your
scientific labours ; but the chances of health are not things
to trifle with. I am sure you will not resent, and I hope
you will not be tempted to disregard, the advice/
However, Thomas could not see his way to leaving
England at this time, and he compromised matters by
wintering at Torquay, whence he returned to London in
the spring of 1882, only to find that he must, until
summer finally set in, betake himself to Ventnor.
At Torquay he had both his mother and sister with
him, as well as many visitors. His sister writes concerning
this period :
* I remember much work incessant writing a great
deal of fun and merriment. A favourite game with us was
anagram making. A novel read at this time, and much
appreciated, was Mrs. Burnett's " That Lass o' Lowrie's."
Sidney was always ready to turn everything into a joke,
including his own " petty ailments," as he insisted on
calling them. One of these " petty ailments " was an
inability to walk fast or far, which was just beginning to
show itself. Alas ! Sidney had until then been a vigorous
walker indeed, both as to pace and distance.
c I had some delightful rides with him. Every move-
ment of his horse was the text for comical disquisitions on
what was passing in the quadruped's mind, and specula-
tions on the animal's view of life in general, and of his
rider in particular.
CH. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EARNEST 163
c We got up the history of Devonshire, and made ex-
peditions to various points which our studies led us to
imagine would be interesting. Once or twice we rode in
the Brixham direction, and on such occasions we would
return home with pockets weighed down with iron-
stone.'
From Torquay Sidney wrote to Wiesbaden :- -
To Miss Burton
' My dear Bess, Torquay is very slow. That is the
predominating idea with me at present. I must confess it
is pretty enough, and that it is sunnier (when there is sun)
than elsewhere ; but I am not constructed to revel in polite
watering-places.
1 Lil and the Mother very good, and insist on amusing
me.
' I am well enough on the whole, decidedly better,
get all my letters here, so can keep things going. There
is plenty to do.
' We have drives frequently, and hope some day to get
out to Dartmoor.
' I may go over to America again in the spring. In
the summer (or rather September) all the Iron and Steel
Institute go over to Vienna. I expect I shall take Lil
and have a " good time ; " perhaps going to Italy as well.'
At Yentnor Thomas was with his sister. The latter
' We led much the same life at Ventnor as at Torquay ;
more rides, more reading, more work, more fun. It would
have been very pleasant had not the days been darkened
for me by increasing anxiety concerning him. I remember
Sidney spending a whole morning on the sands with my-
M 2
164 SIDNEY aiLCHKIST THOMAS CH . xiv
self and a girl friend constructing a dam, aqueduct, and
embanked canal, diverting the course of a little rivulet.'
Thomas and Mr. Gilchrist were meantime engaged in
preparing a paper on ' The Manufacture of Steel and Ingot
Iron from Phosphoric Pig Iron,' which was read to the So-
ciety of Arts in April 1882, and received the Society's medal.
It gives so clear an account of the whole matter that we
cannot resist making some rather copious extracts from it.
{ Lord Palmerston's terse and accurate definition of
dirt,' the authors begin, ' as " matter in the wrong place,"
may with singular appropriateness be applied to the
phosphorus which, while itself a substance of considerable
commercial value, is unfortunately so generally associated
with iron ores to the great detriment of their utility. . . .
* Dephosphorisation endeavours to relegate this wrongly
placed matter, if not into its right place, at least into a
neutral position, where it can do no active mischief. The
actual importance and scope of dephosphorisation in its
application to steel-making is most readily realised if we
bear in mind :
' 1. That on a rough estimate about nine-tenths of the
whole deposits of iron ore in Europe contain more than
one part of phosphorus for every thousand parts of iron.
4 2. That in the smelting of iron ore in the blast furnace
to form pig iron (the first step in the conversion of iron
ore to a malleable material), no phosphorus is removed, so
that, practically, all the phosphorus found in the ore is
found also in the pig.
' 3. That in neither of the two great steel-making
processes, as ordinarily carried out, is phosphorus removed,
so that all the phosphorus found in the pig is, under
ordinary circumstances, found also in the steel into which
it is converted.
CH. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EAKNEST 165
f That the presence of more than one part of phosphorus
in a thousand of steel is not permissible where reliable
quality is necessary, phosphorus, as is well known, causing
in steel extreme brittleness at ordinary temperatures.
. . . The non-phosphoric ores are confined in England
to Cumberland, Lancashire, the Forest of Dean, and two
or three other very limited areas, as Weardale, Mwndy. . . .
' On the other hand, the whole of the ores of Scotland,
Yorkshire including the vast deposits of Cleveland with
its yearly output of 6,500,000 tons North and South
Wales, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, and the great belt of
country extending from Wiltshire across Oxfordshire and
Northamptonshire to Lincolnshire, are phosphoric. These
deposits are of so enormous an extent as to render it very
difficult to calculate their probable content of ironstone ;
but an attentive examination of their area justifies the
conclusion that the nonphosphoric ores are in Great Britain
at least ten times more abundant than the pmer kinds. . . .
' On the Continent also all the largest deposits, with
the exception of those of Spain and Sweden, are phos-
phoric. The great phosphoric ironstone region shared
between Luxembourg, the Meurthe-et-Moselle, Alsace-Lor-
raine, and Belgium, is alone more considerable than all
the other deposits of Northern Europe together.
'In America the deposits of Bessemer ore are very
large, but are greatly exceeded in magnitude by the great
phosphoric ore-tracts of Pennsylvania, Alabama, Tennessee,
and Virginia, and it is highly probable that the centre of
the steel manufacture of the United States will on this
account gradually gravitate southwards. . . . 2
' How does it happen that there are 9,000,000 tons of
pig-iron annually turned into the unquestionably inferior
material known as puddled iron, while only 5,500,000 tons
2 This rediction seems now in course of fulfilment.
166 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xiv
are converted into the superior form of steel or ingot iron
particularly when so great an economy of fuel and labour
could have been effected by turning the whole into the higher
class materials ? May it not be fairly contended that it is
really nothing but the absence of a practical and economi-
cal system of dephosphorisation that could justify the
existence of such an anomaly ? It is now proposed to
show that there is no reason for its continuance ; since the
development and modifications introduced during the last
four years enable steel of any desired purity, as regards
freedom not only from phosphorus but from silicon and
sulphur, to be produced readily and economically from the
most highly phosphoric kinds of pig iron.
{ The Bessemer process with concurrent dephosphorisa-
tion as now practised at the Middlesbro' Works of Bolckow,
Vaughan, & Co. (who, under the able guidance of Mr.
Windsor Eichards, have been the pioneers of the new
industry) and thirteen other Works in France, Belgium,
Germany, Austria, and Russia is carried out as follows :
i The Bessemer vessel is lined with magnesian lime,
which has been previously subjected to an intense white
heat, and so brought to a condition of density, tenacity,
and hardness as far as possible removed from the condi-
tions of the material generally known as "well-burnt
lime," and more closely resembling granite or flint. This
material, which for brevity is known as " shrunk lime "
(as in course of preparation it shrinks to one half the
bulk of ordinary lime), is used either in the form of bricks
or in admixture with tar, as a rammed or " slurry " lining,
this being substituted for the ordinary silica brick or
silicious ganister 3 lining of the hematite process.
8 For the meaning of ganister' with Bessemer's account of the
see ante, p. 32. This whole descrip- original process there given,
tion should be carefully compared
CH. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EAENEST 167
' Before the metal, which may be either employed direct
from the blast furnace without intervening re-melting, or,
if for any reason this is not convenient, may have been re-
melted in a cupola, is run into the converter, from 15 to
18 per cent, of common " well-burnt " lime is thrown into
the vessel. The metal is then introduced and the charge
is " blown " in the ordinary way to the point at which the
ordinary Bessemer operation is stopped that is till the
disappearance of the carbon, as indicated by the drop of
the flame. The dephosphorising process requires, however,
to be continued for a further 1 00 to 300 seconds, this period
of so-called " after blow," which would be prejudicial both
to quality and yield in the ordinary process, being with
phosphoric iron (under conditions permitting of the
removal of phosphorus) that in which the great bulk of the
phosphorus, down indeed to its last traces, is removed.
The termination of the operation is shown by a peculiar
change in the flame and checked by a sample of the metal
being rapidly taken from the turned-down converter,
flattened under the hammer, quenched, and broken, so as
to indicate by its fracture whether the purification is com-
plete. A practised eye can immediately tell whether or
no this is the case. If the metal require further puri-
fication, this is effected by a few seconds' further blowing.
' The operation is thus, as will be seen, but little
different from the ordinary Bessemer process. The differ-
ences that have been indicated, viz., the lime lining, the
lime addition, and the after-blow are, however, sufficient
not only to enable the whole of the phosphorus (which
would be otherwise untouched) to be completely removed,
but the silicon, of which inconvenient and even dangerous
quantities are occasionally left in the regular Bessemer
process, is also entirely eliminated, while at least 60 per
cent, of any sulphur (also untouched in the ordinary pro-
168 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xiv
cess) which may have been present in the pig is also
expelled.
' It is found, too, that the once dreaded phosphorus is of
most substantial assistance in securing by its combustion
the intense heat necessary for obtaining a successful blow
and hot metal.
' If it is desired to produce " ingot iron," or a metal
differing only from puddled iron by its homogeneity and
solidity, the usual addition of spiegel is omitted, or re-
placed by a half per cent, of rich fersomanganese. . . .
The phosphorus is oxidised by the blast, forming phos-
phoric acid, which, finding itself in presence of two strong
bases, oxide of iron and lime, unites with the latter of
them to form phosphate of lime, which passes into the
slag. Whether or no there is a transitory formation of
phosphate, making oxide of iron perform the function of
a carrier, is a matter (though interesting theoretically)
which it is needless here to discuss. . . .
' The basic Siemens and Siemens-Martin processes 4
are carried out upon the same lines as the Bessemer pro-
cess. The dephosphorisation is very complete, but the
operation takes about five per. cent longer than when pure
material is used : the proportion of lime required is less
than in the Bessemer process, and the wear of the basic
hearth, with suitable arrangements, is not excessive.'
The authors then proceed to discuss questions of cost,
and show the gain by using phosphoric ores (so much
cheaper than hematite ones) in the Bessemer process. ' As
compared with puddling we find that the basic Bessemer
process is more economical in every item except that of
4 It has been thought unneces- will suffice to make clear the
sary to describe these processes in utility and importance of the
this Memoir. The Bessemer pro- Thomas-Gilchrist operation, Ante
cess, if thoroughly understood, p. 33.
CH. XIY HEALTH FAILS IN EARNEST 169
loss of metal and waste of lining the economy in labour
and fuel being especially notable.'
The whole paper is so logical in its arrangement and so
interesting in its matter that we wish we could reproduce
it in its entirety.
Sidney, as may be seen from what his sister has said
above, although he might tarry in Devon or the Isle of
Wight, could not be induced to rest. The mass of
correspondence and business which his patents in various
countries and other matters connected with his great dis-
covery brought to him was huge indeed, yet he was ever
seeking new avenues of activity. From the first days of
his success he had given with the most generous liberality
to such objects as commended themselves to him. It may
be, as some of us think, that no good can be done to the com-
munity by any charity, however enlightened, so long as
the present system of society endures ; but at any rate
good may be done to individuals and (in any case) one
cannot help loving the cheerful self-sacrificing giver, who
gives from the abundance of his heart, or because he
honestly believes that he is redressing social injustice, and
not as one merely paying ' ransom ' for his riches.
' I would urge him to rest,' says his mother, ' and tell
him that he had done enough for many years at all events :
but the answer to me always was, " You see, mother, I
must, if I live show that I can work at other things
besides dephosphorisation. Besides I must make more
money still ; I have really given so much away that we
shall be hampered in our plans for colonisation, workers'
dwellings, and what not, if I don't ! "
'If I live' is the phrase as quoted by his mother.
Already, it would seem, the thought that it might be that
he would not live, was shaping itself in his mind. He
writes to Mr. Chaloner about this time :
170 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xiv
' 27, Tedworth Square, Chelsea : June 20, 1882.
'Dear Chaloner, I should not trouble about these
details, but am fixing up everything so that, in case of
accidents, my affairs would stand on a simple and business-
like footing for my representatives.
c I wish you would look in when near. I am really so
tied up that I can't make any calls (though I am obliged
to travel a bit from time to time). I should like a chat.
I shall probably go to Germany on a Works round in July,
and in October go away for six months, I expect. Yours
ever,
1 S. G. THOMAS.'
Thomas spent August of this year of 1882 in
Guernsey and Jersey with his sister Lilian.
'In Guernsey and Jersey,' she says, c we spent the
happiest month, a month of continual sunshine. We
drove almost over the lovely islands, housekeeping merrily
together. In Guernsey, Sidney always came with me to
the fruit market a delightful mass of lovely colour. We
led a bright, simple life, full of work and fun, fresh air
and sunlight.'
The following letters belong to this period :
To his Mother
' Dearest Mother, We are wonderfully favoured with
bright weather ; though coldish wind last two days. We
lead such an idle life as ought to shame one ; but I manage
to keep a little business moving along. I wish you could
be here ; but at same time feel it doubtful if it is not too
much of a journey. The place is dull enough and to spare.
Wish someone would come down, but can't recommend
anyone to do so. I am not quite sure that it suits me.
By the way, I am quite clear the east coast would not.
CH. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EARNEST 171
L. the best little woman possible, thoughtful and good
to a degree. Have enjoyed my " Middlemarch," which is
inimitable, and also some " Nineteenth Century " and other
mags. The bound volume " XIX th " for first half '82 is full
of interest. I think we could move up to some place where
you could come next week : will give this a few more
days' trial.
1 Am ever so much better, but the east monotony makes
me feel a bit cranky. Lil has, of course, told you more
than everything. Truest love. Ever your son,
' SIDNEY.'
To Miss Burton
Guernsey : August 19, 1882.
1 Dear Bess, I have had the hope all spring of spending
some time at Wiesbaden, on my way to Vienna as before ;
but (like many other hopes) this is, I suppose, to be
disappointed. I have not written you for long, as I
thought, if I waited, I might write I was coming to see
you, or that I was well enough to be too busy to come.
However, my unpleasant lung trouble, so far from depart-
ing, seems always tightening its hold ; so I came here three
weeks ago with Lil, preparatory to going away somewhere
before October, to Australia or America, it will probably
be, or round the world as I want to make a fight to get
some work done yet. . . . Guernsey has fine coast scenery ;
though inland it is too highly cultivated to be very pic-
turesque. It is small farming pushed to extremities. . . .
I am heartily tired of this, as (when one can only walk a
hundred yards at a time) is natural enough. We return
on Thursday or Friday, and I probably start for somewhere
in another fortnight.
' I regret the missing Vienna Iron and Steel Meeting
immensely. You must come and see [us] when I return
from my long trip, We made the acquaintance of some
172 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xiv
very delightful Americans who have been stopping at
Kingston, and had planned spending the winter together
in Italy, after going to Vienna together. However, I
expect the long trip is the wiser one.
'The Process is making fair progress. I am much
annoyed at having to leave it now, when so much remains
to be done, and also before our North Eastern Company
is fairly started at work. ... I have, I hear, just been
elected on the Council of the Iron and Steel Institute ;
which is rather a pleasant compliment, as the membership
is usually reserved for much older men and greater swells
than I. Lil very bonny and good ; makes a most cheerful
companion in a dull place. . . . You may next expect to
hear from me from the Antipodes or elsewhere. Yours
always,
<SiD. G. THOMAS.'
All the while, however, his life (although he knew it
not), was drawing onward to the end, an end which was
so sad because so early. With his return to London and
with the first breath of autumn he again grew worse, and
it was necessary to once more seek refuge in Devonshire,
until Thomas could put his affairs in order and embark
upon the voyage in search of health, which had now
become imperatively needed. He was unable to be present,
as he had much looked forward to being present, at the
autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, which
this year was held in Vienna.
At this meeting a very unusual honour was conferred
upon him in his absence. Herr Boeumler obtained leave
to present to him in full meeting, on behalf of the Prague
Ironworks Company, a beautifully wrought casket made
exclusively of pig, ' ingot iron ' and steel. He said he had
been deputed by his company to present the casket to
CH. xiv HEALTH FAILS IN EARNEST 173
Mr. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, i as a mark of their apprecia-
tion of his genius, as well as to express, though in a some-
what feeble manner, their gratitude for the benefits con-
ferred upon their district by the basic process. He learnt
with deep regret that Mr. Thomas was too ill to be present,
but he would place it in the hands of Mr. Gilchrist,
who would hand it over to their absent friend and bene-
factor.'
Meanwhile, Thomas had decided to begin the winter
in South Africa, and from thence to push on to Australia
(Australia had been an attraction to him all his life), taking
possibly India by the way. It was arranged that Mr.
Honman, a young medical man for whom he had a great
liking, should accompany him. Before starting, he wrote
the following farewell letter to his constant correspondent
at Wiesbaden :
To Miss Burton
'Kings wear, Devon: October 11, 1882.
' My dear Bess, ... I have been here now ten days,
and am all the better. It is a singularly pretty place
quite the prettiest I know in England. I sail day after
to-morrow at noon in the " Conway Castle " for the Cape
or Port Elizabeth ; stop there a few weeks and then to
Sydney, Australia. Such at least is my present idea. I
am pretty confident that I shall return recruited. Lil and
the Mother down with me, looking after me very closely.
I tell them they will have nothing to do when I cease to
occupy all their time.
4 1 am dreadfully busy getting necessary papers, deeds,
and letters off. I shall have a whole batch to send off to
post from on board.
c This is my excuse for a necessary brevity. Kindest
regards to all. Ever yours,
' S. G. T.'
174 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xv
CHAPTER XV
SOUTH AFRICA
ON October 13, 1882, accordingly, Thomas sailed with Mr.
Honman for the Cape. His copious correspondence with
his sister and mother during his absence seems to us to be
very interesting in itself, and to illustrate his own character,
his power of making friends, his clear outlook upon things
as they were, his rapid grasp of economic conditions, in a
very remarkable fashion.
To his Mother and tfister
' Tuesday, October 17, Afternoon : off Madeira.
' Dearest Mother and Child, Directly you left the ship
on Friday, I felt that there were a hundred things I wanted
specially and particularly to say to you both, that I had left
unsaid ; but as I fancy we should all have been feeling bad
and badder the longer we put off parting, it was perhaps
best as it was. I was on deck till about five. Saturday
was fine again, though it got cold in the afternoon. Sunday
also coldish and wet most of the day, so I kept in cabin
and smoking room mostly. Yesterday warm (65-72)
and sunny all day ; I sitting on deck and basking in the
aiv from morning to night. To-day, if possible, still more
brilliant and the sea mirror-like almost. Madeira looks
lovely as we approach. Now as to myself. Saturday and
Sunday I only felt middling, with now and again some
CH. xy SOUTH AFRICA 175
chest pain. Yesterday and to-day I have felt no pain ; a
prodigious appetite, and generally in excellent health.
4 ... I haven't yet begun to feel very sociable and (as
our neighbours at dinner, &c. have not yet turned up to take
meals in cabin) I have made few or no acquaintances. One
man, a Major B., who is going to Madeira, where he has
lived three years, says climate is during winter like an
English fine April day. He cultivates sugar-cane, fruits
and vegetables, with which cane he supplies Army and
Navy Stores. I got a good deal of information from him.
I have also picked up with an old colonial returning to
Grahamstown in Cape Colony (400 miles from Cape Town).
He speaks very highly of the healthfullness of the place ; he
has with him three daughters (the girls Lil noticed) and five
sons. Is rather a nice old boy. We may possibly go first
to Grahamstown and then work down to Cape : our plans
yet unformed. They all speak highly of the healthfulness
of the inland country. There are several returning to Dia-
mond Fields who seem to find life very pleasant. There are
oceans of children on board, several Dutchmen, eight
doctors, the German Transit of Venus observer, &c. I
have enjoyed Trollope's " Africa," which have finished.
1 1 have nearly finished George's "Progress and Poverty."
Tell Mr. Vacher I have really rarely enjoyed a book more.
I don't agree with all his conclusions ; but do in the main.
His style is singularly clear, persuasive, and rich in illustra-
tion. I want you and Lil to get it at once (it is only 4^.)
and read it aloud. I have also begun three novels.
' The ship is altogether well appointed and indeed all that
could be desired. We shall certainly go on, landing at Cape
Town or Port Elizabeth according to circumstances. You
may be sure we will only do what will be the most prudent.
I feel to-day what I have not felt for months, that existence
is pleasant. We only stop two or three hours in Madeira,
176 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
and may likely not go on shore. Temperature is now 76
in cabin ; the lowest it fell to last night was 66. Saturday
night it fell to 52, which is the lowest it has touched.
4 Atlantic, South of Teneriffe : October 19, 1882.
' Dearest Mother, As there is nothing to write about,
the best way to write it will be to add something daily or
thereabouts.
' Firstly I am still more all right than when I wrote off
Madeira. We came up to the Island as the sun was
setting. It looked, in deep shadow, wonderfully wild and
picturesque ; the mountains black and gloomy, but banded
with white fleecy clouds, standing against a gorgeous
opalescent sky. It was dark before we anchored and (as it
promised to be coldish and we had only three hours to stop)
I concluded not to go on shore. The ship surrounded by a
score or two of boats with Portuguese vendors of chairs,
pots, fruit, boxes, and so on. They climbed up sides, and
negotiated with great zeal altogether an amusing and
interesting scene. We left at 10.50. Yesterday another
superb day, thermometer about 80 in cabin ; not lower than
68 all night. They had a dance in saloon last night ; five
ladies danced. Mr. Honman was one of the men dancers. I,
looking on into skylight, was amused. I talk a good deal
to father of the three girls; he gives a good deal of informa-
tion, mostly of Colony. Had also interesting talks with
many from Natal. All say no native works after he has
saved enough to buy a wife (who does enough for both),
unless he is ambitious and wants two or more wives.
From all I hear, I think I should like the Colony much.
( October 20. Another day gone. Last evening had
long gossip with colonist, giving me history of his life.
Draper's apprentice, then buyer at seventeen in Edinburgh
house, getting 230Z. a year ; at nineteen left for London on
CH. xv SOUTH AFRICA 177
doctor telling him Scotland would kill him ; traveller at
30 01. a year, then on his own account in a small way.
Then to Cape (partly for his own health), where he now
employs over 100 hands, and makes 6,OOOL or 7,OOOZ. a year
and is painfully robust. Has lot of stories of dying men
who, coming to Cape, make rapid recoveries, marry, and
settle into monsters of health. Temperature last night
sank to 70. After being 90 is now 80 in my cabin,
We sleep of course with ports wide open. I had a
delicious bath yesterday. I have read much about Cape
and am getting reconciled to idea of settling there with
you, at least for the winters, if I can't stand English
winters. The climate is praised by everyone, and there
must be some fine scenery. As Cape and Natal are five
times bigger than Great Britain, there is room enough.
I could buy a waterfall and 5,000 acres of ground, and we
could lead quite a jolly existence. I often wonder if you
would have been ill for more than three days if you had
come. I doubt if you would have been ; though there are
still three or four ladies who do not appear at meals. The
last two days the wind behind us ; the ship is delightfully
steady.
' October 23. Nothing to report last three days. Mono-
tonous eating, drinking, and sleeping, but getting health
daily. Sea smooth as a lake. Flying fish, swallows and
porpoises only things in sight ; not seen a ship for five
days. Sleep in pyjamas ; no sheet, open ports, and panting
at that. Have had bath twice ; sea water. Make acquain-
tances slowly only. Numerations (for Lil's benefit). A
Natal doctor, rather pleasant ; went out for health (which
much improved) seven years ago. Likes climate, only
too hot weather. Speaks highly of natives, as everyone
does who has had much experience of them. Says his
only difficulty with them is that they don't like being
N
178 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
ordered about by his wife. They think it degrading
to obey a woman. Young doctor going out on spec.,
just passed at Dublin ; naif and good-tempered. An
ex-small railway contractor, now settled in Cape, at which
he grumbles. Thinks no place so good as New Zealand ;
given me much useful information on railways, &c.
The " Comet," i.e. Herr Matsch, German astronomer, who
lives in England, and, oddly enough, has been mixed up
with Lowthian Bell, Newall, and others I know. Knows
White, &c. ; is also connection of Lil's friend Helmholtz.
I find it too fatiguing to make talk, except occasionally.
' October 24. Called off at 4 P.M. yesterday to join the
Grahamstown party (who make their own tea every after-
noon) for their private afternoon tea. . . . After dinner
a three hours' political discussion on war, Egypt, Cetewayo,
Colonial Government, Gladstone, Bright, English parties,
law, &c.
c Parties thereto ; A. (a Manchester merchant of 50 or
60) going out to see his son who has settled in Natal ; the
man from Mansfield, who is an active politician, cousin
of Firth; a very intelligent Natalian who has been in
Durban since he was eight years old (and has given me
much useful information) ; another young Manchester
man, the contractor, &c. This really amusing. Two boys
sit opposite us at table, one son of Manchester merchant,
going out to friends in business in Natal, has been in
Holland for six months, learning Dutch ; the other a very
pretty little lad of 14, son of clergyman at Cape, has
crossed five times, general favourite.
' Sunday. Had church at 10.30, after a muster con-
ducted by Captain. Didn't go. Chapel in evening to
which I did go. A Dutch minister on board gave four
long extemporary prayers of usual advisatory, impertinent,
and profane character ; and a fearful sermon, of not bad
CH. xv SOUTH AFEICA 179
composition but with no point or useful end of any kind
one-third consisted of scraps of scriptural language. Told
us tempter of our souls was always walking around, and
that he was sometimes more energetic than at others, and
that he was a roaring lion ! and a torrent ! and a ravening
beast ! and a ghostly enemy ! and that we were to put on
the whole armour of faith and raise the Lord's standard !
and do a number of other figurative and impracticable
things. It seemed to me if he had told us not to gamble,
or drink, or eat too much, or cheat our neighbours, and to
help those who are helpless, and not look down on steerage
passengers, or be inflated with a big find of diamonds, or
a rise in landed estates, &c., it would have been infinitely
more to the point. The three girls and three or four men
play and sing most evenings. I sometimes go down.
There is a good [deal] of card-playing on board, and some
" sweepstaking." I don't go in for either, of course. I
fancy a doctor at Cape does well ; perhaps best at Natal.
For visiting at a distance they charge a guinea for every
three miles. Thus, if patient lives 9 miles off, fee is
three guineas, &c.
( Don't get through much reading, though I think I
do more than any three others on board. Have, so far,
only read George's two books (which are all I told you
before); Trollope's "South Africa " and two other South
African books ; Besant and Rice's "The Ten Years Tenant "
(a clever collection of stories); "Hades to Olympus"
(cleverish, but stilted) ; a little physiology ; a very little
" Alkali Trade," and some light trifles. I am now on
Thackeray's Sketchbooks. Very interesting, and quaintly
illustrative of the line of thought of forty years ago.
His papers on French dramas, caricatures, and novelists,
very pleasant reading. I have oceans too many things^
shan't want a third. Find more than ever, if you want
N 2
180." SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
a thing done, do it yourself (unless you can get such little
women as Mother and Lil to do it).
1 October 27, Friday. 25th, reading mostly in after-
noon. Tea with the Grahamstown party, which entailed a
long gossip with one of the female children. Crossed the
line in the afternoon ; no ceremonies of any kind. Music
in evening ; one or two of the three girls played a good
deal of light bright music by heart. On 26th and 27th,
feeling a trifle seedyish. Honman has'sent me into my cabin,
and otherwise tormented me, in order to keep me from
interfering with him. Been reading Waterton's " Travels,"
"Alkali Trade," Jeafireson's "Book about Doctors,"
" Voyage of the Sunbeam," stupid novel of George Reade's.
Am about all right again. Talking to another Natal doctor ;
he also praises climate ; been out eight years. A man of
small capital could, I fancy, live happily enough. Eight
per cent, on mortgages ; nine per cent, on house property.
Thermometer for last three days been between 76 and 90 ;
cooler than when north of line.
' Tuesday, 31st. Had cooler and rougher weather,
though thermometer not under 60. I've been keeping
pretty much to saloon and my cabin, as wind feels cold.
This is tiresome ; but you see I am going for over-caution.
Had a theatrical performance on Saturday night ; went oft
fairly well. Crowded house.
4 ... There is considerable singing and playing. Read
a good deal ; have demolished Gulliver for the third time ;
Dilke's " Greater Britain," electrical book, &c. A good
deal of card-playing on board, in which Honman and I don't
join. Have just re-read " Times " of October 11, for third
time. The woman whose face mother said she liked (for
reasons unknown) is a German teacher going to Cape ;
speaks no English. Am always thinking of you both, and
of time of our meeting.
CH. xv SOUTH AFEICA 181
'November 1. Am much better; sea continues roughish,
head winds ; a good deal of water shipped ; but the sun
has been out again for the last two days. Been talking
to a young Dutchman, born in Cape, who has just returned
from six months in Europe, and to a Dutch Cape minister^
on Cape Dutch, &c. Also found a Middlesbro' man who
has been five years in Natal ; says he wouldn't go back to
England on any account. Events nil; not seen a ship
since leaving Madeira. Off Cape Verde saw some butter-
flies forty miles from shore ; also some swallows and an
albatross, and a few flying fish. Among the second cabin
passengers is a Kaffir, who has been paying a six months'
visit to Europe (Rome, &c.), from money he has saved.
1 . . H. reports conversation : B. " Does anyone know
what Mr. Thomas is?" C. U A missionary, I believe."
D. " Missionary be d d ! I reckon his mission is to make
money."
' Friday evening , November 4. Mail is collected early
to-morrow morning, Saturday, as we arrive in evening
at Capetown ; so add last words. Honman recommends
strongly our going from here to Calcutta. Have just had
my talk to Captain ; says he doesn't think we can get a
steamer to Australia at all. I shall go to Australia, if we
can get a steamer to Calcutta. I will send this as soon as
we decide. We do not stop at Capetown, except to land
passengers and mails, but go on to Port Elizabeth, and so up
country, where I shall stop till I feel quite strong and well.
One stop will be probably at Graham stown, which is a
town of 9,000 inhabitants, said to be pretty and healthy.
I shall very likely not go to Capetown ; but in this shall be
guided by circumstances. Temperature for last week has
been 60-70 ; wind roughish and against us. I have not
once been sea-sick, although felt uncomfortable several
times. Have quite got rid of cold caught in tropics. I am
182 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
so prodigiously careful, and keep in all the evenings
which, is a trial, as it is the sociable time. Think of you
all the time. Look after each other, and (Lil) see mother
has plenty of drives. It is clear I am all right in a warm
climate. Everyone is now writing letters. I shall cable
to-morrow. I look forward to getting on shore ; though I
am less tired of ship than I expected.
1 Saturday morning, 10 A.M. Post just closing. All
right. Table Mountain in sight.
' Later, 4 P.M. Extra post. Feeling very bright ;
every one preternaturally amiable. Had games at Words
last night ; much chat. We shall most likely not get in till
dark ; we shall probably lie outside Cape Town for a few
hours. . Out of seventy-five passengers, know about forty-
five or fifty. The men quite bright. Refreshing to see
land again. Passed our first steamer this morning. I
am dying for news of you all ; write often. Once more
dearest love, yours,
' S. G. T.'
Grahamstown : November 9, 1882.
f Dearest Children, Am writing at 10 A.M. in verandah
in front of the swell hotel of South Africa. Temperature
about 60 in shade ; air clear and bright and invigorating.
I well and bright also. Now to resume, from the point of
.posting my letter off Capetown and cabling you as agreed.
We got to anchor in Capetown Bay, 300 yards from shore,
at about seven on Saturday, and put off our Capetown
passengers in a boat, not allowing anyone else to land or
anyone to come off. 1 Capetown lying at foot of semi-
circular precipice of Table Mountain, some thousand feet
higher, looks very picturesque ; is best at night brightened
by electric lights along one quay. At 8 A.M. next morning
1 This was on account of small-pox in Capetown.
CH. xv SOUTH AFKICA 183
we steamed away along a precipitous, fine, bold but in-
hospitable-looking coast, and had two beautiful days' steam
with wind behind us and big roller waves, keeping land
in sight ; arriving in Port Elizabeth at 7 P.M. Monday.
Anchored about 1,000 yards from shore, there being no
means of coming nearer. Slept on board, and went ashore
in a tug next morning, Tuesday, at 10. Air of the bright-
est; cool, almost cold wind; fleckless blue sky, and
brilliant sunshine over all. On landing, a crowd of negro
and Hindoo and mixed porters (all colours), among whom
was one in a yellow shirt, blue vest, red turban, and
whitish pants, whom we secured ; and he carried our
innumerable traps to Custom House. (Horror of horrors,
twelve packages ; two-thirds at least absolutely superfluous.)
We had to open all up at Customs ; . then deposited all but
a bag of H.'s at the station which is on the quay. Oh, so
ridiculously English a station ! A bookstall, with " Fort-
nightly," " Contemporary," and " Nineteenth Century ; "
porters in regular English porter's uniform ; carriages,
engines, cloak-room, ticket-office, &c., all conspiring to
make one think oneself in England, but for a plaintive
group of coloured folk who crowded the third-class car.
After clearing ourselves of our traps, I felt a free man
again, and recorded a solemn vow, never, oh ! never, to
let anyone fix up four packages for me, or to impede me
\vith six others. We then located at the best hotel ; a very
good one, excellent. Then called on my bank manager's
Son, a bright young fellow, clerk in a big store here, a
huge place where they have stocks of Manchester and
woollen goods, wine, spirits, beer, implements, wire, tools,
and everything else. They set up country stores ; have
goods on credit to enormous extent; 40,OOOZ. worth to
one customer, they tell me. Asked younger G. to
dine with us then went to fine public reading-room
184 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
-with all new books, periodicals, papers, &c. ; called
at lot of shipping offices, and saw the town; two long
streets of shops and stores on the shore level, and the
residences on the hills above. G. dined with us, and
I picked up a certain amount of information from him.
He has been about two years out, likes place and
climate ; costs 50 per cent more to live than in London ;
profits large, but risks considerable ; great drawbacks from
want of harbour works ; goods landed in tiny boats, ships
often wrecked while lying at anchorage. At table d'hote
about fifty, many not living in house.
Next morning introduced to G.'s business man ; clear-
headed. Proposed for him to act for us in a new trade.
Started by train for Grahamstown (120 miles inland);
travelled with two men from Capetown and a young
barrister, all going to Assizes at Grahamstown. Had
much pleasant chat on colonial law and customs, and
prospects and land, &c. All speak most highly of
Grahamstown as pretty, healthy, comfortable, &c. It
is a very English town. Journey took six and a half
hours. Land covered chiefly with low scrub, very hilly ;
rounded rocky hills with bottoms and " kloofs " in ravine
valleys, dwellings very far apart, then little cottages with
iron roofs, or native mud houses. The third class full
of natives, and station crowded with do. Cacti, aloes, and
scrub with willows, with water, are predominant. Passed
lots of ostriches ; patches of cultivated land in the valleys ;
but few sheep and cattle find a home in the scrub.
Weather as before ; do. to-day. This, as before, I find
suits me exactly.
' An excellent hotel ; thirty rooms. About forty sat
down to dinner, I next to my steamer fellow-passengers,
Hon. P. and his doctor. We had some pleasant talk, &c
A highly-educated, well-travelled man, with rank preju-
CH. xv SOUTH AFEICA 185
dices ; so we naturally disagreed, but pleasantly enough,
on every topic. Pleasant neighbour from Diamond Fields ;
great believer in their future. In evening talked to a swell
who had been in N. and S. America, Canada, Australia,
N. Zealand, &c. Head dozen Cape papers and old
"Illustrated London News" of 1st October. To bed
at 9.30 ; read in bed " This Son of Vulcan," for half an
hour.
' Slept till 6 A.M., when girl brings you cup of
coffee. Snoozed till 8. Breakfast discussion with P.,
did not interfere with consumption of four eggs and
porridge. My room fair size, high, comfortable, on ground
floor, opens out of another room. Hotel crammed. In
run from Capetown had good deal of talk with Natal
accountant and the Natal doctor. It seems one can get
7 to 7-J per cent, interest there on mortgage. Mercantile
profits very large. Not a good place for working-man
emigrant, but excellent for smaller large capitalist. The
doctor reiterating his praise of its climate. Had some
talk to the P. man ; he has seen much ; is ex-M.P. for
shire ; said to have been an active Conservative member.
His science very confident and very weak. My chief
acquisition, however, a woman six feet high, whom I had
carefully avoided (by reason of) her stature and appearance.
Her son of eighteen, a thorough colonial, with her. I
found her on trial a very intelligent business woman ; gave
me much information on diamond fields. She is a widow ;
her husband and she had a store at Kimberley, and bought
a mine cheap ; she herself used to sort the washed stuff
and fish out the diamonds. Told me much [that was]
interesting as to occurrence &c. of the stones and mode of
working. On her husband's death sold to a Company,
keeping two-thirds of shares. Net return fell from 6,000?.
a year to almost nothing. She had meantime retired to
186 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
England, bought an estate at Epping, &c. Now returning
to try and set the Co. in order, and she will, I think, do
it ; wanted me much to go to Kimberley, to see her mine.
' At hotel at Grabamstownmet a George St. engineer who
has been for three years at Kimberley and Natal putting
up water-works. All Kimberley people very confident of
permanence and future of diamond fields. 5,000,OOOZ.
worth of diamonds now said to be found a year. It is
the great feature of South Africa at present. I think I
foresee other diamond fields will close Kimberley, where
they now have to go 300 feet and more below ground.
There are over 30,000 people at Kimberley still. The
nearest railway 300 miles ; intervening country almost a
desert. At Kimberley nothing grows. Coal said to be
14L a ton. Ostrich-farming and sheep divide with
diamonds the thoughts of the Colony. Ostrich feathers
worth \0l. to 301. a pound ! Ostriches fluctuate in value
between 201. and 50?.
1 November 10, 9 A.M. Just had breakfast; been up
mines. Another brilliant day. Yesterday, in morning,
strolled over town. Streets immensely broad and long,
planted with trees ; many good stores. Two bishops, two
churches ; chapels, &c., in plenty. Magnificent public garden,
in which oaks, cactus trees, ferns, aloes, pine, firs, gum trees,
willows, roses in full bloom, pinks, and all kinds of unknown
flowers, shrubs and trees in strange juxtapositions, laid
out in a Hoof- rocky hills above; a stream (now dry)
running through it. Streets full of bullock waggons,
each with sixteen bullocks ; men on horseback or in
two-wheeled carts, with two, four, or six horses. Kaffirs
everywhere, doing the hand-work and driving, doing all
work, in fact, except that of hotel waiters. Kaffir men dress
anyhow ; women in cotton gowns and bright handkerchiefs
chiefly ; seem very quiet and obliging, and try to be jolly,
CH. xv SOUTH AFRICA 187
under not very elevating circumstances. Climate, if this
is [a] fair specimen, is certainly beautiful ; it was 82 in
sun, 70 in shade to-day, a good deal of air in the shape of
breezes. I talked to an old Englishman in charge of a
pumping engine at gardens; he has been twenty-five years
in S. Africa : before that four years [in] Australia; laments
over Australia, says he gets 5s. 6d. a day here, and that
house rent costs him 10s. a week ; everything but coarse
food costs, he says, two or three times as much as in
England; he says, truly T think, that Africa is no place for
labourers, as native competition too [severe] here; but
great place for capitalists. He had been twice to Dia-
mond Fields, but did no good'either time. I walked about
three miles yesterday without fatigue ; no pain ; cough
only two or three times in evening, if I get in cold air.
' Am just starting for atrip to lower river for two days,
in style ; have joined another in hiring a trap and four
for our two selves there and back, so shall have easy time.
I still think we shall have to get to Calcutta in order
to make our way to Australia.'
' Grahamstown : November 13 (Monday).
' Dearest Children, I resume at point where I left off
my Fast, viz., as I was starting in the two-wheeled cart and
four, specially chartered for the occasion. Myself, H. (an
" Africander," or descendant of Dutch settlers, and secre-
tary of a Capetown bank), and F. (a Capetown civil servant
magistrate, born in Colony). Driving out of Grahams-
town by a fine road, all up-hill, had pretty view of town,
with its many trees and churches ; " City of the saints and
city of woods," covering much ground in a depression,
with hills all round it. Over brow of hill a great expanse
of hills and valleys, sea in distance ; hills and valleys alike
parched-looking, though a few clumps of trees in valleys
188 SIDNEY GILOHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
At twelve pulled up .and took out horses at roadside
hotel, standing almost four miles from nearest white
dwelling. Met many natives on road, and saw many of
their huts, also abundance of cattle and some ostriches
(showing more in the grass than one would think).
c Starting again, up-hill and down, bumping and jolt-
ing ; country began to be greener, grassier, and a lot of
bush and small woods, chiefly of a tree looking like a thirty-
foot aloe ; only heard native name, blister tree ; it is only
an overgrown plant, and doesn't look like a tree hardly.
After passing through a village we got into a pretty little
gorge, and debouched on the River Couri here, about half
a mile from the sea ; a fine tidal river, with wooded hills
running down to the water, making it not unlike Dart-
mouth. I think the port is destined to be an important
one when harbour is finished. At present about one hun-
dred houses, mostly galvanised iron, on the hills on the
two sides. We crossed by big ferry boat, and drove up
to hotel on brow of hill ; going up, the cart stood on its
back, chiefly.
i The hotel outside looked like three galvanised iron tool-
houses, all in the last stages of decay, and stood together to
prop each other up. However, on going in, it improved
vastly, and we arranged for lodging : I am getting a sofa-bed
in a comfortable little sitting-room, and the other two a
room ; river between them. Before dinner, strolled down
to harbour works, which consist of pushing out two pieces
of concrete blocks of fifteen tons, between which river runs
out ; they have not yet got to the right point, and vessels
have to lie in open bay outside the bar, as in all S.
African ports but Capetown. We watched tug going out,
seas breaking over her from stem to stern. Dinner at
6.30 ; to my surprise five men to dinner besides ourselves.
Bank manager, harbour master, a swell settler, and two
CH. xv SOUTH AFKICA' 189
others. Dinner excellently cooked, and good, though
simple. Sat and talked in verandah till nine, when went
to bed.
' Next day very hot ; lounged in morning, in afternoon
got boat and two men to row us up river for five miles.
Pretty ; the wooded rounded hills coming down to water.
Some of the houses of the town looking over river
very pretty, but all galvanised iron roofs and generally
ditto walls, with rough brush inside ; when painted
white looks all right, otherwise it only looks good for
trade.
* Sunday morning we started back here at 4 A.M.,
just sunrise, which was lovely. Came by a different and
prettier road, country covered with copses of aloes and
different unknown shrub-like trees. At eight, stopped an
hour for breakfast at a nice little inn in a sort of tiny
valley, with a pool and spring in it ; a garden full of bright
blossomed flowers, and a first-class breakfast of eggs,
coffee, and minced meat. . . . Then up a fearful hill miles
long, and with sun beating down like a fire, and back to
Grahamstown at 12.30 ; distance each way about thirty
miles. I am clear that the way in summer here is to get
up at daybreak, sleep from eleven to four, and work in
evening again.
' To-day I have moved to a very nice large airy room
across the way, mealing still at hotel. It has been
raining, more or less, all day; rain greatly wanted,
and is the more appreciated now, as it comes in a
soaking sort of drizzle, and not in a tropical downpour.
Had long discussion with P.
' With my comrades to the C's. I had much interesting
talk. F. a very intelligent, well-read man. We discussed
Comtism, natural theology, Darwinism, the native question,
the Dutch influence in the Colonies, their civil service
190 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
and magisterial system, &c. &c. It appears that there
is a resident magistrate and civil commissioner in each
district, who is a civil service clerk really ; his only train-
ing in law being what he can pick up as clerk to some
other magistrate ; they have most extensive powers ; can
sentence to a year's imprisonment and fifty lashes &c.,
and are receivers of all crown revenues. F. has lived in
various districts, on which he gave me much information.
He says that Kaffirs meet with much injustice, and are
often very badly treated ; they are also subject to a number
of very onerous regulations ; cannot move without a per-
mit, can only rent land ; they are in fact made a modified
kind of serfs. A young farmer who has been here two
years was fiercely arguing with me that they ought to be
allowed to shoot natives whenever they saw them tres-
passing; he finally wound up by saying, "Well, when we
do it, we are always acquitted by a jury," which is un-
fortunately true. I listened outside a Kaffir church on
Sunday ; very earnest singing and preaching, in most
emphatic, eloquent style ; sounds much like Welsh preach-
ing. The preacher a native.
'November 15, 10 A.M. Yesterday and the day before
were wet and drizzling, cold ; the thermo. not under 60 ;
however, kept in doors chiefly, only going up to the
library, which is a fine public [one] and very well sup-
plied with books, periodicals, and papers. I have been
reading up my " Contemps," " Fortnightly s," and " Nine-
teenth Century." Have been talking much to P. ; we
disagreed mostly about all things ;^ but he is intelligent,
well-read and travelled. I have induced him to read
George's book, which horrifies him beyond measure.
There are about seventy sitting down to meals daily. I
attended two sales yesterday. One of a farm (including
house of eight rooms) of 3,000 acres, which sold for
CH. xv SOUTH AFEICA 191
2,100Z. ; it was within twenty miles of a good port, and
less of a railway; suitable for birds, sheep, and cattle.
I should have bought it if it had sold for 1,700Z. The
other, a little seven (rather insignificant) roomed house
and garden in Grahamstown, let for 50L a year, sold for
only 320L, repaying about 12 per cent. Have been talk-
ing to N. (member of Legislative Council here) on native
commission. Attended Court of Session. The native is
here put on a theoretical equality, but practically far from
it ; thus, in Court all the seats occupied by whites, natives
standing ; so if native assaults white, heavy sentence, if
white assaults black, trifling one or acquitted. Natives
all dress here ; some, particularly women, very well, but
nearly all bare legs and feet ; women generally a bright
coloured handkerchief on their heads. To-day lovely
after the rain; cloudless blue sky; bright warm sun.
They tell me that further inland at Cradock it is often
140 in the sun and 105 in shade ; but that it does not
feel oppressive even there.
' I talk to every one I can get hold of, and read all
the numerous local papers diligently, and am coming to
know a good deal of local conditions.
'November 15, 4 P.M. Wet again; yesterday fine
and hot. I spent morning walking about town, attending
Courts. Heard native tried for cattle stealing, and very
properly acquitted. Then to library, back to lunch at 1.
Then to post-office, short walk, and long read at library.
To-day, walk before breakfast ; then called about town,
inquiring about investments, &c. Lunch, talking scandal.
Among my new acquaintances, a storekeeper at Cradock.
Gives me much information on up-country life Cradock
being the present termination of railroad, and Dutch.
Dutch are the great conservative and obstructive elements,
oppose all improvements, whether railroads, water-works,
192 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
bridges [or] fencing, &c. Storekeepers' profits universally
admitted to be very high ; yet here I see in windows
trousers 10s. a pair, girls' waterproofs 7s. 6d., &c. On
the other hand, little things 50 per cent, to 100 per cent,
dearer than in London. Talked much, too, with L., a
London mechanical engineer who came over here for his
health six weeks ago ; has settled his wife and children at
Cradock, which he praises much for healthiness ; it is very
dry, treeless and dusty, 3,500 feet high. Gives wonderful
accounts of chest invalids who have recovered marvellously,
He thinks of settling here if he can get any engineering
work. Have just been talking to a man, a born colonist,
who has very large farms 40 miles inland ; said to be most
successful farmer in Colony. I have taken great fancy to
him. He speaks well of Kaffirs, if you look after them ;
pays them lls. a month and daily allowance of 2 Ibs.
meat and 1 Ib. mealies ; they save money and sometimes
own up to 30 or 40 oxen, which he lets them graze on his
land. He has cattle, sheep, and birds ; says birds pay
best, but require much care. Is fencing all his land ; says
it is indispensable, as ostriches otherwise will run away,
40 miles in a day. Ostriches give 30 or 40 chicks a year.
Says English farmers coming here lose money from doing
everything in English way. P. and I had much talk
again ; his little Jersey doctor also very confidential. It
appears P. was specially recommended to come here by his
London doctors.
( November 17, 8 P.M. Honman turned up from Cape-
town last night, very pleased to have seen his sister ; had 500
miles to go each way. He says he has heard of several prac-
tices vacant, and to be obtained without payments, which
are worth over 1,OOOZ. a year. I think Arthur might, on
passing, do well here ; everyone says that a sober doctor
does exceedingly well. It would, however, be necessary to
CH. xv SOUTH AFRICA 193
learn Dutch to do really well. Have had no word or line
from you of any kind yet, since I left ; begin to want news
badly, please always keep press copies of your letters ;
I may have two chances of getting them. We spent this
morning in gardens with C. girls; walked this afternoon
about five miles in all.
< My breath, cough, and chest, all very much better indeed.
I still think it would be no hardship to live here, if it were
not for patents and researches. I am clear I should be all
right here ; but I am not sure if this or sea suits me best.
We can hear nowhere any tidings of direct steamer to
Australia. We shall probably go via Natal. I quite think
life here could be tolerated very easily. Am really much
better. Thinking constantly of you. Wish I had mother's
photo, in my triptych ; send it me. Take care of erch
other! Ever yours.'
' I may probably not'be able to get off another letter for
at least two or three weeks. Please keep my letters, they
may serve as signposts hereafter.'
' Grahamstown : November 22,
4 Dearest Children, Still no news of you, which bothers
me much ; otherwise all right, but decidedly tired of the
monotony of this.
c We unfortunately have no introductions here, so have
no one but the C.'s. Spent Sunday afternoon there. Their
garden is divided from the public Botanic Gardens by a
stream which is now perfectly dry ; after rains is 6 feet.
In the garden are orange and lemon and fig trees in full
bloom ; with pears, plums, peaches, strawberries, cherries,
pumpkins, also loaded with fruit though not yet ripe.
Eoses, fuchsias, and geraniums, with aloes and cactuses,
abound. Their house a long low one, only one story
SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
high, with big cellars underneath and verandahs, furnished
in newest English style.
' Our life very monotonous. I am up about 7.15, break-
fast at 8, then to post office always to find no letters.
Then to library, a stroll, luncheon. Then sit in balcony,
library, stroll; dinner at 6.30, general chat, and to bed
about 9.30 or 10. P. and I have long talks on all kinds
of subjects. He has a lot of introductions here, so gets
asked out a good deal by the resident magistrates and
the merchants, here. Another character is a man named
W., of an Anglesea county family, who says he knows
everyone, and has been in Canada, U.S., Australia, and
New Zealand. He is now going, and for a year's shooting
exp3dition. Shooting, &c., up country with a bullock
waggon.
c Then we have a German from Diamond Fields ; has
been there twelve years ; made and lost a fortune ; full of
regrets for Germany, dislikes the country much. The
Diamond Fields are a worse locality to live in. If a man
buys a diamond from a native or from anyone not a claim
holder, he is liable to a fine of 5,000?., twenty years'
imprisonment, and a hundred lashes. This is monstrous ;
but is constantly acted on.
' We went for a short ride to-day ; threatened rain,
so we soon came back. It rains more or less every third
day. Everyone here complains of bad trade, absence of
money, &c. At the Diamond Fields things are certainly
much depreciated ; shares in the diamond companies having
in every case sunk to one-third or even one-tenth of their
value a year ago. This depression at Kimberley reflects
itself even here. Thus the carriage of goods to Kimberley
is an enormous industry ; goods are carried from here in
bullock waggons, carrying four tons, drawn by sixteen oxen,
at a rate of from 3QL a ton in good times to 16Z. a ton now*
CH. xv SOUTH AFEICA 195
1 As fresh men come to hotel daily from different parts
of Colony, I collect and compare views and facts from
varying grounds. There are several large schools here,
particularly a big Church of England Grammar School and
a big Wesleyan Girls' School. The natives have no good
school here, but have one some forty miles away. It is
said that the Kaffir is particularly bright at mathematics,
and when initiated in Euclid and Algebra, spends his play
time in working original problems.
i November 23. Another mail in ; still no letters. I
am getting desperate, and cannot even be consoled by my
six " Times " up to October 26, which I gloat over at the
Library.
' November 24. Your letters of 25th and others just
arrived-^-such a relief. I had been wiring about all over
the place to get news of those letters. I have also news-
papers &c.
'ItVas wet yesterday, so we did not go for a ride,
for which I was thankful, being " stiff" to the verge of
distraction.
' To-day we have been with C. to see camera obscura
of some friends. People interesting, and views of country
and town wonderfully perfect and curious.
' It is possible we start in a few days for either
Calcutta or Australia, but the sailing is so uncertain, we
may be kept some time. P. talks of going up country in
a bullock waggon. I should much like to go to Diamond
Fields, but give up as they say they are unhealthy. You can
hardly imagine how I enjoyed your letters, and how much
I look to the meeting.
1 Am all right, but still rather " scant of breath ; " think
sea will make me a finished cure.'
o 2
196 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
' S.S. Moor," off Port Alfred :
' November 30, 1882.
* Dearest Children both, Am on the move again, so
feeling happy. Sunday, Saturday, and Monday last nothing
happened, but weather showery and uncertain. Made a
few fresh acquaintances ; had several long talks with P.,
and one long ride which I enjoyed ; had fine canter on the
downs above the town, which we and horses enjoyed alike.
I found, however, holding on rather wearied me ; we then
rode all over the native location.
1 The natives live entirely out of the town in about 700
huts, each with a small piece of ground which they
cultivate. In most cases they have bought the freehold ;
in others pay the Government \l. a year rent. The huts
made chiefly of wattle and mud, but some of galvanised
iron. In the immediate neighbourhood of their houses
the aborigines dispense with a good deal of superfluous
clothing, in which they have my entire sympathy ; they
also think that a good many of our so-called necessaries of
civilisation are really superfluities. By the way, their
regular wear is a garment which they dye of a highly
aesthetic dull brickdust colour, which suits alike their
complexion and surroundings. On Sunday, however,
they go to their kirks in the most elaborate English
costume. They have one chapel in the town, another in
their location.
' After a long consultation with H. we decided : (1) That,
though Grahamstown was a good enough place in its way,
it, and in fact all the South African health resorts, were
too high up to suit me. I find that, though I have quite
got rid of pain in my chest, which was the main and really
dangerous business, my lung is only improved very little,
being worse than when at sea. (2) That, as we can't get
CH. xv SOUTH AFRICA 197
to Australia, we ought to go to India in the cool weather,
stop there ten days, then on to Sydney. Having passed
these resolutions, I began to feel better at once.
'Tuesday we paid farewells to C. P. had also dis-
covered that Grahamstown didn't suit him much, so deter-
mined also to leave this week. He is going for a long
waggon trip up country with his doctor and servant, and
is to let me know his experiences. He is actually looking
far worse than I, who indeed present a robustious appear-
ance. He has had fracture of the skull, broken leg and
ribs, and several other trifles, but fully expects to go back
to Parliamentary life. Must have had a fine constitution ;
tells me for years he never took more than six hours' sleep.
' Wednesday morning we started by rail for Port Eliza-
beth. Miss C. and H. and his sister came to see us off.
We travelled down with a young Scotchman we met
at C., named Hamilton. Pleasant fellow; much talk;
has been [here] over five years. He and a brother, having
5,OOOL each, bought a wholesale saddlery business at
Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown for 10,OOOZ., and have
been at it since. Profits about 40 per cent., or say 100
per cent, per annum gross ; but great risks, as they have
to give four months' credit to people in remote parts of
the country. As an illustration of risks, a bank here,
which has just smashed, has lost 20,OOOZ. in the Trans-
vaal. Everyone says the Dutch here are utterly opposed
to all progress. In the Transvaal our retirement has
been followed by a sort of general bankruptcy, and they
are at their old occupation of pillaging all the surround-
ing natives. At Port Elizabeth living is very dear. A
clerk can hardly live on less than 150/., while salaries are
relatively low, 130L to 2502. I have talked to so many
men from all parts, that I feel I know South Africa in-
timately. When we got to Port Elizabeth at 6.30 P.M.,
T98 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
I found that there is a fine French ship, the " Havre,"
sailing for India from East London ; do not know if she
is taking passengers. Found also a Union steamer leaving
for East London at once ; so charter a boat for a sovereign,
and arrive on board the Union ship " Moor," a far finer
boat than the " Conway Castle." We are now lying off
East London, and I feel as jolly and bright as can be. A
sea life suits me, I think, and hill air does not.
' We hope to get to East London this evening, and either
to get a passage in the "Havre," sailing about to-morrow,
or in the " Clan Cameron," sailing next week. I only
propose stopping in India about ten days. Read L.'s
article on George in the November " Contemporary." I saw
the magazine in Grahamstown more read than I ever do in
London. Money is going fast ; at Grahamstown we paid
25s. a day for our joint boarding. I stayed on at G. till
Wednesday, hoping to get a letter from you by mail leaving
London on November 2. Out ! though I got one from
Per., 2 I did not from you. You can have no idea how I
appreciate seeing your writing as a sort of physical liga-
ment with yourselves, of whom I am constantly thinking.'
1 East London : December 2, 1882.
c Dearest, I closed my last on the S. S. " Moor," which
brought us here at 7 P.M. on the 30th. We were landed
in a tug in complete darkness at 8, and found our way up
the hill on to the plateau on which this town, the third
seaport of South Africa, is built. We had some difficulty
in getting put up ; though there are forty hotels here.
Finally got into what is said to be the best, but it is a
woeful falling off from Grahamstown ; rooms dirty and
cooking indifferent. Yesterday interviewed the agents and
captain of French ship Havre, but he won't take us, as he
8 Mr. Gilchrist, -
CH. xv SOUTH AFRICA 199
carries no saloon passengers, and we can't go steerage.
Honman called on the leading doctor here, who was very
polite, drove him round town, &c. I had a short chat with
the doctor too. He came here six years ago, and H. thinks
he must be making over 1,200. a year. The doctor says
there are a number of places in South Africa where a good
steady man can live and make 1,000?. a year, this being
one. H. is quite bitten with desire to return here and do
so. The doctor had bad health in England, lungs weak,
and had to spend winters in Madeira, so came here.
' There are four doctors here. Population of town itself
3,000 or 2,500 whites ; it has a railway, and it is a con-
siderable port. I don't much care about the place, it is so
intensely new ; three-quarters of the houses all galvanised
iron, dusty, hot, and windy. Talking to three or four young
men, who all gave dismal account of colony; had all been
to Diamond Fields, and all more or less failed ; two going
home again. Also long talk with a colonist born here who
has large wool-working establishment up-country. He,
as every other English colonist, complains much of bad
feeling and jealousy of Dutch population, who oppose all
progress and improvement. He too has been at Diamond
Fields, says land here is too dear ; in his part, which is a
feeble part, it fetches 30s. an acre ; thinks it may be further
depreciated, &c. ; says natives work well for living, their
only fault cattle-stealing. A wife costs ten oxen, and these
they think it their duty to raise from somewhere or some-
body. All the rough labouring work here done by natives,
.artisan work by whites chiefly, and the looking on business
done by whites solely. Had ramble over downs this morn-
ing. Afternoon (heavy thunder showers) spent in public
library. Been interviewing shipowners. A plague of flies
here, and a few sanguinary and persistent mosquitoes ;
shall be very glad to be on board ship again. If we can
2CO SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xv
get a ship for Australia, shall take it, but can't hear of one
so far. As instances of prices, we paid 25s. a day at
Grahamstown hotel for the two ; here we pay 20s. a day ; of
course all drinks extra. Thus, a pint bottle of zoedone,
which costs 6d. in London (or Is.) costs here Is 9cZ., a pint
of English or German beer costs Is., a pint of champagne
17s. 6d., and so on. Here, especially, the bar is always
crowded with young men, clerks, business men, &c. having
brandies and sodas (Is. 6c.), gin slings, sherry and bitters,
&c., on which they must consume a quarter of their income.
All say that most of the doctors drink.
' Sunday, December^. Went to bed at 8.30 last night.
Have a three-bedded room ; but this fellow (a Mr. Bell) is
rather an acquisition, as he tells us a great deal. Thinks we
treat natives both most unjustly and stupidly, which seems
quite the case. We are always stealing their land and
pushing on boundaries, but do not govern in any proper
sense. He says they make good workmen if well and
fairly treated, and that they prefer being struck for a fault
to the intervention of magistrate. To-day it is blowing
quite a gale, so I am stopping indoors, as H. says. Wind
cold, though sun so bright ; had a smart thunder shower
last evening. Have got a sitting room to ourselves. There
is every likelihood of this becoming a big place ; but it
has first to go through some vicissitudes. So wish I had
a photo, of the Mother ; the one of the saucy-looking child
is quite a resource. It is possible that we may still go to
Australia instead of India.
' Thursday, December 6. Noon. Still at East London;
have just decided that we will go to Mauritius and Bombay,
thence to Calcutta. There is no chance of getting direct
to Australia, and H. thinks a long voyage the best thing.
I believe I shall have always to remain near the sea. I
don't suppose we shall be more than ten days in India.
CH. xv SOUTH AFKICA 201
We shall probably get to Calcutta between January 12
and 20. H. says I am much better than at Grahamstown,
though I was well enough there. The only trouble is that I
cannot walk more than a mile at the time. Find it very
dull here, though we are at the best hotel (which is less
clean and more flyingfied than it might be) and are mem-
bers of the Club. H. has made the. acquaintance of a man
named Pyper, cousin of Dr. Cotman. He is a clerk in a
merchant's house there.
' Had long talk yesterday with a man who has spent
seven years in the interior of the Zambesi. Says it is
fine country but unhealthy ; that a pass from Matebele, who
is chief of a district 500 miles broad, secures from any
hostility of natives. Buffaloes, elephants, rhinoceros, and
ostriches very abundant. Gold, lead, &c. found but not
worked ; as waggons only practicable part of the way, must
be on foot.
' I look forward to our four days in Mauritius. Besant
and Bice's novels make one feel to know it. I find it very
trying not to be able to make walking excursions, but
caution is the order of the day. We are going for a ride
this afternoon. Expect to sail from here Saturday, but
may be delayed, and (if so) shall not get to Calcutta till
near end of January.
' If Arthur passes next summer I might perhaps bring
him oat in winter and settle him, if I have to come away
myself, which I hope I shall not have to. We get short
cables daily from England, generally about three lines.
Thus, yesterday had news of Arabi's trial, death of Arch-
bishop, relapse of Trollope. This climate would suit the
mother gloriously ; sunshine from morning till night, with
generally a cool wind, sometimes a cold one. H. dined
last night with P. ; before refused to. He (P.) lives with
three other men; they rent a five-roomed house for 61.
202 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xv
a month ; have two servants, one black girl gets 121. a
year, the other English (cook) about 301. Rent is every-
where enormously high, as are luxuries; meat 6d. a pound,
butter 2s. to 3s., eggs 2s. or Is. 6d. a dozen. Just going
to post, thence to Club.
' Yours ever affectionately/
' East London : Friday, December 8.
c Dearest Ones, Have just, while wasting in despair,
received yours of November 9. Don't now send any but
technical papers, please. The photos are indeed a trea-
sure ; I would rather them than considerable pelf. Mother
not good, but still good enough to be a treasure. . . .
I wrote yesterday, saying that we sail in " Clan Cameron "
for Mauritius, and then probably to Bombay, and on by
easy rail stages to Calcutta. I have arranged, however,
that if we get to Mauritius in time for steamer to Aus-
tralia, we have option of joining it. There is, however,
very little chance of this. I am longing to be at sea
again. This is excessively dull ; the high winds, heat and
dust, prevent our riding or walking, and we can't leave on
account of the uncertainty of the ship sailing. Nothing
happens but picking up a new acquaintance, going to
Club or Library. Had the editor of local paper with us
last evening. Had amusing talk with an old Italian
ex-captain, as agent of an Insurance Company. His
verdict on South Africa : " This is no fine country at all.
This have much dust, much wind, no water, no food fit to
eat, no nothing at all." It does not seem on the whole
much appreciated by the residents.
' I fear there will be a " war " against the Basutos
shortly. It is really a pillaging expedition, the farmers
openly saying the object is to confiscate all the land and
cattle.
CF, xv SOUTH AFRICA 203
' The great trouble here is that anchorage is so bad
and exposed that ships are sometimes two months un-
loading. On Sunday and Monday, all the steamers had
to leave their anchors and steam out to sea, so losing three
days.
i Saturday, December 9. We sail this evening. Had
young fellow to whom H. had introduction to dinner ; is
in stores, been here three years, says even a clerk does
better here than at home. He came out on spec. After
three months' waiting, got a berth at 12L 10s. a month,
now 20Z. a month. Says clerks and principals rise much
more here than at home. His housekeeping with three
others costs him 81. a month. Says no society here, no
dances. We went yesterday to a place few miles away ;
pretty, but absence of big trees painful. The Euphorbia
is practically the only tree here, and mimosa bush the
prevailing shrub. The winter here has cold, often frosty
nights, but bright sunny days, with frequent cold winds,
but frost in day time not known. I regret not seeing
Natal, but it would entail going on via Zanzibar, which
is unhealthy.'
This is the last South African letter, and we may
interrupt the correspondence for a moment to observe that
no one would imagine from reading these epistles how
seriously ill Thomas really was. He writes indeed with
the vivid energy of a man in full health. The contem-
poraneous correspondence of Mr. Honman with Mrs.
Thomas gives, so to speak, the reverse of the medal, and
brings into relief the dark background of deadly disease
which lay behind the superficial gladness of these travel
days. Mr. Honman writes from Madeira of bad nights,
pain in the sides, and frequent coughing ' heavy fits of
coughing.' At Madeira, however, the cough is 'of a
204 SIDNEY GILCHPJST THOMAS CH. xv
better character/ and ' the worried look has to some ex-
tent disappeared.' 'I hope,' says Mr. Honman, 'that
with care at the Cape, he may be able to take some
pleasure when he gets to Sydney.' On November 3,
there is further good news : ' Sidney, in spite of dull cold
weather, is better both in health and spirits ; he has, I
noted, attempted to part his hair to-day not a very
successful effort, but a most favourable sign ; he is par-
ticular about his collars as well.' There has been, how-
ever, more 'pain in the side,' and an l attack of pleurisy.'
He is as careless as ever of ' himself, and will talk to
anybody in the coldest wind.'
Improvements continue to be spoken of in Mr.
Honman's letters from the Cape ; but the warning note is
still constantly recurring to one reading between the lines.
There is ( great shortness of breath,' much greater at
Grahamstown, however, than at East London.
The result of the letters is, substantially, that although
symptoms change and soften in character, the lung trouble
never really disappears.
In Thomas's own letters there is naturally a constant
desire to make the best of things for the sake of the
anxious ones at home, whom (as appears from every line
he wrote) he loved so dearly. He made indeed ineffectual
attempts to ' edit ' the communications which he knew
that Mr. Honman was making to his mother. The good
doctor writes from East London on December 8 : ' I have
no doubt he has given you all news, but I write this and
send it separately, as he desires to revise my letters.'
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 205
CHAPTER XVI
MAURITIUS AND INDIA
WITH this necessary interruption we resume Thomas's
correspondence with his ' children.' The reader will be
able to sufficiently discount the praiseworthy affectation of
good health which he will occasionally detect.
To his Mother and Sister
4 December 14 or thereabouts, Thursday.
S.S. " Clan Cameron," Indian Ocean, Lat. 295.
* Dearest Ones, I posted you a letter on Saturday
morning last at E. London, and one posted on Thursday,
and went on board at 3 P.M. on Saturday. At E. London,
you must know, no ship can come nearer than half a mile
from the shore ; so we got out in a little tug which tosses
and tumbles considerable, and we, (H. and I,) clamber on
board by a rope. There is no shelter, and the stormy
winds do blow with praiseworthy persistence and force.
So the " Cameron " has been ten days putting her cargo on
shore ; this being done by lighters. We soon found that
we should not start that afternoon, and it began to blow
in the evening and continued all Sunday; so that the
lighters for the balance of cargo could not come out, and
we were pitching and tossing at anchor in a most distress-
ing way. Monday morning, however, was decently calm ;
so we landed balance of cargo and got off at about 2 P.M.
* The ship, a ne'vy iron one of 2,400 tons, on her second
206 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
voyage only. Captain pleasant, chatty little man, who
has hitherto commanded Australian passenger sailing
ships chiefly ; only his second voyage in steamer. Only ac-
commodation for eight saloon passengers. Comfortable
saloon and cabins ; only all too near the screw, which is
a peculiarly noisy one ; fare and attendance very decent.
No doctor on board, so Honman is sort of semi-official
honorary surgeon. A doctor came out in the " Cameron" to
set up in B. London, but after ten days concluded to give
it up, and returned to England the day we left. I was
sorely tempted to leave H. behind at E. London, as he
would have liked ; but I feared you would raise some
paltry objection and get alarmed if I did, so I heroically
brought him along. Am I not quite too good ?...!,
too, eat like a hale and hearty crocodile.
' Now for our co-passengers ; to gratify Lil's morbid
curiosity. No. 1, Scotchman brought up as working
engineer ; in 70 working in Manchester at 36s. a week ;
found his master would only screw more work out of him
the more he did, so determined to try Kimberley. Started
within a week of hearing that good work to be got there.
Started there at 4Z. 10s. a week; lived on 15s. a week.
Helped a man who wanted to import machinery ; taken
on at 9Z. a week. Presently started on his own account
as small engineer; got a partner; worked up business,
turning over 80,000/. a year ; then amalgamated with a
larger firm doing still better. Is now taking trip to
Australia, America, England, and back to Kimberley.
We talk of his experiences, the Fields, engineering, &c.
He is really nice fellow to know. I have taken quite a
fancy to him ; he does not boast or swagger, but is full
of information. Has just been showing me his collection
of photos and stones &c., including nine rough diamonds.
'No. 2 is also from Kimberley, a Scotchman, making the
CH. xvi MAUKITIUS AND INDIA 207
tour with No. 1 ; lias a store ; has been in America thirteen
years, gold -digging, in N. Zealand, &c. &c. ; very pleasant
and intelligent. No. 3 is on his way to Australia, thence
by United States home. Affects the swell ; has been
twelve times in U. S., also in China, Japan, India, &c.
No. 3 forms with No. 4 a hostile camp. No. 4, young
engineer, has been five months in Kimberley. He and
No. 3 (who has only been six weeks in the Cape) abuse
Colony all dinner-time every day till No. 1 can stand it no
longer, and mildly points out that all their facts are wrong
and their conclusions without foundation. I naturally
support No. 1.
* No. 5, young Swiss, been eighteen months in Cape
trying to open up business in Swiss goods, but has not
succeeded ; takes it philosophically ; is now going to Re-
union and then to join a firm in Madagascar. His father
has factory in Baden, Switzerland. He has spent a year
at Birmingham and is fairly bright generally. No. 6 is
a young fellow from Glasgow, who is going the round
trip for his health. Started from Liverpool, and goes via
Mauritius, Bombay, and Suez Canal, home by same ship.
I believe they charge 901. for the trip, which will take
about 110 days to 120 days. Besides these, there are four
coolies who have been a year in Africa and are now going
to Mauritius, where they expect to do better ; and a family
of German Jews who are abandoning Africa as not suitable
for tailoring enterprise.
' We sedulously do nothing all day long. I have read
'< Celia's Arbour" and "Monks of Thelema" since I came
on board ; both very amusing. Besant and Eice certainly
have more in them than ordinary novelists ; they always
work in some queer social ideas and are unconventional.
Have you read " George " yet ? Mind, I shall examine
you both in him severely. Did I tell you I made poor P.
208 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
read it ? which was rough on a proximate peer and Irish
landlord. His criticisms, however, were fun, and clever,
and kept me on the qui vive as defender of the faith of
George. The day I left Grahamstown P. accidentally
told me his views of me by saying that my views seemed
to be nearer those of Cowen than anyone else. Soon after
he described Cowen as a man of the most odious and dan-
gerous views, though &c. ! I miss my talks with him ; it
was exciting sparring sometimes, and kept one alive. . . .
4 Monday, December 18. Have had beautiful weather
ever since my last, hottish, but never over 85 in the shade,
and generally a cool breeze ; am certainly benefiting
much. H. says I am getting quite fat-faced. We all get
on well together, talk and read. I read chiefly, but talk
considerably with M., who has shrewd ideas on subjects he
knows. ... I have been reading of California ; it seems
after all the finest place in the world for climate, fertility,
and everything together. Taking it all round, I think
there are a number of better places than S. Africa. I feel
now that I know all about S. Africa, and could pass an
exam, in its resources, politics, sociology, climate, &c. We
all long to get to Mauritius, to have a run on shore. I find
we cannot get to Calcutta before January 26, or there-
abouts, which means about March 15 for Sydney, and not
leaving Australia till end of April. In short, I hardly see
how to get home much before July ; but all this may alter.
I should like a fortnight in America, if I come that way.
It is a dreadful time to wait before seeing you. The
photos get constant attention.
' Mauritius, December 22. We anchored off Port Louis
on Tuesday afternoon, having been for two hours skirting
the island, which has several ridges of most romantic and
striking looking precipitous mountains, some running
straight up from the sea, some springing from the interior
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 209
lowlands. Port Louis has a superb situation, being backed
by an amphitheatre of hill and precipitous cliff, with the
slopes covered with low thickets, vividly green, with great
patches of scarlet flowers. We anchored a mile outside
the harbour, and (to our horror) were put in quarantine,
with a talk of being kept for two weeks. At 5 P.M. on
Wednesday we had the joyful news that we were allowed
out of quarantine, but concluded it to be too late to land,
so landed on Thursday after breakfast. The situation
grew more striking as we neared the landing. There were
some thirty vessels in the harbour, a busy quay, and the
town white, but embowered in trees. Our ship, from the
moment quarantine was removed, was invaded by a multi-
tude of boats, all manned by Indian coolies of multifarious
races, and Chinamen or Malays ; numbers came on board
such handsome men ; some of the Malays and Indians
in the loveliest linen garments, and scarlet girdles and
turbans, forming an extraordinary contrast to our ragged
dirty crew.
' On landing we spent two hours or more walking in
the town. The market, a very large building, crammed
with Hindoo and Chinese vendors, with a few negroes
and half-castes, but not a single white person. Shops
mostly kept by Chinese or coolies ; many of stalls kept by
women in most picturesque costumes. The effect of a
bright green under-garnaent covered by an overskirt or
burnous or thingumbob of scarlet, and a few brass (or
gold) ornaments, is delicious. Lil should adopt it; it
might be necessary for her to improve her personal colour-
ing with walnut juice. Also, I know no more becoming
dress than a white linen nightgown with scarlet sash, deep
collar and cuffs. This last I propose adopting myself for
Chelsea and office wear. Blue is the only colour they seem
never to use, except the Chinese. It was my first experi-
p
210 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH . XTI
ence of Oriental life. There are certainly fifteen different
shades of colour and race ; the rarest in the town being
the pure negro.
'As we shall stop here till 26th or 27th, probably till
29th, we have come up in a body to Cureppe, the sana-
torium of the island, 1,500 feet above the sea level. We
came by afternoon train, making a party of seven we
being now excellent friends all. We break up here, three
to Australia and United States, one to Bourbon, one stops
here for a time, and one goes on with us. The railway
ride was very interesting, picturesque, and strange. The
coolies, who thronged stations, peculiarly interesting.
There are 250,000 coolies here, they say. The women
work in fields, carrying loads, &c., to a painful degree.
They come here on five years' contract, but generally stay
on. For further description of Mauritius, its scenery and
customs, see Besant's and Rice's Xmas number of I. L.N.,
" Ready Money Mortiboy," and " My Little Girl."
' On arriving at Cureppe, we, after a reconnaissance,
descended the seven of us on an hotel kept by French
people (everyone in the island nearly is French ; nearly
everyone speaks French, though mostly English as well).
The hotel is in a large garden, running over with palms,
tree ferns, aloes, roses, bougainvilles, pine-apple, shrubs,
and 963 other flowers and trees, for which, if I invented
suitable names, the mail bags wouldn't hold the list thereof.
It is such a contrast, too, to Cape hotels in living and bed-
rooms. Here everything scrupulously clean; there all
scrupulously dirty ; there, bad cooking and doubtful food ;
here, French cooking and delicious fruit, salads, &c., with
lovely coffee. Breakfast is at ten, and dinner at seven.
The village is all round exclusively coolie and Chinese
shops, or as nearly so as possible the shops about ten
feet square, some only five feet.
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 211
' It has been very hot to-day, so much so that I found
a walk of 500 yards quite enough ; but in the morning
and evening it is quite cool. All the servants here are
Indian, deliciously quiet, swift, and efficient. A Hindoo
watchman keeps all night in the verandah just outside
my window. The watchman, with his turban, toga, and
bare legs and feet and staff, is a highly picturesque feature,
though I fail to see his utility.
' December 24, Sunday. I am wearying of the intense
idleness of the life ; yet, it is impossible to do anything.
The moisture of the air makes one feel an insurmountable
languor ; though temperature only 85 in shade. There are
constant tropical showers, and it does come down when it
comes. I have been several short walks round. The ground
fertile to a degree, and crowded with the quaintest and
most variegated types and colours of people. All the
shops are kept by Chinese. . . . We went this morn-
ing to see people coming from church oh, such smartness
and colour ! The nights here are regularly cool, though
mosquitoes a little troublesome. ... It is all French here ;
only one waiter understands any English, though all
servants are Hindoos ; our host a thorough Frenchman ;
hostess and daughters ditto. The number of travelling
hawkers (chiefly of cakes, sweets, &c.) is surprising.
' We have not succeeded in getting any English papers
here, so I know nothing of English affairs since November
8. I look forward to getting to Calcutta with the utmost
anxiety. I must say I am very weary of idle wandering.
We can't get any saddle horses here, which is a great
disappointment.
' December 25, Xmas morning. Thinking much of you.
Up at seven. Very bright and sunny. Thermo, down to 70
and people coming from church in gorgeousest of raiment.
p 2
212 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
The bulk of our party going an excursion, from which
I have cried off.
* Yesterday fetched a pleasant ride through the Botanical
Gardens, &c. There are charming houses, chiefly verandah
and garden all round, this being the residential quarter.
'December 28. Xmas Day, went to church at nine.
Church dressed with palm branches, ferns, and flowers;
crowded with white folk, well dressed ; thirty or forty car-
riages waiting outside. A number of coloured folk of all
hues, in back seats and standing ; the coloured girls all
have white muslin thrown over their heads, looking very
picturesque and well. Sermon in French, singing not
first-class. Mass of usual elaboration, gorgeously dressed
attendant boys.
' Breakfast at ten ; lounged in verandah till one, when
H. and I, and one or two Kimberley friends, started to
drive to the waterfalls, three miles off ; passed on our way
hundreds of the coolies' huts (wretched hovels of boards
and thatch mostly), and thousands of their occupants,
children, and brown and -black in all shades, in all degrees
of non-clothing, but mostly plump and well formed.
Passing a sugar mill, we stopped and went all over it,
finding it very interesting. The canes brought to the mills
by two wire tramways and a traction engine, in addition
to endless trains of mule-carts, bringing the cane to the
rollers direct from the fields in which it was cut. The
mill is, of course, tremendously hot, as boiling and eva-
porating is going on all over the place. All the work is
done by Indian coolies, who work very hard. Their average
earnings are only 4s. a week, and rations worth 2s. a
week more. At the factory gate was the usual Chinese
general shop, where we bought some Scotch beer and some
soda water and biscuits, by signs chiefly. They kept
everything you can think of, but their great business is
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 213
in dried fish, rice and rum, which the coolies and natives
buy in ha'porths and penn'orths.
' The cascades are a fall of a small river some 400 feet
in seven falls, very beautiful in their way. They fall into
a deep, profusely wooded gorge ; precipitous peaks tower
on either side, and then the gorge opens out by a further
fall into a rich plain of sugar plantation, bounded by the
sea.
' Yesterday (27th) we all reposed. On 24th had been to
crater of extinct volcano, a mile or so from here ; very
curious and romantic. All the soil here is lava, the
whole island being of volcanic origin. . . .
' January 1, 1883. On 29th bade adieu to our friends
at Cureppe, and came down by midday train to Port Louis.
Spent two hours in luxuriating over a fortnight's " Times,"
bringing us up to Nov. 20, and got on board our old friend,
the " Clan Cameron," after spending half an hour in
hunting all over the town for photos of the isle, which we
failed to get. We found the captain and mate ailing from
Mauritius fever ; they having been on board in the harbour,
which is hot and unhealthy. The young Scotchman from
Glasgow had also stopped on board, and was also ill ; but
none very bad. Found, to our disgust, no other saloon
passengers to Bombay, so we and the young Scot are all
by ourselves. We had pictured the pleasure of having
engaging young Mauritiennes as co-passengers. When
we got on board, the ship crowded with some two hundred
coolies, of every shade and type of face, saying their adieus
to forty coolies and Chinamen, who are going with us as
deck passengers to Bombay, having served their five years in
Mauritius; the Chinese are en route for Hongkong. There
are two women and a baby also with them. The ship
is rather heavily laden with sugar for Bombay, and rolls
heavily, taking in water all the time, which makes it
214 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
wretched for the sick folk, and less comfortable for us ;
they are, however very good-natured over it. Several
speak English, but more French (or rather a sort of semi-
French-English-Hindostanee) .
4 January 3. We have had two lovely days and this is
yet another. The thermo. ranges between 75 and 85 ;
sea calm, and motion of ship creates a pleasant cool breeze ;
so that on deck it is never too hot, but just the enjoyable
temperature, though when we go to bed it is too hot
to sleep till 1 A.M. or so. . . The officers are not strong in
conversation. We all now sit at one table ; but I and the
Captain have to do all the talking that goes on. It seems
that, on ordinary sailing vessels now, chief mates only get
81. a month, second 71. or less, and third 5Z. 10s. to 61.
You can't expect a man to talk much on such a salary as
these. Of course on steamers the rates are higher.
' Respecting the general dearth of conversation at table,
I stumbled last night on a great joke. I said something
about it being hard work to keep some talk going to the
Scot, when he replied, " Well, you know, I think you are
some restraint on them, Mr. Thomas ; I don't know if you
prefer not being addressed by another title ! " I puzzled
my head for explanation, which arrived at, amounted to
the fact that all the officers and men, having maturely
deliberated, have concluded that I am Sir Gilchrist
Thomas, Bart., and have been observing my movements
with great interest and curiosity in consequence. W. had
written home with a description of the affable Bart. The
myth seems to have originated in that source of all evils,
Lily's dreadful calligraphy, her "Sid." Gilchrist T. being
read as " Sir." Please Lil take this as a warning. . . .
' Have been reading Haweis' " Current Coin" (which you
should get); they are suggestive rather than thorough
[essays] but bold and advanced enough for a clergyman. I
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 215
have been having some square thinking on religious ques-
tions, partially led thereto by Lynton's " Under which
Lord ? " (which also read) ; it is clever and trenchant, and
apropos to the times, if occasionally overdrawn a little. . . .
c I collect testimony when I can as to efficiency of Hindoo
labour. The general evidence is that two good Indians
are more than equal to one good white man in most kinds
of work; while the wages of the two are less than the
wages of the one by at least one half. I am full of fresh
ideas and experiments I want to work up and try. I am
inclining to leave business alone as much as possible.
' January 5. We crossed line yesterday evening in the
loveliest of weather ; the 84 of heat being tempered by a
slight breeze increased to a pleasant one by the ship's
movement.
6 This morning is close, damp, and oppressive. ... I
am picking up a deal of nautico- commercial and ship-
building information. The Captain has been thirty years
at sea and twenty-four in command, always sailing ships
till last voyage. . . . He sticks to his opinion that New
South Wales is the best place in the world. I am
wondering if the mother could stand a trip to California
if I find it wise to go away next winter ; H. thinks not.
When sailing about as now, always remaining (when on
land) in English ground, one feels pretty strong symptoms
of pernicious British pride. I read and think in a desul-
tory way a good bit, and don't feel very bad at the con-
finement. If I had you two with me I should be quite
content. I am now anxious to get to Calcutta for news.
1 Sat up late last night reading a book of Thomas Cooper
on Christian Evidences. Have been examining Bible and
Prayer Book to-day with great diligence. The skipper
came up and looked over my. pile of books and, to his
great astonishment, found : 1. Prayer Book ; 2. " Alkali
216 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS . CH. xvi
Trade ; " 3. Cooper's Book ; 4, Electricity ; 5. Bible ; 6.
"Cleveland Engineers;" 7. "Iron;" 8. Novel; 9. Blue
Book on Australia. He wanted to know if I read all those
at once ; to which I of course replied that I did.
* The sunrise and the sunsets are glorious ; after all
cloudland is a picture gallery open to all which it is not easy
to surpass for loveliness of form, colour, and every changing
variety. It is, however, always dark by seven. One misses
the twilight. I have got into the way of waking for the
sunrise and then going to sleep again. . . .
' January 9, '83. Off Bombay. We hope to get into
dock in about an hour; we are however rather late for
the tide, and may not get in this tide. Will reserve my
impressions of Bombay till they are consolidated. Our
run from Mauritius has been a very quick and pleasant
one. With the exception of one muggy, windy day, the
weather has been glorious ; the thermo. never fluctuat-
ing more than four degrees on each side of 81 day and
night. During the last few days nothing of any kind has
happened, beyond once sighting a vessel six miles away,
which is but a mild form of excitement. Conversation
has languished, though we are all on the best of terms ;
there is simply nothing to talk about. ... I am feeling
well and bright; no pain for a month, cough a little in
evenings occasionally. Can read and think well. I am
going to stop away so long to make betterness permanent.
Eat prodigiously. I long for letters. I haven't spoken
to feminine human being for six weeks. . . .
' Bombay ', January 10. Landed at 5 P.M. yesterday;
the ship lying in the harbour. You see very little of the
size of the town from the harbour, which is spacious and
sheltered. We missed the tide, and so couldn't get into
dock. We drove through native town for some three
miles to the Adelphi Hotel. The town crammed with
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 217
humanity ; yet somehow does not' convey idea of a city
with 770,000 inhabitants. The natives live largely in mud
and thatch open hovels, giving no protection, it would
seem, against rain. Hotel a huge place, two-storied, with
enormous verandahs and galleries. . . . Sat in verandah
reading old papers and being bitten by mosquitoes. . . .
We go on towards Calcutta this evening, stopping two
nights on way, Allahabad and Benares. I shall not
bother about Agra and Delhi (much as I should like to
see them) as they are out of our line. We shall be riding
about Bombay to-day and getting money, &c.
' This morning we have had successively visiting our
bedroom (which has no glazed windows, only wooden bars)
coffee-boy, newspaper man, barber, boot-cleaner, bath-man,
washer-man, and a few others. Crows and pigeons abound,
' 6 P.M. Just leaving. Had a pleasant day.*
* Benares, 7 P.M.
January 13, 1883. Dearest Children, My last
left me at Bombay on Wednesday, when, alter calling at
Bank, H. went down harbour to see a friend on another
steamer. As he did not return for three hours, I chartered
a boat and five, no one of whom understood a syllable of
English ; and at last glided triumphantly down the har-
bour to the " Clan Cameron." I said good-bye to officers ;
found H. had been there, and got back again in triumph ;
chartered a cab, which here is a first-class vehicle, some-
thing like a Cape cart, or a high hansom cab with the
driver in front, and drove all over town, chancing on H.
driving in another cab. One of my searches was for a
sun helmet ; but Bombay could not raise one big enough
by three sizes.
* We started for Calcutta at 6.30 P.M., being seen off by
our only co-passenger on the " Cameron " and having only
218 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. XYI
one other in our carriage, which was a first saloon to hold
nine, and sleeping arrangements, with water, &c. laid on.
We had a very comfortable night, though we required
our rugs. Our fellow-traveller [was] a native, who had
bedding, crockery, glasses, milk, fruit, dressing cases, and
every conceivable appliance. He made himself very
friendly and obliging, spoke English well, and gave us
much information. In the morning a grand sunrise, still
cold ; country all day varying between a fair state of
cultivation and monotonous scrub or semi-wooded ground.
Village of mud and straw huts, miserable looking to a
degree, scattered about at rarish intervals. We passed
through some fairly pretty nooks and valleys in crossing
the Ghauts, which are quite low.
' At 8 on Friday morning we got to Allahabad and got
into excellent quarters at the best hotel. . , ..We . . .
hired a carriage and a guide for the day, and went to
Public Works Office, where I saw several polite officials on
business, and got some information ; then through Euro-
pean and native towns, which are quite separate, the
former consisting of tree-planted roads 100 feet broad, with
stucco semi-classical buildings standing back in grounds
(shops and private houses alike) ; the native town, narrow
streets lined by little open shops, no fronts at all, each five
to ten feet square ; in most cases manufacturing and selling
going on in the same contracted space as carpenters, smiths,
potters, brass-founders, image-makers, jewellers, cap-
makers, sweetmeat and cake makers, fan-makers, fiddle-
makers, and a score of other trades. Vegetable, fruit and
stuffs sellers are almost confined to the bazaar or market.
Then to see the great bridge carrying the railway over the
Jumna, just before its junction with Ganges ; this junction
is a specially sacred spot for bathing in, and for the next few
weeks millions come to bathe. From the bridge (a brilliantly
en. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 219
designed iron structure) to the fort (which commands the
actual junction and a fine view) ; it is largely garrisoned,
but we got a pass and went all over it and the stores and
workshops these last entirely operated by natives.
' January 14. In the fort is also a long subterranean
cavern or passage, with irregular niches, occupied by
images of gods, which were being worshipped by peram-
bulating crowds. Atmosphere abominable from crowd ; no
ventilation, and grease lamps.
' At dinner thirteen at table, one a lady in white evening
costume. Not having seen a good-looking woman for three
months, I couldn't keep my eyes off her. Talked to my
neighbour (a male, alas!) about native servants, who cost
four to ten rupees a month ; horses, including two grooms,
cost four rupees a week. Then got talking across table to
General Napier Campbell, a man of about fifty-five. We
had a long talk about literature, politics, America, &c.,
continued after dinner in his room ; very pleasant and
intelligent, as evidenced by his saying he had enjoyed his
conversation.
' Went off at 8 A.M. this morning by train to Benares.
We had to cross river on bridge and drive four miles to
the hotel, which is, as usual, in the European quarter;
then drove back to the town in tow of a regular guide (for
the first time in my life am I so degraded). " Fergusson " 1
took us, however, regularly round to about ten superior
temples, mostly poor enough architecturally but quaint
and barbarous to a degree; some laid over with gold
plates, but mostly stone or plaster covered with red paint.
The Monkey temple, colonised by some hundreds of
monkeys of a sacred herd, who seem fully as intelligent
as their cultivators, struck us as perhaps most curious,
1 It is probably unnecessary to Twain's guide * Fergusson ' in The
say that the allusion is to Mark Innocents .Abroad.
220 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xvi
and I was intensely interested in the monkeys. In the
Golden temple, which is crowded with sacred cattle, and
has a well (which smells like a bad sewer) in which the
god Siva resides, we were mildly mobbed on the question
of offerings and backsheesh. We were, after four hours'
templing, tramped through the bazaar streets, which I
really enjoyed more. The crowded way, jammed vitality,
and yet impassive unchangeableness of the life is at once
interesting and oppressive. I hardly suppose the native
towns, or way of life, or arts, are changed from their state
two thousand years ago.
' A pleasant party at dinner, though no general conver-
sation. Four ladies an event !
1 Up at six next morning and drove down to the river,
where we met " Fergusson " with a boat, and we rowed up
and down for two hours, watching the thousands of re-
ligious bathers. The whole side of the stream is lined
with stone steps or terraces, some fifty or a hundred feet
high, surrounded by magnificent buildings, built by
different rajahs to commemorate their visits to Benares.
The steps and terraces themselves covered with minor
shrines, idols, &c., and thronged with multitudes of the
devout going down to, or coming from the water, or
standing in it. Men, women, and children, in blue, white,
red, green, mauve, gold, yellow, violet, crimson, purple,
and every combination of all or any of these human in-
genuity could devise. I could have rowed up and down
all day, but " Fergusson " insisted on depositing us at the
Eailway Station an hour before time, and (after selling us
some fraudulent Brum. coins at ten times their value, and
charging us preposterously for his services, leaving me
with one and a half rupees in my pocket and our tickets),
he insisted on our giving him a gaudy testimonial. . . .
* In the next compartment was some almighty swell in a
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 221
green nightgown, blue pants, and gold vest, pink and gold
turban, silver and gold shoes, turned up and coiled over
in rings, in case his feet grew during our journey. Item :
two infants of ten or twenty ; one male, one female ; very
fat, in green, gold, white, red, blue, and silver satin.
Item : two soldiers. Item : two silver sticks, and one gold
ditto in waiting. Item : six coolie s to carry their bags.
Item : three superior and six inferior officials ; chief duty
to give lollipops to junior swells. These infants must be
even more spoiled than our silver-spoon youngsters. We
rode on, having a fine compartment to ourselves, dining
and supping en route gorgeously, and sleeping comfort-
ably wrapped up in rugs at night. When at Benares and
Allahabad it was quite cold. Thus, on Tuesday, it was
135 in the sun at 2 P.M. ; at 2 A.M. it was only 50 or
43 in the grass.
1 We arrived at Howrah, the " Surrey side " of Calcutta,
at six A.M., and drove over here, which is the swell hotel in
the swell street. ... On entry, found a whole host of
servants waiting to be engaged. Finding it is usual here
(as we had been warned) to employ one or two servants
each, we took on our table servant, and a majestic man in
silk and white linen, with a white turban, began to take
off H.'s boots and hand him his hair-brush, which greatly
gratified H., and we presently found that this great being
had engaged himself as body servant. They then chevied
the balance away, leaving us quite alone, bar a gentleman
who wanted to wash [us] and our clothes, a second who
had shaved me before I had considered the question of
being shaved, a third who insisted on measuring me for a
pair of trousers, a fourth who wanted to sell me a hat, a
fifth who left a silk dress on approval, a sixth who in
tones of tender emotion wanted to cure me of corns, a
seventh who began cutting my hair, an eighth who wanted
222 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
to take off my boots, and the six men who were getting a
bath, making the bed, and dusting the chairs.
' After breakfast we went to P. O. and Bank, and got
your three letters, "Truth," "Graphic," "Ironmonger,"
and " D. News." So delighted to get all, and above all
to hear you are both well, which is the great news. I
should say that our guardian in the turban feels it his
duty never to leave us. While at the Bank and the
P. 0., we tried to dodge him by a side entrance, but he
had us in custody again in a second. At a shop I again
nearly got clear away, but was captured after a few
minutes of freedom. This afternoon, by great fortune, I
found a cab with no seat or step for our custodian, and we
at last succeeded in escaping by keeping at a gallop.
While enjoying our freedom, saw Patent Agent, Patent
Secretary, Public Library, &c. On our return we felt
awfully penitent as our Mentor took us in charge, and
reproachfully brushed Honman down (I declined to be done
anything to), and fixed up our chins.
4 Our table servant is arrayed in gorgeous linen vestments,
with a girdle and white turban. My first three evenings I
always felt dinner, with one of these silent mysterious beings
behind every chair, to be a solemn and oriental ceremony,
and I always expected to hear one whisper, either that
Fatima, captivated by the piercing glances of my eagle eyes
would a word with me in the sheltered alcove, or that
" Haroun al Raschid deemed it best for the benefit of my
health and my chances of Paradise to encircle my lily neck
with a steel wire bow-string." However, now that I have
two mysterious children of the Caliph or some other Eastern
gentleman among my personal retainers, I am getting to
feel bold and commonplace. I also feel none the worse
for journey, and generally jolly. Lil seems to have done
everything possible in business way.
CH, xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 223
c Bengal, January 22, '83. Last Tuesday (15th) I
called on B. and H., two members of Supreme Council
very well received ; lunched with H., his wife, and a R. C.
priest or bishop ; all pleasant. Next day called by appoint-
ment on H. again, to meet six of the government engineers
and heads of Public Works Dpts. I think, after two hours,
I pretty well converted them all. It seems, however, that
the Indian Secretary at home, has, since I left, been
attacked in the House and by English ironmasters, so that
there is likely to be much difficulty and probably failure,
owing to interference of the English control. Tuesday
also got your letters ; much enjoyed them ; so glad to hear
you are both well. . . . Was asked to dine with H., but
as Honman didn't want me out in evenings, refused.
' Wednesday and Thursday called on head of Geol.
Survey. Very kindly received. . . . He and everyone says
drink is the curse of Europeans, and real cause of two-thirds
of illness. Called on engineer of leading railroad; had
pleasant chat. ... I think the interview will bring
business to N. E. S. Co. Then saw agent for Rothschild, and
(later) head here of Great E. I. Rail. I found in all cases
most pleasant reception ; got lot of information, enjoyed
talking to rational men again. [Saw] also Secretary of
Bengal Government, a Major. Of course I didn't walk a
step. I had a two-horse cab, my own footman, and the cab
footman hanging on behind, and all this luxury for about
Is. or Is. 3d. an hour. Got your first batch of papers,
"Graphic" and "Truth," but none by Tuesday's mail;
enjoyed them very much. . . .
' On Friday came down Barrakur, where theB. Ironworks
are. S. (who is a German engineer looking after Works for
government) met us with carriage at station, and drove us
up to his house ; very nice one on hill ; climate here delicious,
coldish even, at nights, about 70 in shade during daytime.
224 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
Country round not very pretty but fairishly well cultivated.
S. and his wife very hospitable and pleasant ; we have
driven about and seen a good deal. It is a little too hot
for much walking from 11 to 2, but very pleasant in house
even then. Am always bright and fresh. S. four years
in India; married two years ago. Was two years in
Scindia's employ as engineer in general to everything.
He tells many curious stories, and I have heard much of
the ins and outs of Indian society. They have twelve
servants here, costing 16s. a month each for wages. All
keep themselves, and all are men ; so the total cost is about
110. a year. Two gardeners, one coachman, one groom,
one undergroom, one top man housemaid, one under male
housemaid, one water-carrier, one man for cleaning, one
tailor, and one miscellaneous man. Food cheaper here than
at home. A fowl costs 3d., beef Is. a pound; a cow costs
5Z. for best kind. S. and I know many Germans mutually.
' We leave here to-day ; see H. to-morrow ; leave Cal-
cutta about 29th. We stay perforce ten days in Ceylon,
then on to Sydney. I have enjoyed this country jaunt, after
hotels, very much. First night jackals and wolves singing
all round kept me awake, now I am used to it ; jackals cry
like the spirits of departed teething babies. Have seen no
snakes, though said to be abundant. I look in my boots
and hat every morning, but to my great disappointment
have failed to find one.
{ Tuesday, Janucvry 23, '83. Here we are back again
at Calcutta (Great Eastern Hotel) ; we had a drive, &c.
yesterday and came down here with S. by afternoon train.
I shall see the Council to-morrow or to-day, and then
live a very quiet week here, not going out in evening till
29th. The temp, here very equable and pleasant ; by no
means too hot. S. says India is excellent for chest com-
plaints, and that he has quite got rid of one chest disease
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 225
he suffered from. Travelled down with a large party of
English, including a young female who smoked cigarettes
in a disgusting manner. I think young women who smoke
cigarettes should be burnt alive, with tobacco as fuel. We
took one of our servants with us to Barrakur, but finding
him no use sent him back. I gave him 2s. a day (his
proper wage being Is.) and he has now turned up again with
his former colleague in new clothes of the most gorgeous
description from head to foot (at least he has no clothes on
his feet), including blue turbans and scarves and lovely lace
petticoats ; they are now both quite too beautiful to expect
to do anything ; but as they never did anything before but
put on H.'s boots and hold his comb and toothbrush till he
wanted it, it don't much matter.
1 1 learnt much on Indian manners and customs at
Barrakur, and am very glad I went there ; it was the
pleasantest trip we have had. I really feel my mind and
knowledge of peoples expanding so rapidly that I am
obliged to let out all my hats. Some of my things have
gone back in a box to H.'s people, with a lot of his,
though he still persists in carrying his top hat along in a
special hat-box, about which I keep him worried by con-
stantly starting up and saying, " Now I believe that hat-
box was put in the Simla train as being certain to belong
to the Viceroy," or suggesting that it has fallen over or
got sat on.
' Great Eastern Hotel, Friday, January 26, '83. Dearest
Ones, . . . Saw H. for two hours, Tuesday, and some
engineers and bankers Wednesday ; always in, easier to
work, and meeting the pleasantest receptions. . . . Tester^
day went over Geological Museum and spent some time in
their library very pleasantly, the head of the Survey being
my cicerone. I drove there, and am ashamed to say came
home in a palanquin or palki, carried by four men. It is
Q
226 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvi
a curious sensation. They are much used here, and are
absurdly cheap. You can hire one for five hours for Is. Sd. t
English money. I gave my men ten annas (the fare being
three), and they immediately started a hubbub of the first
magnitude, thinking I must be insane. H. and S. are
much exercised by my ruining servants, coolies and porters
&c., by what they call my reckless extravagance. I tipped
about ten servants at S.'s house. I began with 1-J- rupee
(say 3s.) each, but got down to Is. at the end. It is
curious that being liberal don't seem to be appreciated.
Thus, I gave coolies who put our luggage (only three bags)
in train Is., and they asked for more. S. (who had three
big boxes) gave 2<1, and was overwhelmed with bowing.
. . . Don't let mother worry. I am getting along
beautifully. I feel more and more that I would not have
missed this initiation into Asiatic life. By the way,
Keshub Chunder Sen gave a lecture last Sunday to an
enormous mixed audience, on Christianity, Natural Religion,
Brahminism, and the relations of Europe and Asia. Read
it if you can get hold of it. I was very sorry to be unable
to hear it. Did I tell you the Baboos (or writer and
merchant class) look exactly like Romans ? Many have
classical firm features, hair cut square over foreheads, and
wear a toga, and no head covering or trousers of any
kind. Julius Caesar, or his facsimile, cashed a cheque for
me the other day.
1 Both our old servants have returned to us, as well
they might, as we pay them over double the usual rate,
that is, 2s. a day each instead of Is. The bearer is a fine
"tall high-caste Hindoo ; so high that all the waiting he
can do connected with food is bringing us our early
morning coffee at six. He then gets our bath, folds up
our clothes (to my great annoyance), and gives H. each
article -of clothing, makes beds, and supervises us with a
CH. xvi MAURITIUS AND INDIA 227
critical eye. For the rest of the day he does nothing,
unless I invent an errand for him (which, as I am in
constant communication with government, I often do).
' Wages at Barrakur for labourers are about 3d. per day.
For women (who work, they say, often better than men),
2d. ; for children (who I am sorry to say work hard from
eight upwards), about Id. On other hand, an English
foreman who would at home get at most 12Z. a month,
gets there 301. I went to two collieries. At one a native
manager very courteous, intelligent, and obliging ; gave
us all figures asked ; [at] one an Englishman, also pleasant.
Miners earn about 9d. a day ; bring up about two tons a
day each ; much less than our own men. They won't use
gunpowder, owing to some prejudice. I should ex-
tremely like to push iron-making in India ; even if it cost
me money, it would be a grand thing to keep ten million
rupees annually in India. . . .
' I go to dinner with H. to-morrow ; sail Monday. Went
over Mint yesterday. Temperature beautiful ; about 65
at night, 70 to 72 in day, shade. The cruelty to
unfortunate oxen used as beasts of burden is dreadful, and
is the only thing that cools my ardour to relieve India of
her burdens. Have seen boat to Melbourne I thought of
going by, but don't like it ; so shall go by P. and 0. to
Ceylon, and so to Sydney by "Paramatta." Have just
been seeing two Ministers again ; they are frank enough,
and if Kimberley doesn't put spoke in wheel, shall do
well. Now for five weeks of absolute quiet, and monotony,
and dulness.'
This is the last letter actually written from Indian soil
(although the next epistle describes a farewell dinner), and
it will be well to give Mr. Honman's view of his patient's
health during those journeyings and negotiations with the
Q 2
228 SIDNEY GILCHBIST THOMAS CH. xvi
Indian Government. He writes to Mrs. Thomas from
Calcutta :
1 There is a decided improvement this week in his
lungs. . . . Those pains that have been so much cause of
anxiety have not been present for the last month/ But
the anxious physician goes on to complain of Sidney's
broken sleep upon mail nights, and to urge the importance
of keeping from him the details of business as much as
possible. ' Will you see that everything that can possibly
be kept back (unless of vital importance) be kept back ?
He dreams of fresh complications each time, and he
awakes with a bad headache.'
In point of fact the success of Thomas's discovery and
the commercial undertakings which had followed in the
train of that success had brought the usual penalties with
them of much care and trouble.
A week later Mr. Honman writes (still from Calcutta) :
c Sidney has told you about the trip to Barrakur, I
suppose. It has a beautiful climate at this time of year,
but it is too cold at night to continue there. . . . Sidney
can work a great deal better than he could before, but I
endeavour to prevent him as much as possible, as I notice
it does not improve him. . . . The stay in India has not
been such a bugbear as we anticipated. His lungs have
improved since we arrived, and I have no doubt would
have improved more if we had stopped longer, only I am
afraid of the work here. The government people have
no regard for anybody's health.'
CH. xvii CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTEALIA 229
CHAPTER XVII
CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA
So, with a little rift showing in the gathering clouds,
Thomas sailed for Australia. We resume his corre-
spondence on shipboard.
To liis Mother and Sister
' S.S. " Teheran," off Madras : February 3, 1883. Saturday.
c Dearest Ones, I left off in my last just leaving en
grande tenue for dinner-party at H.'s, who is the equivalent
perhaps of our President of Board of Trade (or nearer to
French Minister of Public Works), and Member of the
Supreme Council. There were eight men there and four
ladies ; the men, a E. C. dignitary and military and
civil servants. I talked chiefly to H., who told me his
experiences of natives, among whom he has, he says, many
intimate friends. (He speaks several Indian languages.)
* . . Says they produce excellent mathematicians, engineers,
and architects. He is an architectural amateur himself.
We then spoke of ironworks &c. I am very desirous
to aid in introducing these in India ; it would ultimately
keep in India nearly a million sterling a year, which is
now a fearful drain on her poverty.
1 1 talked also much to Colonel S., the Director-General
of Kailroads, who was born in India, was through the
Mutiny, and knows much of the country. Thinks all but
a small class of Mahomedans and ambitious spirits are
230 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. x.vn
content with our rule &c. Also with a man who had
been " Resident " in Scinde and other native states, a very
able man and good talker. Enlarged my views on many
Indian topics ; we had some pleasant sparring. He very
sensitive to English criticism and that of men travellers.
I was kept by H. after others. Dinner very good, not
ostentatious; six servants in picturesque costumes and
gorgeous turbans fastened with magnificent aigrettes.
' Next morning up at 6. (Honman, like a brick, had
done packing previous evening.) Started at 8 ; backsheesh ;
got on board P. & 0. s.S. " Teheran," a fine boat which
takes us to Colombo, where we wait ten days, sailing
again in " Paramatta " about 16th for Australia, where we
should arrive about March 13. We sailed at 9. Such
a crowd of friends to see us and the fifty or so passengers
off. Sailed down Hooghly ; chiefly striking for tropical
vegetation and the enormous number of ships lying in tier
after tier. . . .
1 Among other passengers a S. American, who speaks
French and is a sort of Commission to Australia, for some
mysterious purpose, studies Vetat social et communal, agri-
cole et industrielj &c. Talks well, only the strain of French
breaks me down.
' Then there is a man named P.. in the Chinese Con-
sular service, who is quite interesting ; is one of a doze.n.
men who talk and write Chinese with perfect ease, and
fluency. Gives one a very different idea of the Chinese
from that one derives from books. He says that actually
there is no religion at all among the male Chinese, though
they believe in a future state, in which, however, they do
not suppose their conduct here will affect their position.
He also describes them as highly logical and reasonable in
argument, &c. Says opium trade is a grievous ill that,
we . have forced on them ; that it seriously affects health,.
CH. xvii CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTKALIA 231
(Conduct, &c., of huge districts, and that Chinese are sin-
cerely anxious to stop it. He has been lending me some
notes of his on Chinese law and the paternal power.
i Item : A Scotchman who has lived twenty years in
Boston and Toronto, made his fortune and tried to settle
down in London, but had had to start round the world for
a change ; has been doing Egypt, Syria, and India ; is
going on to China. He likes Canada much better than
England; says too, Canada can absorb any number of
really working immigrants. Has been recently in Mani-
toba, of which he speaks highly as to its futurity. . . .
' I am tired of shipboard again, and am so looking
forward to getting home; the long spell from and to
Australia will be very tedious. The chief officers here get
201. a month, the junior captain 400?. a year, the senior
1,000. Doctor gets ~LOl. ; Honman says doctor also gets
numerous fees. By the way, S. played the zither delight-
fully. I like it much better than piano ; it is low and
melodious, and doesn't obtrude itself on Anyone. . . .
' Thursday, February 8. We arrived, in Colombo last
night ; shall stop up at a sanatorium near town till
" Paramatta " arrives. We are two days late here, owing
to some defect in engines, which we had to stop four days
at Madras to cure. We lead the usual uneventful life. . . .
' I am always well enough ; the only thing I absolutely
do not get clear of is a little cough. I often think if you
could have stood the sea (which you couldn't) how jolly we
might have been together. I am very savage at having to
stop so long at Colombo ; we shall only get five or six
weeks in Australia.
' Everyone says that no one ought to go to India after
early March for the first time. November, December, and
January are the best months to go. It seems certain that
Europeans cannot colonise in India ; that is, after three
SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xvn
generations in India, they die out. On the other hand,
Lewis, Sir J. Phayre, and all authorities say that a man
who eats moderately, drinks not at all, and protects his
head from sun, is nearly as healthy as in England. Liver
complaints are very little known. The climate seems
most fatal to children ; then to women. If brought up
in India, they say only one soldier's child in nine lives
to twenty-one ; on the other hand, in a female orphan
asylum, where they live with extreme simplicity, and great
attention is paid to cleanliness and exercise, they have
wonderfully good health. . . .'
Mount Lavinia Ground Hotel, Ceylon : February 12, 1883.
' Dearest Mother, We landed at Colombo at ten on
morning of 8th. The town, with its red-tiled houses and
clusters of palm trees coming down to sea, looked bright
and pleasant. We drove about for an hour, walked
through the markets &c., and I felt I knew Colombo.
Many of the buildings are the old Portuguese houses and
forts transformed.
' We finally came up here by train ; the railway skirting
the shore all the way, with cocoanut palms, among which
the native houses are scattered thickly on the other side.
Mount Lavinia is only seven miles from Colombo, but
said to be much healthier. It is a knoll of rock, only
some fifty feet high, jutting into the sea ; the hotel an
ex-governor's country house ; it is very large, of classical
architecture, and very commodious and magnificent. Thus,
the dining-room is a magnificent hall, some 100 or 150 feet
long, with two rows of pillars down the sides, with a number
of little tables, exquisitely laid out with linen, glass, and
flowers, making a more striking ensemble than any I have
ever seen in any hotel anywhere. The dining-room opens
by wide (always open) doorways into the drawing-room,
CH. xvn CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA 233
and that on the verandah ; thus we have the ocean on one
hand, the palm forest on the other. We have a room
which can take forty or fifty, with only an average of
eight; though yesterday twenty or thirty came over to
dine. The meals are appalling in their variety, frequency,
and richness, and the cooking far ahead of anything I have
ever suspected. We fare sumptuously if we take three
out of nine courses. We have not wandered more than
three miles away on either side. The Ceylonese or Cin-
galese are a fine, if somewhat womanly race ; don't affect
clothing above the waist ; wear long hair and tortoiseshell
combs. . . . This is quite a Castle of Indolence, even
worse than the steamer. We revel in " Punch," " World,"
"Truth," "I. L. N.," "Graphic," "Pub. Opinion,"
" Field," and " Queen " (alas ! I have read all these twice
through), and are in all ways in pampered luxury. The
native fishing boats, six feet broad, twenty long, with an
outrigger, are an endless subject of curiosity. They sail
magnificently.
4 February 14 ; Mount Lavinia. Yesterday we spent in
Colombo, wandering about, and chatting to some of our
old steamer acquaintances. We are the only ones who
have been out here. Colombo tremendously hot; but
grass always green, which, after arid deserts of India and
Africa, a great refreshment. We came up again in the
evening, and now find we do not sail till midnight
to-morrow. I shall post this before we sail. They say
the " Paramatta " is a splendid ship. Our life here
dreadfully slow ; there are two young women here, but
both married, and with their friends, who are not sociable.
I get on here well enough reading and lounging, and
playing chess (for Honman's delectation). Mind, I do not
believe an idle life is good for anyone at any time, and I
loaf under protest. Our Spanish-French passenger from
234 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvn
Calcutta goes with us to Australia. We may very possibly
land at Melbourne and go by train to Sydney.
' I like the natives ; they are quiet, dignified, and well
featured, though I fancy somewhat idle. The hard work
is done by immigrants from Malabar. Remember, you can-
not possibly get another letter from me before the end of
April, when I trust I shall be on my way home. Tell me,
Lil dear, exactly how mother is always. Yours lovingly.'
' February 25, 1883 : P. & 0. s.s. " Paramatta," Latitude 24.
' Dearest Children, We parted with some regret from
our palm-forest and marine-palace of Mount Lavinia early on
the morning of 15th ; went down to Colombo, sending our
traps on board. We parted, to amuse ourselves in our re-
spective ways, till ship sailed in evening. I, lounging in
hotel verandah, soon picked up some of my " Teheran "
friends. Several were leaving for China the same evening,
among them my Chinese consul. With him I drove to
the museum, far away from the town, and saw some in-
teresting carving, inscriptions, and jewels of old Ceylon.
' Talking (which we did at a great rate, my consul being
an interesting and aggressive conversationalist) we spoke of
Arabi, and I said I had a mind to leave my card, as a mark
of sympathy. P. jumped at this, and said he should
like above all things to interview the Pasha. We finally
compromised by agreeing to leave cards, and leave it to
A. P. to say if he could see us or not. This we did. Arabi
sent out to ask us in. His house is a moderately comfort-
able sort of European-Indian house, in a longish garden,
in the suburbs of Colombo. We found Arabi and another
pasha sitting on the verandah, with seven or eight sub-
ordinates round. We shook hands and began to exchange
complimentary remarks through the medium of two very
atrociously bad interpreters. The consul, to my disgust,
CH. xvii CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA 235
said I was a member of Egyptian Committee (which I am)
and a leading pro-Egyptian and pro-Arabi politician !
This being floridly translated, Arabi began bowing to me,
putting his hand to his heart, and insisted on my taking
an armchair by his side, and showed me an elementary
Arabic-English phrase book, in which he was grinding up,
pointing out words "my friend" as describing me, and by
bowing, smiling, &c., conveyed his goodwill. I felt rather
an impostor, but disclaimers proved no good. We con-
tinued to be cruelly mistranslated, and to be obviously
made to say imbecile things, till I was reduced to the
verge of distraction ; but the consul was quite equal to the
emergency. Finally coffee drunk with infinite empresse-
ment, and a loving parting.
'Arabi looks earnest and determined, but does not
strike me as peculiarly brilliant ; not a very striking face,
but still beyond the average.
1 After excursing further about Colombo, and having a
final gossip in the crowded hotel verandah, I went to our
ship in one of the native outriggers, which are the queerest
but safest of craft.
' " Paramatta," as you will have seen in papers, is a
fine new boat this has led to her being very crowded *
there being over a hundred saloon passengers.
' A young pair only two or three months married ; the
husband, quite youthful, is going out as first Professor of
Anatomy to the New Medical School at Sydney. His
wife still young, pretty. The professor is well up ; speaks
French, German, and Italian, and knows some general
science. To my great astonishment I found, after a day
or two, that Mrs. R. and Mrs. Professor between them
have persuaded the man whose cabin I shared to retire in
favour of Honman to a far inferior cabin, leaving his to
Honman and self.
236 SIDNEY GILCHEIST 'THOMAS CH. xvn
'It having got abroad that I am with a doctor, and
there being nothing visibly wrong, it is generally supposed
I am a dangerous lunatic. . . .
'We have an ex- Victorian merchant, now living in
Tasmania, of the healthfulness of which he gives the
most glowing account ; an ex-Sydney merchant ; a N.S.W.
surveyor, born in colony, returning from tour round world
all by himself; an ex-ship captain who has recently lost
his wife, taking voyage to get over his loss ; a missionary
who sits next me at meals ; in intervals of eating (he
consumes more than I should have thought physically
possible for anyone), answers my examinations as to his
twenty-five years' Indian experiences with patience and
intelligence. Also a Newcastle man (who introduced
himself to me as one to whom my name was a household
word! ahem!) travelling round world for his health.
We discuss politics and northern affairs with zest. I
have just been reading Cowen's last speech, which he lent
me. Also an Australian doctor who has been ten years in
practice, has been spending two years at hospitals of
Vienna (where he says teaching splendid for students, but
utmost brutality to patients), Paris, and Berlin ; is now
'returning to practise as a specialist. Also Bailey (an en-
gineer who has been twenty years in India, on various
railways, as a contractor) ; has told me much as to native
labour and habits bright, clever little fellow. Also an
Eurasian doctor (and wife) ; has been thirty years in
practice in Calcutta, has two sons in Tasmania, where he
is going to retire. Has son with him, much darker than
father, though mother an European. . . . Also a China
merchant who has told me much of China and Borneo.
Besides, we have the new Bishop of Adelaide (an ex-
Bradford cleric).
1 . . . The day passes as to-day. . Up at 7.30 ; on deck
CH. xvii CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA 237
till 9, chattering to different people. Breakfast ; then on
deck, chattering on New Zealand; and then with the
engineer. Then talk to Mrs. R. and Mrs. Professor.
Have short skirmish with the professor. Then the Spaniard
came and talked French to me, mostly jokes about Honman
(to whom he has taken a fancy and insists on talking
French to him, to H.'s utter confusion). . . . Then, to
make up, he gives H. a French lesson. Afternoon, a
group forms, and we have a general discussion (Honman,
incited thereto by jealousy, or envy and malice, declaring
that I lecture them all, and can be heard at the end
of the ship). Then a short read ; then the Spaniard (by
the way he should be Argentine) and Honman come up,
and the Argentine gets off his burlas (jokes), and criti-
cisms on the promenaders. H. bullies me about some
imaginary misdemeanours, and we find it's dinner time.
Evening : I write in saloon.
1 Tuesday, off St. George's Sound. Made some fresh
acquaintance. Bishop of Adelaide not at all a bad sort ;
was telling me about a winter spent in Morocco for his
health, ten years ago. He speaks highly of Morocco. He
knows Middlesbro', and we did not collide any.
' Continue all right ; though Honman says I ought to
spend next winter away, to which I demur strongly. >
Yours, dears, both,
The extremely favourable view Thomas here, as usual,
gives his family of his health is hardly borne out by his
faithful physician's letter from Colombo.
f We started from Calcutta,' Mr. Honman writes, ' under
rather unfavourable circumstances ; for Sidney had caught
a cold at a dinner-party at Mr. H.'s on Sunday night, and
the next three or four days was suffering from a feverish
'238 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvn
attack of bronchial catarrh. However, that has dis-
appeared again. The symptoms of overwork have dis-
appeared to a great extent. He sleeps better . . . and
looks less worried. The only thing that I am not satisfied
about is the condition of his lungs. The left has improved
considerably . . . but his right lung is still unsatisfactory.
... he has still a cough in the mornings, and (only
occasionally) during the day. Keep as much as possible
all work at home. This is most important. Especially
any bearing upon Australian questions. It will end in
interviews, negotiations, and business never ending other-
wise.'
Mr. Honman might well dread adventitious spurs to
energy. His patient, who draws above his own fancy
pictures of his pleasant f loafing ' existence, was in truth
constantly more than occupied with problems and questions
old and new, quite apart from pressure of the actual busi-
ness and commercial affairs upon which he had embarked.
This latter class of work was, indeed, kept from him as
much as possible by his sister, who devoted herself to the
task of representing him, so far as she could, in his absence ;
but there were of course some matters which it was
absolutely necessary to submit to the decision of Thomas
himself. A source of anxious care at this period was the
nascent North-Eastern Steel Company' at Middles-
brough mainly founded by Thomas. Unfortunately,
about this time a heavy depression set in in the iron
trade, and the new venture had to bear all the brunt.
' Sidney,' says his mother, ' always had perfect faith in its
future especially -managed as it was by Mr. Cooper. His
faith was amply justified in the result.'
The new problems he was perpetually engaged upon
were probably not so hurtful to his health, since in thei$
CH. xvri. CEYLON, AND THE VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA 239
the element of anxiety was comparatively wanting. Some
patents date from this time one particularly for special
steel sleepers for India. The utilisation of the slag
formed in the Thomas-Gilchrist process was a matter
which now and always occupied his mind.
240 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xvin
CHAPTER XVIII
AUSTRALIA
ON resuming the correspondence, we find Thomas on
Australian soil.
To his Mother and Sister
1 March 6, '83: Melbourne; St. Kilda, West M.I
wrote and cabled you on Saturday from Adelaide, where I
landed and spent three hours on shore making several
calls and picking up some information. The city covers
much ground, and is backed by hills about a mile behind
it being itself two or three miles from the sea. Every-
thing, however, was baked brown, and an indescribable
glowing sunshine pervaded all. There is every evidence
of prosperity; but the place is not attractive, and one
understands how great a refreshment the shadiness and
dirt and air of long habitation of an old city must be-
come to the dwellers in a new one. Arriving in the
morning at nine, we left at five P.M., our passengers being
diminished by twenty-four old ones, less a half-dozen new
folk.
<A pleasant run close to coast (which is mostly
sandy, but occasionally rocky cliffs); arriving inside
Melbourne Heads at eight A.M. on 5th. Yesterday nothing
happened on the way but a further closing up of
acquaintanceship, pleasant talk with a New Zealand
squatter and two other New Zealanders, who are all
CH. xvin AUSTRALIA 241
enthusiastic about N. Z., and want me to go down there.
I think I must. I also want to see Tasmania ; but how it
is all to be done I don't know. I think I shall have to
stop over till May, after all.
' Landing by boat, we came up to Melbourne by train,
and went at once to the Library, a magnificent one,
where I revelled for two hours. They have, in same
building, a, picture and sculpture gallery and museum.
There are some really fine pictures. I then called on the
man to whom P. gave me letter, and (in afternoon) came
out here, and settled into a pleasant little hotel facing
sea, where Mr. and Mrs. R. and two other fellow-passengers
turned up soon after, and we spent the evening together
very pleasantly. We do not go on board till to-morrow
at noon. The run up will only take thirty hours, so we
arrive 7th at Sydney, where I hope my " letter hunger "
will be satisfied. The suburbs of Melbourne bear every
evidence of prosperity, and some of the houses charming.
To-day H. gone to Hospital and races. E. gone to races.
I am going to make some calls and to the Library. A
bright clear day, but wind coldish. I feel first class, and
mean to stop so. . . .
' Shall return here before I leave Australia. A man
who joined at Adelaide came out in " Sobraon." He was
a special invalid, and is now quite well. He says, of
seventy passengers, sixty were invalids more or less ; two
died on voyage. He says there is no doubt as to steam
being preferable. I thank my stars I did not go in her.
We had a number of affectionate partings yesterday.
'March 11 : Sydney. Dearest Mother, I wrote you
last from Melbourne, giving account of myself to date (by
the way, I have never yet missed a mail to you). That
morning Honman went to Hospital, and I into Melbourne
after seeing some people. . . . H. and I only next meeting
R
242 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xvm
on going aboard (as he had been to Eaces and Theatre) ; he
told me he had offer of locum tenens in a healthy place
midway between Melbourne and Sydney for a month, which
would give him a chance of seeing how he liked Australian
practice, and yet rejoining me, if I liked it, or in fact my
joining him, it being in district I am recommended by the
Sydney doctor on board to go up to. As he was anxious
to go, we arranged he should get his things off the ship
and start at once, and let me know at Sydney if I should
join him or go somewhere near.
' Going on board, we found only a third of our old
number going on, though many of those who landed at
Melbourne came to see us off. ... Of my party there
remained first and foremost my little New Zealanderin,
Mrs.. B., Mr. and Mrs. R., and the squatter millionaire.
We formed a most pleasant set, and I made friends with
various other passengers; so we were all like a family
party. Starting at 1 P.M. Wednesday, we did not get
on shore here till 9 A.M. Saturday, and I felt very sorry
to break up even then. I had pleasant chats with young
Victorian passenger, also with the Secretary of the Queens-
land Legislative Council, one of the oldest of Queensland's
permanent officials. . . .
' At four on Friday we have our last " tea," the host-
esses being Mrs. E. and Mrs. B. and the " Child " ; guests,
the ship's doctor and three officers, a nice, bright and
cultivated old lady from Queensland, Miss T.,the two E.N.'s
just budding into uniform, L., and a few waifs. Such a
laughing, childlike party as Lil would delight in. The
Child decrees we are to have a final " race game," to which
imbecile pastime we forthwith devote our whole energies,
with the utmost gravity.
1 Next morning we are all up at six, and enjoy the lovely
view as we move slowly up the harbour to the wharf; the
CH. xvin AUSTEALIA 243
R.'s and I go to same hotel, and we all disperse the
" Child " being carried off to the new Premier's till she
sails for N. Z. I rush to P. O. and get your three missing
Cape letters on paying a huge sum for accrued postage ;
then to D.'s, where more letters, but only one of later
date than those I got in Calcutta. . . .
' Monday evening. On Saturday dined with L., who is
at another hotel, Mr. and Mrs. E., and a Col. L, an old
ex-army man of some family in Scotland ; knows everyone
here and has a lot of schemes. We sat talking till nearly
midnight.
' Sunday I spent reading your letters and looking up
information about the Colonies. . . . Sydney streets are
largely traversed by tram lines, on which run large cars,
drawn by steam locos at a great rate. They are an im-
mense convenience and (astonishing to say) do not frighten
the horses. I had two steam cars thundering down a hill
after my cab, their wheels almost touching ours, but the
horse did not move a nerve. The park is large and beau-
tiful, continues down to the harbour, and on Sunday was
full of well-dressed people, mostly work folk, I imagine,
quietly enjoying themselves.
' This morning have seen the Commissioner of Railways,
the ex-Premier, the present Premier, the Treasurer, the head
of Geological Survey, and a few others, and been generally
gassing around and acquiring piles of information. I
have also had an interview with a female inventor and
patentee, who really knows something of what she spoke
of ; though she spoke of a good deal of which she knew
nothing. I met the Premier at the Club. Immediately
on introduction he ordered " five brandies " for myself
and himself, the late Secretary L., and two others. This
solemn ceremony is colonial all over.
' They all abuse democracy and tell fearful stories of
R 2
244 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xvin
the independence of working folk ; but I am inclined to
think things would not be half so well under any other
'cracy. The free libraries, accessibility of Ministers, cars,
parks, &c., are all democratic, and I like them. The
public buildings are very fine and convenient. The Free
Library (open all days f including Sundays) is alone worth
living in Sydney for. I spend a lot of time there. . . .
' I have a quiet day to-morrow, and expect to leave for
Wangaratta (Honman's place) on Wednesday or Thursday.
I am awfully good, and won't go out evenings, though
I should immensely like to. ...
' Lil, dear, your letters are all that could be desired, we
must give you promotion. Try, darling, to understand
everything. You know why I want you to be posted in
everything. I boast no end of my little sister colleague.
Thank E. for her letter (amusing like herself). I hope
the Shipping Co. she has joined is Limited. Everything
depends on management. If Co. is not Limited, don't let
her put [in] more ; she had even better get out. Tell her
to read articles on shipping investments in "Whitehall
Review " of December and January. Weather just lovely :
hot in sun, cold in shade, and clear to distraction.
' If you still think it best, I am inclined to selling
house and carrying you both off, next winter, so as to run
no risks of relapses. I had almost forgotten to say I am
lusty and strong.
c Wangaratta, Victoria: March 18, '83. Dearest Mother
and Lil, Though I only wrote Tuesday, I won't let inter-
vening mail go without writing.
c Wed. I went to R.'s to see their rooms, and then
with K. to see the Secretary of Works. In afternoon I
saw the " Child " off and made acquaintance with the
Premier's daughter, who came also to see her off; she a
bright girl, who, having been to Europe, pines to return
CH. xvin AUSTEALIA 245
thither, as most girls seem to do. On Tuesday had been
to call on Mrs. B. who says I do not attend to social
duties. Laudable youth ! . . .
' Had a comfortable berth in sleeping car and slept till
six, when we were traversing a dry, flat to undulating
land, covered with gum trees, mostly barked and dead,
giving a forlorn and desolate look. At 1 P.M. we came
to end of N. S. W. Railway and had four miles in coach,
crossing the river to the Victorian R. R. terminus. This is
a wine district ; still arid and witheringly hot ; but hills
and green trees and vineyards a relief. The river not of
much account now ; but big bridges show what it is in
rainy season.
1 At 4 P.M. got to Wangaratta ; Honman at station to
meet me. Got a room at a nice little inn. His hospital
with a dozen beds (able to make up thirty) is only fifty
yards off; he sleeps there, but has his meals here. There
are five young fellows also boarding and sleeping here,
four bank clerks, and one the clerk to local justices, in fact,
pretty much what I was at Thames. The latter intelligent ;
has told me a great deal about local conditions and politics.
, . . Excellent table, though simple.
' Honman gets all his exs. and a guinea a day, besides
some extras ; thus he made extra 50s. yesterday. The
charge for visiting 5s. a mile. Thus, if patient is ten
miles from town they charge 50s., as was case yesterday,
when he and I drove to see a patient ten miles away, wife
of a small farmer, living in three-roomed house. It seemed
to me very hard lines that he should pay 50s. ; but he did so,
and H. goes there again in a day or two. He is now off to
see a patient twelve miles in another direction. The hospital
is partly supported by Government (who give 900/. a year),
and balance by private subscriptions. The house-surgeon
gets IbOl. a year and one room, but not, as I understand,
246 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvm
board. He also takes as much private practice as he
likes. Honman, you understand, is merely locum tenens
for a month. . . . Honman drinks nothing and admits he
is the better for it. He says the first days he was here
he was asked to have twenty drinks a day, but now no one
bothers him ; and I can see fehat he is respected for it.
' I have come here (though it is a dull place with nothing
near it that in any way interests me), because Honman
declares it is the most likely place to do me the maximum
of good, and I thought you would like me to be near II.
or rather with him. I therefore feel " awfully good " at
having banished myself from the attractions of Sydney
and not having gone to N. Z. or elsewhere. I shall' try
to hold out here for a month. . . . All right ; but oh ! so
inexpressibly stiff after a two hours' ride on an aboriginal
quadruped. I am going to get H. to rearticulate all my
joints. Yours,
< S. G. T.'
Wangaratta : March 22, 1883.
' (Thursday before Good Friday.)
'Dearests, Life here is absolutely eventless, the only
thing happening being a rain-storm the evening before
last. . . .
' The magisterial clerk talks well enough. He spent
three years in Queensland, by Gulf of Carpentaria, locating
a station, but got fever and scurvy and had to throw it up
and come back, riding 1,000 miles to get a steamer back
to Victoria.
* My ride has not worn off yet. I am even stiffer than at
Torquay. I did not get as far as the hills, which are eight
miles away, and feel monotony of the everlasting gum
trees ; though these are by no means bad trees in their
way.
CH. xvin AUSTRALIA 247
i The land here agricultural chiefly ; but also largely
cattle-raising ; worth 31. to 51. an acre. One man has been
here thirty years, has nice farm and six-roomed brick house,
lives in plenty. Was a Bucks agricultural labourer at
12s. a week. The man who was to emigrate with him got
frightened and stopped at home, and is still getting 12s. a
week.
' Female servants get 10s. a week ; said to be scarce, but
the latter I fancy mistress' fault. The maid here does for
five boarders (ourselves and two other family boarders) ; is
always on hand, bright, quick, and smiling; has taken
Honman under her wing, and dashes in with hot things
for him whenever he comes in late. . . .
' The Athenaeum here (free) is a glorious place. We
have " Graphic," " Illustrated L. News," weekly edition of
" Times," "Fortnightly," "Contemporary," "Westminster,"
" Cornhill," " Longman's " ; besides Australian papers,
periodicals, and a good library of good modern books. Have
been enjoying " Other People's Children." Get " Realities
of Irish Life," by Trench, one of the 6d. reprints the best
book I ever met on Ireland. . . . There is a strong anti-
Irish feeling being got up here, particularly a propos
of the Redmonds' visit.
1 Fruit I am told grows here luxuriantly, though one
doesn't notice it much. We get a reasonable amount-
grapes 3d. and Qd. a Ib. ; in Sydney, even Sd.
i What [a] delicious, though impossible and irrational,
book is " All Sorts and Conditions of Men ! " Get cheap
edition ; it is worth having in the house, as a piece of
dreamland. I don't do all novel reading ; but (by dint of
diligent study of Australian Gazetteers, handbooks, Mineral
reports, &c.) am preparing to make myself the authority
on Australian resources, so that I may " gas about " with
effect.
248 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvm
1 Good Friday. Specimen Day. Up at eight ; breakfast
about till 9.30. Then over at Hospital with Honman ;
reading " Lancet," physiology, theology, &c., till lunch at 1 ;
after which drove with H. to patient six miles off. Had
chat with patient's husband : he took up the land (320 acres
free) twenty years ago; farm now worth 1,300?. without
stock ; has large family, all look not very healthy, mostly
sore eyes, probably owing to flies and bad water. Untidy
rambling low house ; plenty to eat ; good farm machinery,
reapers, chaff cutters, &c. ; buggy. Would have been farm
labourer at home. Orange growing here interesting,
pleasant and profitable ; but have to wait three years for
fruit. There is a good deal of typhoid fever in outlying
districts. On return, stop to chat with chemist, between
whom and doctor there is the closest alliance. He comes
from Totnes ; twenty-eight years in colony ; free-thinker,
intelligent, dogmatic. . . . Then look in at Athenaeum
(open every day in the year). Back to dinner. Honman
called on six patients sixteen miles away. Honman pro-
poses coming back with me, and then returning to Australia.
His farmer patient to-day said, " New thing for us, a doctor
who don't drink," and told how a predecessor came drunk,
and severely injured him, performing an operation while
drunk. The bank clerks here say the bank clerks in Mel-
bourne are constantly drunk, say once a month or week. The
young ladies of Australia are, I fancy, slightly American.
' By the way, dear child, you have still got to learn some
Chemistry and work with me. I am absolutely brimming
over with things that demand investigation ; the lines are
already laid down and they must be investigated. I shall
never have time by myself and you must help ; you can't
tell what a glorious, entrancing, delightful occupation it
will be, with rewards of the most magnificent description
in reputation, work, benefits, and lucre.
CH. XYIII AUSTEALIA 249
c Sunday evening. Yesterday and to-day idled away,
reading, and good deal at Athenaeum, and in open air.
Been sixteen-mile drive with Honman to-day. Had long
talks with several farmers and labourers ; am becoming pro-
digiously learned on all agricultural matters. A man near
here made 8,OOOZ. this year out of fifteen acres of hops.
Another, a carpenter, tells me he has been here sixteen years :
earns 10s. a day ; says working men can live cheaper here
than at home ; meat 3^d. a lb., bread 3d. a loaf, flour 10s.
per 100 Ibs., clothing and groceries alone dearer. Educa-
tion free ; house rent cheap, and (land being cheap) can
[live] out of town, have large garden, &c. This man, how-
ever, considers he is not one of the successful ones ; says
he could earn 7s. 6d. at home ; his family middle class
people living at Netting Hill.
' There being no poor laws, I fear there are many cases
of hardship and even death of sick and old people. There
are benevolent asylums ; but difficult to get admission. In
this little hospital the average of people brought in dying
of starvation from remote parts is twenty a year ! An old
man brought in last week, been lying in a field by the road
starving for a week. He died without recovering con-
sciousness.
c As illustration of colonial politics at their worst, two
incidents of last week: (a) A member, charged by the
Premier in the House with saying in a speech to his
constituents that he had seen thirty-five members of Par-
liament drunk, jauntily got up and said he had said so,
knowing it was a lie, in order to influence votes in his
favour. This is taken as a satisfactory apology, and an
ex-Premier speaks of the M.P. in question, immediately
after, as his "promising young friend. 5 ' (b) A Cabinet
Minister gets drunk at the Redmond Banquet, and makes
an imbecile drunken speech ; has in consequence to resign.
250 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xvni
Petition to withdraw his resignation, as it was only a
trifling indiscretion another M.P. in the house saying it
was cruel to take notice of such a thing, particularly as so
many leading public men were the biggest thieves on earth.
' Wednesday. Long to be back to see you ; otherwise
contented enough. If you see T. T., tell him I rely on his
trying the slag experiments thoroughly and having a
perfect slag process before I return. My heart is set on
this. I am sure I am on the right track. . . . Yours,
< S, G. T.'
' Wangaratta : April 2.
' Dearest Mother, I really feel very cross and anxious
at receiving no news of you all since January 12. I know
you would not have left me so long, so conclude letters
have miscarried ; but I am bothered just the same, as I
have got it into my head you may be ill. I got a whole
budget of papers last Thursday from Sydney, including
some you had sent to Cape. I so enjoyed reading even
the oldest. They were well selected too.
' My present plans include returning to Melbourne with
Honman, then to Sydney, then up country to quiet place
for a few days, then to New Zealand for ten days. Hon-
man quite thinks to come back again. ... He has been
out several nights, and has twenty cases in Hosp., all
more or less bad. A man brought in yesterday from fifty
miles away with a fractured thigh. We are here in the
heart of the bushranging country of a few years ago.
The sister of Kelly, the great bush-ranger, is now a patient
in the Hospital. I had a drive with Honman on Friday, a
ride on Thursday, and a longish walk yesterday ; so I
know the country round well. Weather continues fine and
bright, though a good deal of rain has fallen during two
nights.
CH. XVIII
AUSTRALIA 251
' I learn a good deal from the Magistrates' clerk of the
business and social policy of the colony. I have been
grinding up the resources of the various colonies from all
sources, and it certainly seems to me that New Zealand is
the best, New South Wales the second, or Queensland, if
you have no regard to health considerations. In New
Zealand good land, within thirty miles of a harbour, is
still to be got at under 20-9. an acre. Here the same land,
only less fertile, costs 31. and upwards, and in England 301.
and upwards. Am reading " Adam Bede ; " a glorious
book. This vegetating, I think, does me good, slow as
it is.
' I am sorry to say I fear there is no prospect of start-
ing Works in Australia, as I had hoped, so I have nothing
to do but to loaf. Whenever you see T. T., tell him I am
relying on his trying the slag experiments I sent him a
list of; that I am sure the slag question is soluble in the
way indicated, and that its present unsolved state is the
great trouble of my life.
' By the way, I hope you were thoughtful enough to
get three or four copies of " Cinderella." I go once a day
to a place where they have been framed, to refresh myself
by looking at her.
' I hope you are taking care of yourself; I hope tooLil
has found some work of her own, in the direction of
Besant's Angela or otherwise. . . .'
4 Beratta, Victoria : April 8, 9 A.M.
' (In hotel verandah, in a very comfortable chair.)
' Dearest of Mothers, This is intended to be a birth-
day letter, and I hope the P. 0. will arrange for delivery
accordingly. That I wish you ever and ever so many
happy returns of the day, and that you may continue in
your special way to grow younger and younger, as your
252 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvm
offspring grows venerabler and venerabler all goes with-
out saying. Your second sight, or affectionate intuition,
ought to be telling you all the time how much I am always
thinking of my facetious little mother. I sometimes think
of setting up a special shrine, on your plan (with travelling
lamp attached) for your and Lil's photos. I am feeling
peculiarly bright and brisk ; the receipt at Melbourne of
your letters of Jan. 19 and Feb. 21 (which only reached
me April 6 after a month's blank) was an immense
relief. . . .
' As I wrote you last week, we went down to Mel-
bourne ; only came from there last evening. I do not care
for Melbourne ; though there is much life and animation,
still the country round is flat and uninteresting, and it does
not do after Sydney. The hotels and buildings, Public
Library, Museum, &c., are all finer than in Sydney, and
it is much ahead in population. I had planned to go over
from Melbourne to Tasmania, which I much wanted a
glimpse of, and I also much wanted to see an Iron Works
there for which I have interesting views ; but I got your
letter on the morning of starting, and (as Honman seemed
to think my going to a colder place injudicious) I gave
it up with much groaning and tribulation. Now I call
that an exhibition of gorgeous abnegation of my own
(better) judgment. ... It is much colder in Melbourne
than at Wangaratta. Thermo, about 65 in shade, which
I call cold. ... I may stop here two days ; then to Fitzroy
for a day or two ; get to Sydney about Thursday, stop three
or four days to find out some of the people I have intro-
ductions to, and then up country again quietly. Start for
home about mid May ; it is uncertain whether by U.S. or
by the Orient, or Messageries. Honman returns with me.
' All the Australian towns seem just like one another.
Buildings mostly one-storied, some brick, some wood ;
CH. xvm AUSTKALIA 253
balconies and verandahs wherever practicable. Wide roads.
Country round often looks like wilderness, or a ragged
English park; generally a river about six feet wide, with
a bridge sixty feet wide, to provide for floods. Bright blue
sky, clear air, bright sun, now often cool wind. Two banks,
public library, first-class school. Lots of stores, and every
fourth house an hotel or drink shop. People here seem
religious; in Wangaratta (with about 600 people) a
Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, Wesleyan,
Presbyterian, Independent. R.C. has schools, and excom-
municates all who send children to State Schools, which
here are free, and I am told very good. Very loyal and
patriotic too. At present all papers are abusing Ireland
and the Irish, and circulating and believing ridiculous
atrocity stories. Railways all State ; indifferently managed
and undermanned. Porters remember they are Govern-
ment officials, and act accordingly. . . .'
' Sydney : April 12.
{ Dearest Ones, Your home news may seem trivial to
you, but it is delicious to receive out here. I will certainly
be back before July 20.
' Now for a spell of gossip. I spent last Sunday very
quietly as I wrote you, mostly on verandah. A curious
incident was [the] passing of a small " selectors' " funeral
to R.C. Cemetery. First a hearse; then about a dozen
buggies, carts, and traps of various kinds, all full of decent
poorish country folk ; then thirty-six men riding two and
two on horseback, some smart, some shabby, some ragged,
most dirty, some with a bit of black tied on, mostly with-
out. It was curiously impressive, motley as it was. The
deceased, it seems, belonged to what they call the " Kelly
Crowd," i.e., the friends of Kelly, the notorious bush-
ranger, who lived between here and Wangaratta. Did I
254 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvni
tell you his pretty young sister was in Hospital, a patient
of Honman's, from anaemia ? H. says simply hunted about
and worried into severe illness by the police.
' In evening I found that a man I had talked to in
morning, and taken for a com. traveller, was the M.P.
for the district. Picked up from him and others local
information. Land round Beratta very good; most
of it worth 3Z. to 4>l. an acre on average. You hear
constantly of English farm labourers now farming 500
or 1,000 acres of their own. Wages for agricultural
labourer 20s. a week and board, but said to be hard
to get.
' At 11 A.M. Wednesday started by train back through
Wangaratta to Wodonga ; then three miles coaching and
through Albury by train through Wagga, Macdonald's
nearest station, to Mittogovey, seventy miles from Sydney,
and on top of hills 2,000 feet high. Got there late;
knocked up landlord ; got in.
1 Next morning found it a curious big public, with
(as usual here) several boarders. We all mealed together.
We sat down to dinner, host, hostess, two daughters of
about twenty (to whom I devoted myself) ; a Chinaman ;
an Irish shopman ; a railway porter ; a storekeeper (ex-gold-
digger in Transvaal, bit of a carpenter and doctor also,
and quite a character, became quite a chum of mine) ; a
hawker and itinerant quack. This last been all over world ;
entertained me with account of a trip from 'Frisco to New
York knife and scissor grinding. Three or four odd lots,
diggers, labourers, &c., and an aboriginal. In my two
days I conversed more or less with all. Spent morning
in talking to landlord, an ex-policeman, ex-auctioneer,
ex-storekeeper, &c., and going over the abandoned Fitzroy
Ironworks, which I enjoyed. Afternoon went for a walk ;
was introduced to leading citizens and storekeepers. They
CH. xviii AUSTRALIA 255
had a general idea that I was either emissary of Rothschilds',
an impecunious digger, or a lunatic.
' Next morning at 7 an intelligent quarryman came with
two horses to take me to see a geological phenomenon
which they told me I couldn't find by myself. After a time
we struck into bush and rode for some way up and down
hills, among the forest. . . . My horse shied at the first
Australian bear I have seen, not bigger than a big poodle,
climbing up a tree. My guide then began riding down'a
precipice, and I made my will, strapped myself on to my
horse, and requested that animal to do with me what he
would. The result was the quadruped proceeded to walk
up and down vertical walls of a few hundred feet high
(with superb trees growing at the bottom) for some four
miles, occasionally having a quiet jump across a mountain
or river, and I enjoyed it very much. I think, however,
my guide did not think I was such a good talker as he had
been led to expect, as I found fastening myself on required
considerable attention.
' The scenery in those precipitous rock gorges really
very fine and enjoyable. The phenomena, which were of
a carboniferous character, proved very interesting, and I
rehoved and restrapped myself on to my charger and
trotted gaily back, leaving it as before to my friend the
horse to say whether he should proceed on his hind legs,
or his forelegs, or his tail, exclusively -or otherwise.
Generally speaking, he would coil his tail round a tree and
then drop down on his hind legs to the next valley. Any-
how, he understood the country, and we got up a showy
gallop when we got within sight of the hotel. The young
women removed my remains from the saddle, and I felt
good for dinner. My companion was very intelligent, and
I collected mines of notes which my executors will believe
are mutilated cuneiform inscriptions.
256 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvni
'Left Mittogovey by 2 P.M., not a whit the worse for
my ride, which I had actually enjoyed immensely. Found
two men in carriage, the one a colliery owner, the other a
merchant ; plunged into discussions. Lots more informa-
tion, exchanged cards, spread myself out.
* Got to Sydney 6 P.M. ; came here (better than other
hotel) ; found here P. (my Newcastle " Paramatta " friend)
and Mr. W. and his sister (of Liverpool), who came out in
" Paramatta " for their health, intending to stop here only
a few weeks. They both look worlds better, and are going
to New Zealand and Tasmania before they return. He
talks of settling here. After dinner chat with Miss W.,
and joined by Miss T., who also here with her people.
They also from " Paramatta." Find two others from P.
also here. Weather bright and pleasant. Next day get
my delicious big budget of letters ; revel in it. Call on
big firm [of] merchants here. G.'s step-son pleasant, sharp
Scotchman; gives me some information I want. . . .
Called also yesterday on Watson, ex-Colonial Treasurer,
pleasant bright man, Scotch ; interesting short talk ; had
some trouble to avoid invitation to dinner, which I do not
want. Bead some time at Royal Society's library. To-day
(Saturday) have made some calls, had a photo taken (which
is hideous in the extreme), to please you. ... Land here
at present is at a fabulous price ; had gone up five-fold
in five years. . . . Went to the Picture Gallery, a small
good collection, and Botanical Gardens and Domain Park,
coming down to harbour, hilly ground very well laid out,
making a lovely park. . . .'
'April 18.
' Dearest Mother, I have little to add to my hugely
long letter posted on the 16th per Orient S.S. Monday I
called on one of the ex-Ministers, a Jewish merchant. . .
CH. xvm AUSTEALIA 257
I spent some time at Library, wrote letters, &c. Yester-
day called on one of my fellow-passengers ; then drove
to University, saw Professor S. (another shipmate) ; his
class as yet only five ; very busy. They have allowed him
to spend over 1,OOOZ. in specimens and apparatus, and
give him all in buildings &c. that he wants. They intend
to have a first-class Medical School. Then called again on
professor of chemistry, who showed me round and thawed.
. . . Called on Sydney Jones yesterday. He has big
practice ; very pleasant. He examined me, recommended
me not to stop in England next winter. Honman says
same. . . . S. Jones comes home same time as I do for a
two years' holiday. He advises me to go on hills, so I
go up to Lithgow to-morrow. I may then go up to
Brisbane, which he also recommends me to do. We had
heavy showers yesterday and to-day, but bright sun mean-
time.
' Thursday, 19#i, Noon. Just got yours of 9th. I wish
I were worth one- third of the thought you give me. Your
letters make me feel quite ashamed always of not being
worthy of your goodness. Lovely weather. Sitting
writing in verandah. Honman goes with me to-morrow
into the hills. Ever yours.'
' Sydney : Saturday Night, April 21, 1883.
'Dearest Mother, On Wednesday afternoon took a
trip up the Paramatta River for the greater part of its
course, and round the harbour to Paramatta, one of the
oldest towns. Started at 1 P.M. ; arrived at 3 ; back here
by 5. The whole way a panorama of pretty scenes, wooded
knolls, and bold rocks. For first three or four miles from
Sydney large numbers of suburban villas and villages ; these
grow fewer as you go further. The harbour lovely to a
degree ; sites overlooking it now selling at enormous rates*
s
258 SIDNEY GLLCHEIST THOMAS CH. xvm
* Had pleasant chat with old boy who had been twenty-
eight years in Melbourne ; was an official on Victorian
Rails. Being now entitled to retire, was speculating if he
could live in Europe without the sun. Evening, chat on
balcony with various hotel acquaintance. By the way, my
first appearance in antipodean journalism (a short editorial
article) was an anonymous letter of mine to " Sydney
Morning Herald" on behalf of the caged monkeys of
Botanical Gardens, which I had to interfere with roughs
for ill-using on Sunday.
' Thursday got your letters of 9th in morning ; had to
scurry to reply by mail leaving two hours after. In after-
noon went on board the " 'Frisco " mail boat to see Mrs. W*
and her brother off on their way to New Zealand. I was
tempted to go down to New Zealand too ; but they say it
is too cold at present, so I have resigned the hope of see-
ing New Zealand . . . this time. Archbishop Vaughan
(Catholic Metropolitan of Australia) sailed for Europe by
same boat. The Catholics had been holding farewell meet-
ings and addresses for several days, and had given him
3,OOOZ. for pocket money, and now crowded steamer, and
had lines to small steamers which were thronged with
people (some thousands) to accompany him down harbour.
It was a curious sight. He (a fine-looking man six feet
high) stood on top deck, with gold chain and eccentric
(Archbishop's) costume, waving hand as they cheered, and
waved handkerchiefs, till ship out of sight. A splendid
vessel. I hope to sail by the next month's boat, if we
can get cabins.
1 Did I tell you of going over ironmongery store of L.,
one of our " Paramatta " fellow-passengers ? . . . A vast
place, steam engines, tools, machinery, ironmongery, china,
glass, furnishing, natural gems, wire plates, &c. &c. Turns
over 500,000. a year, and (I suppose) nets 40,000. or so.
CH. xvin AUSTRALIA 259
* Friday at 9 oft by train to Lithgow, crossing on way
the Blue Mountains, 3,000 feet high, by zigzags. Superb
views for three hours ; highest point Mount Victoria,
a great tourist's place. Talked with Scotch clergyman
now in Sydney ; very intelligent ; says no poverty here,
except from drink or improvidence. We talked much
together on poverty, its remedies, workmen, &c. Very
liberal, enlightened man. Asked me to call and see
him.
' At 3 got to Lithgow, in valley, 600 feet below Mount
Victoria-; pretty, but collieries and an Ironworks. Hotel
moderate ; hobnobbed with other guests a com. traveller
from Belfast, Ireland intelligent; came here partly for
health ; much better.
1 This morning went over Works, formed opinion, got
lots of information. Manager bad lungs; says Sydney
suits him best ; says labour costs twice that of English
labour ; interested, became great friends.
' Left at 3 P.M. for here ; at station chatted with man
of sixty-five, a selector in hills, born here, brought up
thirteen children, who are well educated ; '.' is ,not lern't
himself, but knows things." Has house and bit of land ;
still has to work, " but has his victuals and his bed, and
don't see he'd be better off if he was Lord Chief Justice of
New South Wales, as his school-mate, Sir F. Martin, is."
(N.B. Find he has iron ore on or near his bit of land.)
" Has been a pioneer; rough times, seen men speared by
blacks, may have shot some blacks; opines he has; but
won't be sure if you saw a man who might spear you, you
would [not] think it safest to shoot him. Father lived
to be ninety-six ; expects to do the same." Had difficulty
in getting into hotel, being all full ; at last got half a
room with my sick com. friend from Lithgow. Have been
talking Irish politics to him. Bathurst big place ; lots of
8 2
260 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvm
churches, bishops, and institutions ; is on the high-lying
plain at foot of Blue Mountains.
' Sunday. Vile wet day ; fortunately comfortably
lodged, bar bedroom. Had fire last night and this
morning, and quite enjoy it, half wood half coal. I am
quite childishly looking forward to seeing you both ; am
wearying of wandering, though there is much I enjoy.
I have not yet got any papers by last Suez mail, so do not
know anything about time of I. and S.I. spring meeting.
I hope to get Suez papers when I return to Sydney. Fear
there is no chance of picking up a lovely girl ! . . . I am
pretty clear they won't come out to be picked up by me.
I hope to get more letters here ; and a budget at Palace
Hotel, 'Frisco, if I cable you I return that way. ... I
am still inclined to think that London for next winter
would be injudicious. I have no desire to run risks, to
entail more banishment. If I. & S. Meeting in Middles-
brough, you must make your long promised trip to York
with me, staying there or going on as you prefer. I know
Lil will prefer staying at York, so we will leave her there
anyhow. , ,
'I go to a place thirty miles from here by rail to-mor-
row ; said to be very pleasant ; stop there a few days, then
back to Sydney for a few days ; then probably to Brisbane,
as it is getting hot here ; back to Sydney and so home-
wards. Hurrah ! Lovingly yours.'
Sydney.
' Dearest, Just starting with Honman for Brisbane
by his advice, so as to get a spell of warm weather before
leaving by 17th May, on which berths booked. Shall cable
you if nothing occurs to change plans. It is rather ruinous
dashing about so much ; but I am become reckless, in
Colonial fashion, of expeditions. , . .'
cn r xviii AUSTRALIA 261
'^Brisbane : May 1, 1883.
1 Dearest Ones, Here I am in a new colony and new
life again. . . . Brisbane boat close quarters after the
P. and 0. Enjoyed much the steaming up the harbour, in
praise of which one can't say too much. Had beautiful
passage, close to high rocky coast all the time. A coast
range of hills, unfortunately, between coast and inland.
The line of coast far prettier than the line of English coast
on an average ; but very little settled, land not being good ;
several good harbours. Passengers uninteresting as a
whole. One had been ten years on cattle station; well
educated ; said he began with too little capital, and has
always regretted it. Says you ought to have at least
3,000?. to 4,OOOZ., and that if you have 8,OOOZ. or more,
you ought to make 18 to 20 per cent. In this all agree.
Cattle worth SI. each, fat sheep 10s. to 13s. Got much
warmer weather on Sunday. On Monday at 2 got into
Moreton Bay, and soon entered river ; fine winding stream,
banks high one side, generally low on other ; luxuriant
vegetation, pretty houses, mills, &c. at intervals.
1 Brisbane, about thirty miles up, looks like a compromise
between a huge country village and a big city. Fine build-
ings everywhere, with trees and gardens sprinkled about.
Landed at 6 P.M. ; nice hotel, all on ground floor, somewhat
Indian; found our fellow-passenger whom we met at
Sydney at hotel; chat, dinner, to bed betimes as usual.
To-day like a hot English summer day, everything bright
and pleasant. Going out for a walk. We have taken
passage by New York route; start for 'Frisco on 17th,
arrive at 'Frisco 14th June. I feel like a schoolboy at
prospect of getting home and seeing you. Got your two
birthday charming letters on Saturday, just as leaving for
here. ... I grieve at not being able to stop at New York,
but Honman, I think, advises not.
262 SIDNEY G-ILCHKIST THOMAS C
' Tuesday morning, May 2. Spent yesterday loafing
in reading-room, Botanic Gardens, and about. Weather
delicious, though perhaps air a trifle too moist. Land in
Brisbane has increased four times in value in last six
years. Best frontages now sell for over 2661. a foot, i.e. for
a frontage of 100 feet the price is over 20,000?. Thirty
years ago you could have bought the whole city for a fourth
of this sum. There is a vast inland country, say as big as
England, France, and Spain, which is now found to be
rich cattle and sheep land, and coast land is already
enormously used for sugar. One " squatter " here, worth
three millions, is said to live as he did when he had a few
hundreds, spending much of his time passing from one of
his stations to another, sleeping on ground, feeding on
" dampers " &c., never having new clothes, and never
spending on anything beyond necessaries. Millionaires
are absurdly abundant here, and men talk of square miles
as we do of acres. I have had many offers of leases of
1,000 square miles, the rents of which are often only 10s.
a mile, while good-will fetches scores of thousands. One
station recently (but this freehold) sold for over 300,OOOZ.
. . . The more I see of Brisbane the finer does its
situation seem ... on the bend of a fine river with high
rocky banks, and wooded hills as a background. Hurrah !
Shall see you in ten weeks. Love to all. Yours ever.
* Friday, May 4. Dearest Ones, Though I only posted
to you on Tuesday I will send this line as an Orient S.S.
is leaving. Tuesday, reading-room and gardens ; the
latter very pretty, on a peninsula, surrounded by river, to
which they slope. Cricket and lawn tennis in full force,
notwithstanding the heat. Hotel very comfortable. Made
acquaintance with a Scotchman who has recently come out
to look after business of a great Glasgow thread house.
He gets 1 ; OOOZ. a year and expenses, all out of reels of
CH. XVIII
AUSTEALIA 263
cotton &c. Yesterday same routine ; Honman spent evening
with leading doctor here ; there are twenty-three doctors
here for 30,000 people. Is no opening except up country.
Read Sullivan's " New Zealand ; " very good. Still lovely
weather. Go down to Sydney in a few days. Start on
17th. Hurrah!!'
We have now for a long time been following Thomas's
admirable letters from Australia. We will presently give
Mr. Honman's health report, which, as usual, corrects
Sidney's own too optimistic view : but let us interrupt the
Australian letters at this point, to relate what the Iron
and Steel Institute was contemporaneously doing in Eng-
land, to pay honour to the young inventor. In 1873 Sir
Henry Bessemer had founded, under the auspices of the
Institute, a gold medal, to be awarded annually by that
body, to persons distinguished by their inventions or
services in promoting the manufacture of iron or steel.
The Council of the Institute in this year, 1883, resolved to
award two Bessemer gold medals one to Thomas, and the
other to Mr. Snelus, whose connection with the basic
process we have noticed above. 1
The Institute held its spring meeting on May 9 in
London. Thomas was, of course, in Australia, and, at his
mother's request, the actual presentation of his medal
was deferred to the autumn meeting. Thomas, it will be
remembered, had during the preceding year been elected
a member of the Council of the Institute succeeding Sir
James Ramsden, who himself succeeded the ill-fated Lord
Frederick Cavendish, as one of the vice-presidents.
A day or two before this meeting Thomas was begin-
ning the following last letter home from Australia.
1 Ante, p. 135,
264 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS
To his Mother and Sister.
* Bellevue Family & Squatters' Hotel, George Street, Brisbane
(opposite Botanical Gardens and Parliament House, Brisbane) :
* May 7, 1883.
* Dearest Ones, I hope to follow within a fortnight
of this, but I certainly shan't get home before July 15,
possibly not till 20th. ... I wrote you on Friday last.
Friday afternoon I spent in Gardens, and calling on the
Clerk of Executive Council, who showed us over Parlia-
ment Houses ; fine buildings, but Parliament not now
sitting. Rather a rowdy lot, I gather, have got in lately.
' Saturday. Calls, reading-room, Gardens, &c.
1 Sunday. Dined with a merchant to whom I had an
introduction from a business friend ; bachelor, new house
on river, two miles out, pretty view. Banker dined with
us ; pleasant talk ; they had both been round trip by
America, Japan, &c. All say New Zealand has finest
scenery in the world. We go down to Sydney to-morrow;
raining to-day.
1 May 12, '83. Got yours of February 24 only to-day,
as it was not addressed by Brindisi. . . . Revenons a
notre diary. On Tuesday last we started for Sydney per
steamer, my merchant friend seeing us off. Had a beauti-
ful sail down the river and along the coast ; chatted with
passengers on Northern Queensland and Queensland
politics (on which I am proficient), land laws, &c., wool,
and beef, and democracy. We sail within half a mile to a
mile of the coast nearly all the way, there being a range of
hills twice, coast and good inland country. Next day at
noon wind began freshening till it got so fresh that at
teatime I and Honmaii felt that eating was a morbid carnal
craving of unregenerate man, which ought to be suppressed.
It finally got so remarkably fresh that we concluded to
CH. XVIII
AUSTKALIA 265
seek the retirement which a small cabin with closed ports
and all the hatches battened down gives so sweetly, and I
began offering fabulous rewards to anyone who would
drown me out of hand. As everyone, however, was
occupied in a private service of groaning on his own
account (H. included), no volunteer handy. We finally
got to Sydney on Thursday evening, slightly the worse for
wear. One lady passenger was delirious, and very ill.
Honman stopped with her on board for some hours.
' Friday, went and talked to the Premier about some
ideas of mine. It was, unfortunately, deputation day, and
(as the Premier is now holding two offices, Colonial Secre-
taryship, and Minister of Works) I had the opportunity
of seeing the poor man chevied about all over the building
by hungry packs of subsidy seekers.
' Sunday, May 13. Yesterday made a call or two in
the morning. Met Professor S., who made me promise to
go up to his house to-day. In afternoon young S. came
to hotel ; interviewed me at great length on European
politics, literature, &c. . . Honman and I go along lovingly.
He proposes to come back with me to see America, though
of course there is no necessity for it. I am quite rejoiced
at the prospect of getting nearer home from Thursday
next.
' To-day Club in afternoon ; then with Prof. L. to tea
at Prof. S. Latter just got into eight-roomed, single-storey
house, rent 150Z. . , .
' Monday. Called about; raining all day. Evening
dined at Club with Professor L. Old School of Mines man ;
had next bench to Percy. Has 1,OOOZ. a year as professor.
Lives at Club, where it costs he says 250/. a year. Is an
F.R.S. and clever . . . was . . . very nice to me. Sydney
merchant dined with us told us many things. . . . Says
miners of a concern he is director of earn 50s. to 70s. a
266 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH, xvm
week. Were earning 20s. to 25s. at home. This morn-
ing, Tuesday, saw Railway Commissioner. Profitable
chat. . .
' Thursday, 17, Noon. Been interviewing Premier and
Treasurer. Very busy, having great fun bullying ministers.
Lovely day ; feel very well, as I could for next five years.
Honman and I go on board at 2. Been farewell visiting.
Flourish of trumpets. Hurrah ! Shall see you in two
months. Take care of yourselves. Mind, I am first class
in health.'
' First class in health ! ' Such is Thomas's last message
from Australian soil to his ' dearest ones ' at home. Let
us turn to Mr. Honman's reports, sent from time to time,
during the two months' sojourn in the Southern Conti-
nent.
From the ' Paramatta,' Mr. Honman had written :
' I am sorry I cannot say that his lungs have improved
much.'
From Adelaide on March 4, 1883, he wrote :
' I have examined Sidney's lungs this morning ; the
left is greatly improved, the right has improved sufficiently
to give satisfaction.'
From Wangaratta, the stay at which up-country place
Thomas has described above, comes- really the first
reassuring news. On March 14 Mr. Honman writes :
1 Sidney has been improving gradually since my last
letter, and I can at last report some decided improvements.
His left lung is better and his right is improved to a great
extent. His general health is also better. I have been
stopping here and at Melbourne for the last three or four
CH. XVIII
AUSTEALIA 267
days, and to-morrow Sidney joins me again. It is a very
good place, and more suitable for him than any we have
yet been at/
When Thomas himself gets to Wangaratta the in-
telligence is still better. On March 26 Mr. Honman
writes to Mrs. Thomas :
1 1 have had Sidney here again, and am so far satis-
fied with his condition. Our climate here is perfec-
tion.
' . . . He will still persist in working out some
scheme of an Ironworks here. ... It seems impossible
either to prevent him working or talking. ... I have
been able to take him some long rides in the buggy
through the bush, and he is always ready to act as a Jehu
and pilot the horses along. The drives are delicious here,
in fresh wajm air, through miles of bush the " bush "
consisting of big red gum trees and other aromatic smell-
ing trees. The air is so clear that hills that are ten miles
away appear to be but half-an-hour's walk. . . . This
seems to me the best climate we have yet reached, and the
healthiest, I fancy. . . . Sidney's chest has not improved
much ; but his general health has improved. ... I don't
think we can do better than here/
Thomas's mother and sister were so much struck with
the good reports of Wangaratta that they wrote entreat-
ing Sidney to remain there, and offering to wind up affairs
in England and join him in Australia. Thomas talked
sometimes, as we shall see immediately, of reverting to his
early love medicine, and qualifying for a physician's
career. Knowing that he would never consent to a life of
idleness, and that a strong counter-attraction would be
required to distract him from metallurgical problems re-
268 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xvm
maining to be solved, the solutions of which could only be
satisfactorily procured in Europe, it was suggested that
he might, in partnership with Mr. Honman or otherwise,
become a doctor in Australia. Unhappily, the letter con-
taining these proposals only reached the antipodes after
Sidney's departure therefrom. Perhaps, despite the little
improvement ever really manifest in the lung, his life might
yet have been saved had he received this letter, acted upon
it, and settled at Wangaratta. It is sufficiently useless
to speculate upon such might-have-beens. As it was, the
letter was returned to the senders months afterwards, when
the dear doomed one was already entering into the Valley
of the Shadow.
On April 10, 1883, Mr. Honman wrote from Mel-
bourne :
I Sidney has been stopping with me at Wangaratta,
and it has done him a great deal of good. Your letter to
him arrived very opportunely ; he had determined to go
to Tasmania against my wish or permission. . . . How-
ever ... I have sent him North, where we shall be con-
stantly heading for now.
I 1 wish I could tell you his lungs were highly satis-
factory. I cannot indeed do this. His right still remains
the same ; his left is better, but for the emphysema. I
have endeavoured to persuade him, although it would be
painful to you, that he should not go back till the next
summer ; but I am afraid he will not consent to this. I
said I should be no tie to him, because I should set up
here, and he could enter into partnership with me ; he
always declares that he is the best doctor of the two ; and
I have proposed another plan that he remain here, and
I go home/
The effect of all Mr. Honman's letters is the same. The
CH. xviii AUSTRALIA 269
general health improves, but the lung trouble never dis-
appears. He writes from Sydney on May 16, at the very
moment almost that Thomas is describing his ' first-class
health.' ' Cough a little troublesome . . . The months
on board ship ought to improve him more/
270 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CM. xix
CHAPTER XIX
HOMEWARD BOUND
LET us quit for a little the slow process of measurement
of the advancing steps of Death, and revert to Thomas's
own correspondence, brimful as it is of life.
To his Mother and Sister.
' SS. " Zealandia "off New Zealand : May 21, '83.
' Dearest Ones, As I wrote you per P. and 0., mail
left Sydney Thursday at 3 P.M. Tuesday and Wednesday
spent in interviewing Premier and Treasurer, who mildly
complained that I treated them in a most unceremonious
" stand-and-deliver " fashion, but showed by their action
that it was the right line. They had a Cabinet Council on
me, and were greatly disturbed at my audacity, and wound
up with saying that they were favourably impressed, but
wanted time to consider. All this showed much of the
interior working of colonial politics, and kept me quite
amused. . . . Sydney Harbour looked its best in the
bright sun as we steamed out. We had had a week's
rainy and cold weather, so appreciated the bright sun
the more.
4 The vessel a good one, with admirable arrangements
for the passengers, the saloon and stateroom being forward
of the engines. There are eighty or ninety passengers in
the saloon ; thirty more join at Auckland. I have chatted
with twenty or thirty of the crew. Among them are our
CH. xix HOMEWAED BOUND 271
South American shipmate from Calcutta to Australia : a
pressman and ex-Victorian M.P., going to report for his
paper on the United States, with whom I chat much :
Speaker of Victorian Assembly, who lost his arm in heading
miners' revolt against authorities thirty years ago : a
Brisbane doctor ; a Queensland sugar-grower : a South
Australian wine-grower: two or three health travellers:
two young squatters : four girls, and eight or nine married
women : two Roman Catholic priests, and a Victorian
Anglican cleric.
' May 28, '83. We arrived at Auckland late at night
this day week. I went on shore before breakfast next
morning and took train across the island, to see the only
Ironworks in New Zealand. Particularly interesting, as
being trial of a new process. Saw manager &c. Returned
to Auckland. Made a call ; got some useful information on
several subjects. It was by this time raining hard, so took
a cab back to ship, and we steamed away at 2 P.M. with
twenty new passengers. The glimpse of New Zealand I
had was pleasant. It is greener even than England.
Abundant vegetation and picturesque rocky coasts and
hills
' There are three doctors among passengers. . . . There
is also a Belfast man, who has for some years been
wintering in Australia, who has ideas, and with whom I
discuss politics sometimes ; and a Sydney man from
Canada, who is bright and intelligent. I am making him
read " Progress and Poverty." Gambling on the " run "
occupies two-thirds of the time of two-thirds of the
passengers. I, of course, keep out of it. ... They have
had a dance and a concert and games. P. (my South
American acquaintance) is very popular. The other night
he ordered champagne all round to drink to Argentine
Republic, on anniversary of its formation He came to
272 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xix
me to write an English version of the French speech he
proposed to make. I rewrote an English version of a
gorgeous description, and coached him how to deliver it ;
but at the last moment his courage failed him, and he
asked me to read it, which I did ; so finding I have not
quite lost my voice. It amused me to hear P. con-
gratulated on the English of his speech and its periods
congratulations which he received with great modesty and
satisfaction, and an occasional smile and bow. . . .
' June 4, '83. I feel good, when I think I am now
only six weeks from home, at most. Our voyage to
Honolulu, where we arrived at noon on Sunday last, quite
uneventful. . . . Have discovered another bright fellow,
a young Cornishman, who is partner in a large New
Zealand business [of] the London house which he entered
as a clerk nine years ago. He is not only clear-headed on
business, but has read, can talk, has thought, speaks French
and German, plays the piano, and draws clever carica-
tures.
* We were at Honolulu from noon to midnight on Sun-
day, June 3. The Island, of which Honolulu is the
chief town, is volcanic and rather picturesque; vegeta-
tion nearly tropical, sugar-cane chief crop. The natives
rather fine-looking, identical with Maoris of New Zealand ;
women, however, get stout and coarse-looking early.
We landed at one, and I sent Honman for a drive. I
(strolling round) picked up a young fellow, a cabinet-
maker from San 'Frisco, who showed me round till 6 P.M.,
all over the town and surrounding country. My guide
proved very conversable and well-informed, and posted me
thoroughly in Hawaian matters. He (though only twenty-
one) was making about 71. a week. The country is
particularly " run " by Americans, who control the chief
political posts and the bulk of the business. The half-*
CH. xix HOMEWARD BOUND 27B
caste girls are singularly good-looking, with clear, brilliant
olive to white complexions. The King is given to drink,'
but is otherwise a good constitutional sovereign, that is,
does nothing, draws an enormous salary, and gets into
debt. There is a large Chinese population living entirely
to itself. I went through and through the Chinese
quarter, which is densely crowded. Here, as elsewhere,
they propose shutting the Chinese out. Labourers there
now get 65. to 12s. a day: artisans 12s. to 20s. Rent is
dear 20s. a week for a four-room house ; but food cheap
enough. We took fifty passengers on board for 'Frisco, so
are crowded to a degree.
i Sunday, June 10. Thank Heaven, we have but one
day more before we see shore and get letters. I am more
tired of this trip than of any of the others, and weary for
the land. The past week has been coldish, and sufficiently
rough to prevent being on deck, so we have been nearly
confined to the smoking-room and saloon, both of which
stuffy. ... I hope to see you all before July 17. Have
been very well all trip, though still obliged to be careful.
Honman seems to be for coming home. . . . Don't be
making engagements for July or August. I want to see
as much of you as I can.
' Tuesday morninq, June 12, '83. We arrived in 'Frisco
last night. Just on shore : all well.'
To his Sister
Palace Hotel, San Francisco : June 13, 1883.
* Dearest Lil, The Palace Hotel is truly palatial.
' Like city well enough. Weather bright and sunny ;
coldish winds. We leave to-morrow [for] Laramie City.
I hate delaying a day, but at same time want to gather
any information that may be useful to N.E.S. Co. on way.
I don't see way to getting home before 15th. I got
T
274 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xix
" Ironmonger," and of course much interested in report
of meeting. ... I walked several miles yesterday with-
out being tired. ... If any of my fellow-travellers
call before I return, you will, of course, do the right
thing, and tell them when I return.
' Lovingly yours, dears,
' SID.'
But while Thomas was writing thus cheerfully home
of * walking several miles,' Mr. Honman was describing
the true state of affairs, viz., that he was in a ' dangerous '
condition, and quite unfit to remain in England.
On June 14, 1883, the latter writes from the Palace
Hotel :
1 1 have had the opportunity of examining Sidney off
ship and in a quiet place. His right lung is still dangerous
and gives me a great deal of anxiety. It is absolutely
imperative that he should leave England immediately the
more important business matters have been settled, or else
entirely drop business matters for the autumn and winter
months (and this latter, I presume, would be an impossi-
bility if he were to remain in England). I wish that his
condition had been free from everything to cause anxiety.
Had it been so, I should have remained in Australia. . . .
Sidney has been walking about all day in great spirits.
We have lovely weather, but with a fearfully cold wind at
night. . . .'
Here this long correspondence practically ceases.
Thomas, now nearing England, no longer writes
voluminous epistles, but confines himself to short letters
and post-cards. We give some of these in their
order :
CH. xix HOMEWAKD BOUND 275
To his Mother and Sister
1 Laramie City, June 17. Arrived here all right. . . .
All way very comfortable ; had ten of " Zealandia " pas-
sengers with us. Some very fine scenery, but most
monotonous plains. . . . Get to New York about July 1.
' S. G. T.'
Pittsburg : June 24, Tuesday.
f Dearest Folk, Arrived here last night and got your
letters (with delight as usual) of 31st and 5th. ... I
haven't so far found United States at all too hot. In fact,
I can stand any heat. ... I was kindly received at
Cleveland; driven about, taken over Works &c. Saw G.,
who sent messages to you. He is earnest and innocent as
ever. At Chicago saw M. ; had F. to dinner, who drove
us about and took us to Club &c. Taken to Cleveland in
state in Dunlow car. Had rather hot ride here, starting
at three and arriving nine. Had G. and his chief to early
dinner with me before I left. This American part is
proving very costly ; have been twelve days in United
States, and have spent over 60Z., besides railway tickets.
Have just met two Liverpool men who are stopping here,
going round the world the other way. Am going to call
on Mr. Tom Carnegie. Will now only write you post-
cards, or shall have nothing left to tell you when I come
back. I must be in London till the end of August, or
nearly so ; can't be back now till 18th or 19th. I wish
we could have got earlier passage. Love to all. Tell A.
I expect him to be M.R.C.S. when I return. Ever yours,
best ones, ' SID.'
' Pittsburg^ June 26, '83. Spent very pleasant evening
on Sunday with Tom Carnegie. . . . This morning been to
Works, quite leisurely and easily, declining to exert myself
T 2
276 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xix
any. Pleasant reception everywhere, much kindness.
Get on to Philadelphia to-morrow ; easy travelling. Shall
have a week in New York, which I worry over ; am so
anxious for return.
' Philadelphia, June 28, '83. Left Pittsburg Tuesday,
after seeing a little more quietly. Yesterday drove down
to Steel Works at Harrisburg, where working Basic.
Very kindly received. Came on to-day to Philadelphia ;
lovely day ; taking it very easily. Get to New York on
Monday. I wish I could sail at once.
' New York, July 6, '83. Just another line to say all
well. Weather still very hot ; shall be glad to be on ocean
again. Everything improving since last here; colossal
buildings everywhere, both office-blocks, hotels, and apart-
ment houses. This hotel has been beautified enormously,
less high, art restaurant and ultra high art Bar, with
good oil paintings, statues, bridges, antiques, &c., painted
windows and iced drinks.
' Honman and I spent 4th July, when New York is
shut and deserted (except by youthful fiends letting off
crackers), mostly in Central Park. In evening to theatre.
' Yesterday, calls ; dined at seaside. We go on board
to-night. Sail to-morrow. Unfortunately I shan't get home
till three days after this [arrives], as our " Nevada " is a
very slow boat.'
CH. xx A SAD HOME COMING 277
CHAPTER XX
A SAD HOME COMING AND A FLIGHT SOUTH
:< His voyage from the States,' says his sister, ' was not
made under satisfactory conditions. In his haste to get
home he had wired to a friend in New York to secure
berths in the first ship. This happened to be the "Nevada,"
a vessel chiefly used to convey Mormon parties to the
States. It was old, slow, and badly ventilated.
' Letters calculated to worry him reached him at
Queenstown. The very day of his arrival at Tedworth
Square visitors, requests for appointments, business of all
kinds, began to pour in upon him. It was quite evident
to us at once that his health could not withstand the strain,
and we made despairing attempts to keep work from him,
attempts mostly made in vain. It was well nigh impossible
to check his activity and eagerness.'
Not alone had he to deal with the many questions con-
stantly arising in connection with his various patents, with
the development of the basic process, and with the progress
of the North Eastern Steel Co.'s Works some of which
questions had necessarily been reserved for his considera-
tion upon his return but the very travels primarily under-
taken in search of health had produced a new crop of
plans and problems to be worked out. From every country
he had visited, he had brought back a mass of figures
and economic statistics, together with general information
of all kinds. He had occupied himself with the special
278 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS GH. xx
circumstances affecting iron and steel in South Africa.
He had entered into lengthy negotiations with the Govern-
ment of India, with a view to purchasing from them certain
ironworks, collieries, &c., his object being to establish (or
rather to re-establish) steel manufacture in the peninsula.
This was a matter which he had very much at heart, not
only from a commercial standpoint, but also as a right
and proper effort to give back to Hindostan an ancient
industry which the British Raj had destroyed. As will
have been seen, he constantly dwells upon the subject in
his letters. For Australia there were schemes for the
foundation of fresh colonial steel works.
These were no idle phantasies of an imaginative
inventor. It must be remembered that, from the first
' blast,' Thomas had had the sole legal and financial conduct
of all matters connected with the basic process. The
rapid and absolute success of that process is the best
possible tribute to his practical ability and clear grasp of
realities. That success was not won without some sharp
legal contests ; above all, many delicate and difficult nego-
tiations were needed to secure the fruits of discovery.
The very important North Eastern Steel Works, started at
Middlesbrough to work the process, owe their existence
chiefly to Sidney's initiative.
Beyond all these things, the question of the utilisation
of the * slag ' produced in the basic process was a problem
which from this time, for the few remaining months of
his short life, more and more dominated Thomas's never
quiescent mind. Of that problem and its thoroughly
successful solution we will speak presently.
The pressure of work and the harassing business inter-
views, soon destroyed whatever good the voyage round
the world had wrought, and after a fortnight of London, it
CH. xx A SAD HOME COMING 279
became very clear that town must be quitted at once, and
England itself at the first opportunity. In the first days
of August, Thomas and his sister went down to stay at
the White Hart, Sevenoaks Common, leaving their mother
to wind up matters in Tedworth Square in preparation for
a long absence from British soil.
* He and I,' says his sister, * thus set out once more
on the health quest, this time together. Our month at
Sevenoaks was happy in its way (happy since we were
once more together), although it gave me too many
grievous proofs of his frailty of health, and too much of
that anxiety of heart which seems most overwhelming
when one realises that cherished hopes have been dis-
appointed. We worked together, and in the intervals of
work sauntered along the country lanes or sat in the old-
fashioned inn garden. Many kind friends came down to
see us. The last Directors' Meeting of the North Eastern
Steel Company which Sidney was ever able to attend was
held specially at the White Hart, the other Directors
thoughtfully travelling south to meet my brother, inasmuch
as he was quite unable to go to Middlesbrough to meet
them.'
Thomas wrote a letter from Sevenoaks to his old
chemical teacher, part of which we reproduce :
To Mr. Chaloner
1 Sevenoaks : August 28, 1883.
' Dear Chaloner, I should have answered yours of
Saturday before but for a tremendous influx of business
(from which I still suffer) keeping me hard at it all day,
while we have two Directors' Meetings for to-morrow. . . .
' The fact is I have thrown my health and everything
else into the basic business, and it is possible I may not
see the harvest myself. But we shall see. Thanks very
280 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. x*
much for taking so much trouble about Algiers. We shall
be able to do with Murray, which I have ordered. I
shudder to think of the ten volumes.
' . . . We shall sleep at Dover; probably spend
Sunday there.
' We have almost, not quite, settled to go Saturday, if
I can finish off business by then, so can hardly hope to
see you. ... In haste, yours very truly,
S. G. THOMAS/
So long as any physical power remained, even reason-
able rest was impossible to Thomas. ' Sidney,' says his
mother, i instead of resting, was interviewing at the White
Hart his cousin Mr. Gilchrist, his secretary and chemical
clerk Mr. Twynam, numerous friends, anxious to say good-
bye. His brother, Dr. Llewellyn Thomas, was quite
overcome at discovering the rapid change for the worse
which had set in since Sidney's return to England. The
change made little difference in my boy's ardour for work.
" Mother," he would constantly tell me, " I have so much
to do." Much time was necessarily occupied by writing
business instructions to those he left behind him in London
and Middlesbrough. He had a long day with his lawyer,
arranging all his affairs.
' I joined my children at Sevenoaks on August 25.
Sidney, although unfit for it, insisted on driving to meet me
at the station. I saw at once that the two or three weeks
which had passed had left him weaker even than he had
been in London. We drove the two miles to the White
Hart sadly and almost in silence.'
After some anxious days of waiting, the little party
began to journey southwards, taking advantage (on
September 8) of the first fine day to cross the Channel
and gain Paris* After much study of the advantages and
CH. xx A. FLIGHT SOUTH 281
disadvantages of various Mediterranean health resorts,
Algiers had been pitched upon as upon the whole the best
place to winter in, Cairo (whither Thomas had wished to
go) being shut to him by the cholera, which was then
raging there.
' We stayed only long enough in Paris,' says Sidney's
sister, ' to make some necessary financial arrangements and
travelled on to Marseilles, breaking our journey at Lyons.
Boats do not go every day to Algiers, and some days had
to be spent in hot, dusty, noisy Marseilles.'
The turmoil characteristic of the great southern sea-
port tried Thomas (now, in truth, an invalid) much, and
he became alarmingly worse. He was removed to an
hotel some three miles along the seashore, at the end of
the Prado, and grew better again. ' We waited here,'
says his sister, ' happily enough, save perhaps for the
mosquitoes, out of which, even, Sid managed to extract
fun, describing his skirmishes with them in grandiloquent
and Homeric terms, and trying various languages in which
to summon me to aid in a conflict with them, finally
declaring that, though they understood French and English,
German was too much for them, so that they did not
know when we plotted their extermination in that tongue/
282 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xxi
CHAPTER XXI
A WINTER IN ALGIERS
ON September 22 the little family got themselves on board
the Algiers packet. ' We were two nights at sea,' says
his mother ; ' Sidney better, as he always was at sea. We
landed at 6 A.M. on the 24th. The juxtaposition of
Eastern and French civilisation much impressed my son,
as it impresses everyone. Before 7 A.M. we had driven
into the courtyard of the Hotel Kirsch, where we were
received by sleepy servants, evidently surprised at European
health- seekers coming to Africa so early in the autumn.
We soon discovered that we were the very first guests of
the season, full three weeks too early. The ground was
still parched from the summer heats and all vegetation
had withered away. The sun shone with a constant hard
glare and the deep blue sky remained from morning till
night without the shadow of a cloud to veil its brightness.
Sidney became very ill from the fatigue of the journey and
from the prostrating heat. The English physician had not
yet arrived for the winter, and we sent for a kind French
doctor (an Alsatian, whose own excellent health had been
built up by the Algerian climate). He evidently thought
my poor boy in a very bad way ; but after one or two
visits he said that his courage and mental force gave him
a chance. On this foundation we raised great hopes.
' I even now think that, if we could have kept hia
CH. xxi A WINTER IN ALGIERS 283
mind quite at rest, he might have rallied, but this was
impossible. Letters poured in, causes for anxiety arose,
and no effort or persuasion could induce Sidney to " let the
world slide as they did in the golden days." Even during
the three weeks of summer heat, he would insist on
driving out almost daily to look for a house. Fortunately
we consulted the excellent British Consul, Colonel Playfair,
and he pointed out to us that most of the pretty houses
we saw, and were pleased with, were badly drained. So
for the present we stayed on at the Hotel Kirsch.'
A part of Thomas's correspondence with England
referred to the presentation of the Bessemer Medal, a
presentation which had been, as we have seen, postponed
from the spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute.
Thomas was quite unable, of course, to be at Middlesbrough
to receive the honour. He wrote, however, a letter of
thanks to the President, as characteristic, in its generous
tribute to others and in its self-effacement, as anything he
ever penned.
' It would be difficult,' he says, ' for me to insist too
strongly on how greatly we are indebted for the success
the basic process has now attained to the unwearied
exertions, the conspicuous energy and ability, of my
colleague, Mr. Gilchrist, whom I regard as no less my
associate in the acceptance of this medal than he was in
the sometimes anxious days of which this is the outcome.
I am sure, too, that he and I are agreed in saying that the
present position of dephosphorisation has been only
rendered possible by the frank, generous, and unreserved
co-operation of Mr. Richards. As an instance of the
effect of free discussion of metallurgical theories and
experience which this Institute especially promotes, it may
be interesting to note that, while in the autumn of 1877
there was, so far as I know, no public record of even any
284 SIDNEY OILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxi
successful experiment tending to show that phosphorus
could be removed in the Bessemer or Siemens process,
for the present month of September 1883 the make of
dephosphorised Bessemer and Siemens steel is between
60,000 and 70,000 tons.' l
By a happy departure from usage, the actual ceremony
of ' presentation ' of the medal was, in this instance,
performed by Sir Henry Bessemer himself.
We resume Thomas's mother's narrative :
' After our three weeks of drought, clouds suddenly
gathered, and we had such a downpour of rain as two of
^s, at least, had never seen before. After that the weather
was perfect and everything grew into delicious life.
About this time an invalid Irish gentleman arrived at the
hotel, who became a great friend of Sidney's. He had
lived many years in Paris, and had come thence to Algiers
seeking renewed health. Many discussions did he and
Sidney have on Ireland and her needs, politics in general,
or on the prospects of the Algerian colony. We spent
four months and a half in the Hotel Kirsch, Sidney
fluctuating much, but always steadily working, and fighting
against his disease. We passed our time entirely together,
he, his sister, and myself.
' Friends gradually gathered round us (Sidney made
friends wherever he went), and, as we were still buoyed
up by hope, the time passed not unhappily, in spite of
terrible dreads. Sidney was always cheerful and even
vivacious, save when unusually weak. He would eagerly
join in the conversation at our end of the table d'hote,
bringing his varied knowledge and acquired experience to
bear on current topics. Once a week or so, when Sidney
felt well enough, we would drive into Algiers and sit in
1 For the present output of Basic steel seepost, ' Conclusion ' ; cf. ante,
p. 159.
CH. xxi A WINTEK IN ALGIERS 285
the great place, watching the different nationalities and
gaming peeps at Arab life.'
In the following letters Thomas gives some glimpse of
his Algerian impressions :
To Mr. Chaloner l
' Hotel Kirsch, Mustapha, Alger : October 4, 1883.
' My dear C., After seeing you when you last so kindly
enlivened me at Sevenoaks, I had some days of being very
much indeed under the weather. Lil said I talked to you
too much, which I denied as the causa mali. Once started,
took very slow stages, sleeping one night at Dover, two
Paris, three Lyons (which is bright interesting town), and
stopping ten days at Marseilles (where at last I found it
decently warm). The last town looks very flourishing and
busy, is well-ordered, and from the sea looks magnificent ;
but for smells it beats Paris at 2 A.M.
' Crossed here. The town of Algiers looks well from
the sea, with high green trees all round it ; it is built on
slopes and steeps. Here, we are two miles from the town
and some 700 feet or more above it, looking on the bay.
We came here direct, and shall stop for some months
anyhow. Town very interesting ; mixture of new French
town and slip of Arabia and the Patriarchs. Camels and
tramcars ; mosques and chapels ; Arabs and Parisians ;
steam-engine and hand-pounding of wheat. The natives
and immigrants are unanimous only in fleecing the stranger.
Hope to benefit. At present find it too cold at 70.
< Yours,
<S. G. T.'
To Miss Burton
' Dear Bess, Many happy returns of the day, and no
more returns of any failing in health ! These are the best
1 On a post-card.
286 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxi
wishes I can wish for you. We were so very glad to hear
that your holiday did you so much good, and that you had
returned quite bright and well.
' Whether I shall ever get round enough to enjoy a
real holiday is dubious; but meantime I ought to be
enjoying this wondrously sunny place, which is, for the
rest, interesting enough otherwise, if I could get about
more.
' We live pretty much entirely in our own rooms. I
have plenty to think and write about : so we are not
altogether dull. Yours,
' S. G. T.'
Innumerable letters on financial and chemical matters
of course continued to arrive and need reply. Thomas's
correspondence alone would have been sufficient to tax the
energies of a vigorous man ; but the brain of this invalid
was constantly occupied with engrossing thoughts of all
kinds, and with fresh projects quite unconnected with
current business. Truly the ; aspiring spirit' 'o'er-
informed its tenement of clay.'
' Among his ideas at this time,' says his sister, who was
ever his indefatigable helper, ' was a plan for an improved
type-writer, in which he sought to interest his old friend
and teacher Mr. Chaloner, who was to help him with it
in England. Many were the trials we made in the Hotel
Kirsch drawing-room of the relative speed with which I
could strike the piano keys with my finger or with rods of
varying lengths, and many are the sketches he made of
his improvements, sketches which remain to testify to a
portion of the work still left for him to do, but which he
was prevented from accomplishing.'
The type-writer project is spoken of in the following
letter :
CH. xxi A WINTER IN ALGIERS 287
To Mr. Chcdoner
' Hotel Kirsch, Mustapha Sup., Alger : November 20, 1883.
* My dear Chaloner, Many thanks for your card. . . .
I should have written you long since but for the extreme
weariness I generally feel after getting through with the
little necessary writing of the day : add to which the life
here is eventless absolutely. The weather is, after all, the
only thing to talk about and that is certainly superb.
Sun, sun, and again sun ! though (alas) we are now degene-
rating into 50 F. at night, and have had three wet (and
so fire-needing) days ; but to-day it has been 100 in the
sun again, and I breathe once more, literally.
1 Have not been up to any foot rambles now ; but what
we have seen in driving of the country is pretty and fertile
orange and olive trees ; vineyards and all sorts and
kinds of vegetables ; flowers in bloom (roses, geraniums)
everywhere. I could wish it 10 hotter all round ; but
one can't get everything to suit.
' We are stopping at a sort of compromise between a
hotel and a boarding-house ; pleasant enough, the host and
hostess kind and obliging. ... I am ... satisfied to be
left to my books, we having four tiny rooms to ourselves.
* I have several fresh things on hand which may, or
not, fructify. Among other things, the improved type-
writer l I have seen the way to for some years past, and
spoken to you of before, has turned up again. I think a
type-writer could be sold to write 15 or 20 per cent, quicker
than present, and at half the price. If so, it means con-
siderable money. . . .
' I grieve very much over the steel trade. Prices are
1 It will be remembered, of since then. These matters are
course, that all this was written only inserted here as illustrative
in 1883. Probably type-writers of Thomas's character and bent
have been radically improved of mind.
288 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xxi
lower than ever ; but on the whole I doubt if it will hurt
our prospects, from a patent point of view, ultimately.
But meantime we are squeezed some getting along on the
Continent !
* Lily insists on my leaving off. Yours,
< S. G. T.'
A month or two later Thomas, in his regular correspon-
dence with Mr. Chaloner, recurs to the type-writer in a
long letter, too long and too technical for profitable
reproduction. However, we may perhaps insert here a draft
Memorandum on the matter which was enclosed therein :
'Memo. re Type-writer. The only two type-writers
in practical use are the Remington and the Hall.
' These defective as follows : (a) Price : Remington
costs 131. to 25Z. ; Hall, I believe, 71 7s. (I) Both fatigue
the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints ; while the Hall also
cramps two fingers. In both the whole hand and arm
have to be moved to reach and depress a key. The action
of the Hall is especially fatiguing and cramping; the
striking of each key necessitating considerable muscular
force. In both the eyes are strained to catch the type-marks
of the keys the Hall notably very defective in this
respect, the effort rapidly producing head-ache and ex-
haustion, (c) In the Remington the large number of
complicated jointed levers exposes the machine to
frequent disarrangement, and it is very hard for the user
to repair it.
1 My object is to produce a machine which shall not
cost more than 50s. to manufacture wholesale ; that will
require a minimum movement of the hand or fingers and
no muscular exertion, combined with simplicity and the
possibility of much greater rapidity than can be attained
in the present machines.
CH. xxi A WINTER IN ALGIERS 289
' To attain this :
'I.I use type set radially or circumferentially on a
wheel or quadrant.
'2. I cause a given type to be brought into striking
position by raising or depressing a key by electro-mag-
netic instead of muscular force.
' 3. I make contact with the keys, and so establish the
current which brings the type into place by means of a
short rod or light hammer which enables the comparatively
slow motion of the fingers which guided to t be translated
into a very rapid motion of the striking end of the rod.
It can be shown by experiment that twice the rapidity
of key striking can be obtained by the use of this hammer
that is obtained by the unaided finger or hand.
1 4. The necessity of striking exactly on a particular
key is obviated by the use of angular guides into which
prolongations of the keys fall, and which guide the type-
bearer into its exact position. This also enables a much
larger type-indicating board to be used, which can be
placed in any convenient position, so that the eyes are not
strained.
' It would appear that the idea of setting the type
radially on a circular surface or wheel has been suggested
before, and it is not proposed to claim this, or to claim any
special method of moving the paper upward or forward,
this being done either by a rack and pinion, or a screw
and a ratchet.
' In my proposal two or three bichromate cells would
supply the power. Compressed air &c. might be pro-
posed as alternatives, but would be less convenient and
efficient.
' The only items of cost in such a machine would be :
(a) the type- wheel, which could be of ebonite with the
type cast on it. This, with the keys and attachment for
U
290 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxi
bringing the type into striking position, would cost less
than 10s. The (b) framework and paper, advancing
screws and ratchets, might cost 10s. more. Case (c) &c.
5s. Battery (d) and electro-magnet with attachments,
say 12s. Items : (e) 8s. ; or (say) 45s. in all.
' The points are use of electro-magnet in place
of muscles; long hammer in place of moving arm and
hand ; use of angular guides for bringing types into
exact position.
' If the thing could be sold for 4L and enable an
ordinary person to write sixty words a minute, I would
contract for 100,000.'
Thomas was, however, diverted from his type-writer
by the more pressing interest of slag-utilisation.
On February 7, 1884, the family removed from the
Hotel Kirsch to Bir-el-Droodj, an English-built house
near the village of El Biar, which is situate on very high
ground, three or four miles from the city of Algiers.
Here Thomas was able to have a laboratory of his own,
and could work at various haunting problems, above all at
that special problem of the utilisation of basic 'slag/
which, as we have said above, 1 was becoming more and
more the dominant question of all to him.
6 The slag matter,' says his sister, ' tormented him.
How right he was as to the capital importance of this
question will be seen when I state that, in 1889, 700,000
tons of basic (or " Thomas ") slag were produced (con-
taining thirty-six per cent, of phosphate of lime), and
that most of this immense quantity of slag was used as
a fertiliser, being applied directly to the land as a
manure.
' In the winter of 1883-84, this valuable product was
1 Ante. p. 278.
CH. xxr A WINTEK IN ALGIERS 291
looked upon in England as so much mere troublesome
rubbish, to be got rid of somehow by stacking on waste
ground or even by taking it out to sea in barges and
there depositing it. In Germany things were more ad-
vanced. The mode of utilising slag, which has eventually
proved commercially successful, viz., grinding it to a fine
powder, had already been tried on the oolitic ores of Ikert,
at Peine, by Herr Hoyermann. About 1880 that gentle-
man had applied the grinding treatment to the puddle
slag produced at the Peine Works. On the great success
of the Thomas process in Germany, Herr Meyer, Chairman
of the Peine Works, pointed out to Hoyermann the greater
richness in phosphorus of the "Thomas slag." Such
slag was, therefore, substituted for puddle slag with
thoroughly satisfactory results. In the winter of 1882-83,
what is now known as " Thomas phosphate powder " was
first tried on the land in Germany as a manure, and in
November 1883 Herren Hoyermann and Meyer were able
to report to the German Royal Agricultural Society most
excellent effects from its use.
4 These details, however, were not at the time known
out of Germany. Sidney, for all that, had long had a
very practical belief in the future of the basic slag.
Already, early in 1882, he had induced a few other
metallurgists to join with him in purchasing and stacking
this " waste product," as it was then supposed to be,
relying upon his ability ultimately to turn it to account.
From Algeria he wrote to Mr. Gilchrist, strongly express-
ing his views on the slag question, and putting them in
what must then have seemed a very paradoxical form
(although the paradox has already to a great extent proved
true) :
" ' However laughable you may consider the notion, I
T7 2
292 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxi
am convinced that eventually, taking cost of production into
consideration, the steel will be the by-product, and phos-
phorus the main product." '
To Mr. Chaloner, it may be observed, Thomas uses very
similar language. On February 15, 1884, he writes to him
from Bir-el-Uroodj :
'I should have written to you long ago had I not
been. so seedy that I have had to reserve all my strength in
the writing way for pressing regular business, and the
development of certain theoretical views which may or
may not turn out to have considerable practical conse-
quences. . . .
4 1 have recently patented provisionally certain ideas
of mine connected with the alkali trade &c. They have
been verified to a considerable extent ; but (for my complete
specification) I want to have the result of certain other ex-
periments, which will be pretty numerous, and require
considerable care and some partial analyses.'
And on the 29th of the same month he writes to the
same correspondent :
' My idea, which I have already patented under five
heads in separate patents, is this. I propose to make
steel as a by-product in a new alkali trade. . . .
* You see, according to my old principle, I have taken a
big contract, and I intend to take it through. There is a
big stake at the end/
We resume Thomas's sister's narrative :
' He also suggested to Mr. Gilchrist a series of fresh
experiments on slag utilisation, which he wished him to
CH. xxi A WINTEK IN ALGIERS 293
undertake ; but his cousin did not desire any fresh work,
and declined to help in this direction.
' Sidney therefore enlisted the services of Mr. Twynam,
his valued assistant, who had (as had also Mr. Aldred)
carried 011 experiments for him for some years. In a
short time three other chemists were also working at
" slag," upon lines laid down by my brother.
1 Two distinct processes were tried at this time. By
the one it was sought to extract the phosphorus from the
slag by the use of acids. By the other (which became of
absorbing interest to Sidney) the object was to so treat
the iron, while in the process of conversion, that the phos-
phorus in the slag should be deposited in the form of
soluble phosphates, which would need no treatment to
render them immediately agriculturally useful.
t Sidney would often talk to me in Algeria, not only of
the necessity of utilising the slag in order to further im-
prove the position of the basic process, but also of the
benefits to agriculture which would accrue from making
useful such a vast mass of material. He often quoted the
saying about the benefit to mankind of making two blades
of grass grow where one grew before, and described the
fields of corn which would ripen in the future upon " basic
slag."
i A very competent authority thus writes of the im-
portance attached by my brother to the slag as early as
March 1884:
4 " I may say that Mr. Thomas was the man in
connection with the North Eastern Steel Company who
first appreciated the important part in basic steel manu-
facture that basic slag was destined to play. In March
1884 we had some negotiations with a large firm who
wanted to buy our slag over a term of years." (At this
time, the " waste product " might have been reasonably
294 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxi
considered to be advantageously disposed of on any terms.)
" Whilst we were negotiating with them, we received a
letter from Mr. Thomas, in which he said that, so impor-
tant did he consider the slag question to us, that if we did
enter into an arrangement with anyone over a long term,
he would have to consider whether he would not sell out
his interest in the company. This letter influenced us
greatly, and I am quite clear that, at one time, he was the
only one of us all who appreciated the value of the slag."
' It is now evident that, Lad the slag been sold forward
at the low price it would then have fetched, the company
would, to say the least of it, have been seriously
hampered.
'In this same month of March 1884, Sidney, wishing to
superintend the slag experiments himself, arranged for
Mr. Twynam (his able assistant above mentioned) to come
out to Algiers. The whole of the miniature "plant"
needed had to be imported from England, and there were
journeys down to the quay to arrange for its landing and
conveyance to our villa upon the plateau of El Biar. It
was, however, when the strange packages had been safely
carried up by the bare-legged Arabs, and the whole ap-
paratus reared in the court-yard (looking oddly out of
place amid its surroundings) that our difficulties began.
* For fuel we had to use wood, charcoal, and coal,
there being no gas. For the blast there was a " foot-
blower " which needed a human foot to move it, and we
were all needed for other posts. I sallied forth to El Biar
village to procure a man to work the blower, and soon
engaged an Arab willing to take the payment per
hour Sidney offered, which was sufficiently high. How-
ever, when our Arab presented himself and was shown the
work he had to do (merely to work with his foot the
bellows supplying the miniature converter) he shook his
CH. xxi A WINTEK IN ALGIERS 295
head gravely, and departed without a word of explanation.
After this we had many applicants " to see the machine ;"
but having been shown it, they either left silently, or else,
when the fire being lighted and the " blast " starting
the sparks began to fly, they took an early opportunity to
glide away. We found that they considered the apparatus
an " infernal machine " at the very least. In the end,
however, we found a young Arab who took everything that
happened with the greatest and most imperturbable coolness.
Sparks might fly, molten metal splutter when poured, this
Ishmaelite at any rate evinced no emotion of any kind,
but went calmly on with his work, only pausing to change
from one foot to the other. Afternoon tea was always
brought out to us in the courtyard, and " our Arab" (as
we called him) would accept a cup with the same gracious
dignity with which he worked the blower. When, at the
end of two or three hours of experimenting, he retired, he
would gather a sweet-scented flower or two (always with
permission), stick his nosegay behind his ear, gravely
salute, and leave.
' We must have made a strange scene in that Arab
courtyard. On two sides of it stood our English-built
but quite Algerian villa, on the third an old Arab house
and " loggia " joined to the villa, the fourth side was open,
save for a low wall, beneath which the hill sloped down
to a little valley running towards the sea. On the ground
floor of the older Arab house Sidney had established his
small laboratory. In the midst of the courtyard, with the
*' loggia" as background, stood a palm, with pansies at its
feet, and a great Roman vessel of earthenware, dug up in
the vicinity, beside it. To one side was the little Besse-
mer converter. Sidney would sit in a delightfully sheltered
invalid chair (lent by kind friends) and thence direct
operations., now and then dashing down the books and
296 SIDNEY (HLCHKIST THOMAS CH. xxi
papers of which his chair was always full and sallying forth
to lend a hand to Mr. Twynam at the pot, to be forthwith
driven back. Meanwhile " our Arab," with crossed arms,
red fez, bare legs, and white garments, gravely worked the
bellows with his foot.
' The experiments were continued with varying success,
hampered a good deal as they were by the difficulty,
either of getting up sufficient heat, or of repairing any
little accident to the apparatus. Many apparently insur-
mountable obstacles were overcome by Sidney's inability
to feel himself beaten, and fertility of resource/
In June he wrote to Mr. Gilchrist :
' I wish I could convince you that our one hope of
reducing costs is in slag, as I am sure it is. Remember
the phosphorus is more valuable than the iron in pig only
we are too stupid to turn it to account properly/
Alas, amid all this eagerness to follow fresh paths of
discovery, Thomas was not growing better rather, the
fatal lung disease was strengthening its hold upon him.
His sister gives two illustrations of his persistence in
attempting to ignore weakness. The first has reference to
his sensitiveness to anything in the shape of cruelty to
the lower animals, an example of which has already been
noted (ante, p. 258). The present writer well remembers
his growing almost angry in argument (a rare thing indeed
with him) because the said writer defended vivisection by
some possibly too sweeping assertions as to morality not
applying to our dealings with brutes.
4 He was constantly,' says his sister, ' interfering on
behalf of dumb creatures. One day on our way town-
wards, I parted from him to make some inquiry. On my
return I found Sidney breathless and exhausted, and found
CH. xxi A WINTER IN ALGIERS 297
from the friend with him that he had interfered to prevent
a driver (who had called in a soldier to assist him) from
belabouring an unfortunate overdriven horse who found
it hard to toil up the steep hill. He had succeeded in
stopping the ill-treatment, and had sent the driver back
for another horse to help draw the load ; but his success
was at the cost of great exhaustion to himself, partly from
his indignation, partly from the effort he made to keep his
indignation in some check. All strong emotions exhausted
him, and the more because of the self-repression he always
exercised. The strain only showed in the lines of his face
and the added pallor of his complexion.'
The other illustration of his readiness to plunge, ill (in-
deed dying) as he was (although the latter condition he did
not yet realise), into physical exertion is of a different kind.
1 We found a difficulty,' says his sister again, ' in getting
satisfactory copies of letters, having brought no copying
press with us. He declared that " if he had two boards,
a rope, and a pole, or plank, he could rig up a gorgeous
press." I thought no more of this declaration. Next day,
however, I met a procession up our leafy lane, consisting
of Sidney and a friend, carrying a plank some four or five
feet long between them Sidney so scant of breath as to
be scarcely able to speak. I, of course, assailed him with
reproaches, when he humbly explained that he had slipped
out after dejeuner to the village, and had procured a
satisfactory plank for his press from the French carpenter.
It being, however, the siesta hour, he could find no one
to carry it, and had consequently shouldered it himself.
On his way he had met his friend, who was sufficiently
astonished to see the invalid in such guise, and who had
naturally insisted on bearing a portion of the burden. The
copying press was forthwith constructed, and remained in
use till the end of our Algerian sojourn.'
298 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS en. xxi
There were many visitors and callers at Bir-el-Droodj.
Thomas would especially .enjoy long talks with Mr. John
Bell, with Colonel Playfair, the British Consul, and with
Mr. Boys, the Anglican chaplain. Lady Macfarren (then
also an Algerian sojourner, and next-door neighbour to the
Thomas family) would regularly come in to play to Sidney,
and her visits were sources of great delight to the invalid,
who was always passionately fond of music.
When not in his chair in the courtyard, superintending
the ' blows ' of the little converter, Thomas would (if the
day were warm) spend his time in a hammock in the
garden, reading, writing, meditating. ' He would lie,'
says his mother, ' in his hammock, a pile of books and
papers by his side, absorbed in thoughts, calculations, or
diagrams. One of us would be always with him, although
he might not speak for hours. If we left him for a few
moments, he would soon grow restless and would be gazing
up the garden for us as we returned.'
On a perfectly still day he would sometimes drive down
into Algiers with his mother and sister, in a little pony
chaise. ' One beautiful Sunday in May, I remember,
especially,' says his mother, ' we drove through the city
and up to the church of Notre Dame d'Afrique, built on a
high hill overlooking the sea, to hear the fine service and
see the procession from the church doors to the edge of
the hill a procession in which the priests offered prayers
for those at sea, and a hymn was sung. The scene, beneath
the African sun and upon the shores of the blue Mediter-
ranean Sea, was a very impressive one. Sidney was tired,
but took no harm.'
Thomas still kept up a correspondence with the staff
at the Thames Police Court, especially with one who had
been really a friend of his, although in what would te
called a subordinate position, R., the gaoler of the Court,
CH. xxi A WINTER IN ALGIERS 299
who in 1884 was still at his post, although over eighty
years of age. No man ever lived with less of class feeling
than Sidney Thomas ; for him what has % been called the
* class war ' was as non-existent as, under present arrange-
ments, it can be for anybody. He met R., whom he liked
and respected, as he met everybody else, on a footing of
absolute equality. The following letter from Mr. Lushing-
ton was, it will be seen, written in consequence of a letter
from Thomas to R., and shows the feelings with which the
whole staff at Thames regarded Sidney :
Mr. Lushington to S. G. Thomas
Thames Police Court : May 30, 1884.
' Dear Mr. Thomas, R. showed me a letter from you
a few days since, from which I gather that you are wisely
staying in your Southern quarters till the summer has
really set in, and then only coming to the north of the
Pyrenees, or some such climate, not trusting yourself in
this treacherous east-windy England. I fear the winter
has not been a very favourable one for you as far as
weather goes. I hope you don't let the chemical amuse-
ments which you mention to R. exaggerate themselves into
any such prolonged occupation as to affect your health.
You have made such a mark upon the world that you have
every right to try and enjoy your success as happily and
easily as the misfortune of your weak health will permit you.
' Do you happen to have read Nasmyth's " Autobio-
graphy ? " It is to me one of the most delightful books I
have seen for a long time. Probably you have; but I
mention it as a possible amusement in case it should not
have come across you.
' You will be glad to hear that old R. appears to me as
vigorous as I have seen him for several years, and he has
had a very good winter. Most of your acquaintances here
300 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xxi
are gone. You would find a great change if you could see
the amount of work here now compared to what it used
to be. The Thames is getting the reputation of being
one of the light Courts. . . . With all wishes for health
and happiness in all ways, I am, yours very truly,
' F. LUSHINGTON.'
Thomas's health was in a far more serious condition
than probably Mr. Lushington supposed. Possibly, as we
have said above, if he could have abstained from work,
and, above all, if he could have been kept free from the
anxiety of many business complications which had fol-
lowed upon his achieved success, his life might have been
somewhat at least prolonged ; although the disease of the
lung had probably by this time progressed too far to make
final recovery in any case likely ; but rest from further
labour was quite outside the limits of possibility to one of
his mental constitution, and freedom from anxiety was not
vouchsafed to him. His mother in her diary repeatedly
notes the arrival of worrying letters and consequent
aggravation of distressing symptoms.
' Our good French doctor, M. Bruch/ says Mrs.
Thomas, ' would stroke his head and say, " Keep him
quiet," " Keep him from writing and thinking ; " but this
was just what could not be done.
' His physical state fluctuated much ; but on the
whole, even in Algeria, he grew feebler. Drives fatigued
him more and more, and he more and more rarely ventured
away from his hammock or his hooded invalid chair. His
patient endurance was wonderful ; never through all his
sharp attacks of chest pain or through all the prostrating
exhaustion which followed, did he cease to be our dear
thoughtful companion, so much a part of ourselves that it
seemed impossible that we should be separated.'
CH. xxi A WINTEE IN ALGIERS 301
In May Thomas himself insisted upon M. Bruch and
the English doctor who was also attending giving him
a faithful opinion upon his case. They both frankly told
him that they feared his disease was incurable. Thomas
characteristically pressed for a mathematical statement of
the probabilities of his living a year. This the physicians
declined to give ; but they said openly to him that they
deemed the chances to be against his surviving so long.
' Still,' says his sister, ' I do not think he himself took by
any means so gloomy a view. Although he knew the
possibilities before him, he did not realise the inevitable-
ness or even the probability of the end for some months
later, until after November 1884. He would form many
schemes for the future ; we were to carry out the scheme of
the preceding year, and to settle in Australia ; or to live at
Grasse (near Nice), or in Egypt, after the cholera was over/
Already, at the Hotel Kirsch, Thomas had been told of
wonderful cures of lung disease effected by an English
doctor then resident in Paris who claimed to have dis-
covered a new and successful method of treatment. From
various sources there came reports of his skill. Thomas
made the most careful inquiries and found much to justify
faith. The excellent M. Bruch, when consulted, said simply
that he could do no more, and that he saw no objection to
the trial of a new system of cure. Thomas thereupon
entered into correspondence with the physician in question,
who insisted upon the necessity of personally seeing his
patient. For months there had been debates in the little
family as to what place of refuge was to be sought when
the arid summer heats began in North Africa with the
advent of July. Thomas resolved to go to Paris, and
give the much-praised cure a trial. Accordingly, on
July 7 the Algerian home was broken up, and a new
hegira made northward.
302 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxi
Down to the last the slag ' experiments were pursued.
In June we find Thomas writing to Mr. Gilchrist :
' I wish I could convince you that our one hope of
reducing costs is in slag, as I am sure it is. Remember
the phosphorus is more valuable than the iron in pig ;
only we are too stupid to turn it to account properly.'
On quitting Algiers it was arranged that Mr. Twynam
should proceed to Middlesbrough to continue the experi-
ments.
CH, xxn THE LAST DAYS IN PARIS 303
CHAPTER XXII
THE LAST DAYS IN PARIS
CHOLERA and rumours of cholera caused some difficulty
in gaming France. ' Quarantine/ says Mrs. Thomas, ' was
strict between Algiers and Marseilles. Finding we could
go by the Spanish route, we packed hastily and got on
board the steamer to Puerto Yendres. The vessel was so
full that we could only with much endeavour procure a
berth for Sidney. We ourselves were obliged to remain
during two nights in the dining saloon, which was so
crowded that we could not get even a sofa to ourselves.
We all felt very sad at leaving our lovely villa, and part-
ing with so many friends we felt we should never in all
probability see again. Through all discomforts on board
Sidney was cheerful and hopeful, as he always was in
difficulties. We landed early on the morning of July 9.
We journeyed by way of Narbonne and Toulouse to
Limoges, where we remained a little ; for the intense heat
quite exhausted our boy. We arrived in Paris (still gay
with the National Fete rejoicings) on July 15 (the morrow
of " Bastille Day ") and alighted at the Hotel Normandie.'
From Limoges Thomas wrote to his old Wiesbaden
correspondent :
To Miss Burton
1 Grand Hotel de la Boule d'Or, Limoges : July 14, '84.
' Dear Bess, I should have replied before to your
kindest of letters; but the last three or four weeks we
304 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxn
have been living in a state of utter uncertainty as to where
we should be next week. The cholera scare infected Algiers
badly, and finally not only delayed our start by a week,
but forced us to go round by Port Vendres, far the
longest route. With considerable regret, we left our
pretty home at El Biar last Tuesday, looking quite its
prettiest, with flowers, fig-trees, cacti, aloes, oranges,
fruit-trees, and vines. We all concluded we should not
be likely ever to live in such a pretty place again. The
heat for the past week had, however, been pretty consi-
derable (70 to 80 F.) ; although we now find it is still
greater here.
1 Our crossing of 30 hours was uncomfortable enough,
tremendously hot ; boat much overcrowded, chiefly with
Jewish families; sleep out of question. The mother
knocked up, but got over it wonderfully.
' We landed at 5 A.M., and went by train to Narbonne.
Queer old place, with a staring new quarter. Stopped
there 24 hours ; then on to Toulouse, where Twynam left
us to return to London, we stopping 48 hours to rest.
Animated busy town ; back streets and churches old ;
rest all new. Interesting country all the way from
Narbonne.
* We came on here Saturday, and stop till to-morrow, so
as not to be in Paris on the Fete Day. We propose going to
hotel at first, and then looking for rooms. We may stop
only a week or two, or possibly two months, according as
I think Dr. has or has not anything useful, and as
I can get over some business matters connected with
France.
* 1 have been working a little at Algiers on an inves-
tigation which may, or may not, lead to a " discovery,"
but which has anyhow been very instructive (the main
thing). It is a kind of offshoot of my old ideas, but in a
CH. xxn THE LAST DAYS IN PARIS 305
different direction. I do not expect it will be finished for
a year or two ; anyhow it has served as an interest to keep
me from stagnating, though it has absorbed a good deal
of money.
' I doubt if we return to Algiers ; though I like it and
the people well, the crossing is trying for the mother, and
I doubt the climate suiting me.
' The whole town here is disorganised with the Fete.
It never went to bed last night and it seems will not
to-night. Yours,
' S. G. T.'
On arrival in Paris, after a few days, comfortable and
airy apartments were secured in the Avenue Marceau, and
there Thomas spent the last seven months of his life.
' He now only drove out,' says his mother, * on very fine
days. He continued, however, to work continued his
investigations. When he was tired with thoughts of busi-
ness, I would often read to him by the hour together.
With us he was always happy, but various letters from
England often troubled him much. His brother, Dr.
Llewellyn Thomas, wrote urging us to go home, and
expressing his belief that our patient would do quite as
well in England as in Paris ; but Sidney shrank from the
notion, indeed told me that business interviews such as
would necessarily follow upon a return to London would kill
him at once. After that we said no more of the matter.'
Thomas had at once placed himself under the care of
the physician whom he had come to Paris to consult, and
for a time he apparently derived some benefit from the
' new treatment ' ; but the improvement did not last and the
end was now but too absolutely certain. He did, however,
derive much entertainment and, no doubt, some consequent
physical benefit, from the conversation of his doctor, who
x
306 SIDNEY GILCHKIST THOMAS CH. xxn
was a much-travelled Ulysses with a great deal to say for
himself. The two would engage in hours-long discussions
and arguments, which were a real refreshment to the sick
man.
The following epistles give some notion of Thomas's
pre-occupations and health during this summer and
autumn.
To Mr. Chaloner
'61 Avenue Marceau, Paris: August 1, 1884.
' Dear C., The above will be our address till the
middle of September. Shall be glad to hear from you.
Not feeling very bright, or would write. Yours,
1 S. G. T.
' We are close to our old quarters in 1878 ; the Avenue
Marceau used to be Av. Josephine.'
' 61 Avenue Marceau, Paris : October 17, 1884.
' Dear Chaloner, It is nearly four months since I have
heard from you, though I have written you meantime, not-
withstanding a very bad attack on the lungs which floored
me completely during August and September, and from
which I am still hardly quit. I am, however, going in for
a special form of treatment which compels my staying in
Paris till the cold forces me to bolt, which may be any
week. The treatment is I think doing some good, but I
hardly know yet. My illness has naturally led to arrears
of correspondence all round particularly as I have had
much business to get through meantime.
1 What have you been doing all the time ? . . . Have
you done anything in the experiment way ? I have got
some rather good results after much delay. I presume
CH. xxn THE LAST DAYS IN PAKIS 807
you will have no time for experiments, now Birkbeck has
started on a big scale. . . .
' We are having coldish weather, and I am quite tied
to the house. . . . Things in the way of business very
dull. No orders and awful prices. We do better at North
Eastern Steel Co. than our neighbours ; but that is our
only comfort. Writing wearies me, so adieu.'
This last letter is in Sidney's own hand ; but much of
his correspondence about this time is written by his sister,
sometimes by his mother. The sands were already run-
ning low in the glass.
The little family was not left entirely alone in the
Elysian Fields ; many friends came from time to time to
see Thomas ; most of them, it may be surmised, with a
foreboding that their visit was a farewell one. Among
others who came at this time were Mr. Vacher (one of
Sidney's old chemical teachers of whom we have spoken
above), 1 and his wife. Mr. Vacher, in a letter to Sidney's
sister, thus speaks of his departed friend and of this
visit : ' What I do possess and value exceedingly is the
very definite and vivid impression made on me by his
personality. Of his intellectual side I can hardly speak,
being but a distant admirer of his talent and splendid
achievement. Of his character I should say that its
distinguishing trait was nobility and highmindedness, that
he was by intuition opposed to all that is ignoble and
petty.
' On one occasion he gave me a lesson. ... I made
use of the word cads, and he received it with such quiet
coldness than I at once saw the incongruity of the notions
implied by it with those ideas of fraternity which were
common to us both. . . .
1 A-ntc, p. 36.
x 2
308 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxn
' His public spirit was of the highest order. Poverty,
prosperity, sickness, death, none of these disturbed the
earnest purposefulness of his life. My wife will never
forget the impression made on her, (when we saw him a
few times in Paris shortly before he died,) by his calm
attitude, cheerful patience, and exceedingly sweet expression.
She says that, notwithstanding his pale face and wasted
frame, the thought of him is always suggestive to her
of strength, and in times of weakness she often likes to
call up the vision.'
Business friends also would come to see him, ' and it
was wonderful,' says his mother, ' to see how, on such
occasions, he would gather himself together and be his
old erect keen self, but he would afterwards suffer terribly
from reaction ; ' thus justifying his horror of a return to
England and concomitant worrying interviews.
In September his brother Llewellyn Thomas (who was
after all to die before him) visited him, and Mrs. Thomas
remembers a * happy although sad ' time. * After this
visit Sidney's life became entirely that of an invalid.
October was upon us, and the weather seldom permitted
him to go out for even the shortest drive.' Yet, although
thus imprisoned in a sick room, the only change from
which (as was becoming more and more apparent) might
be to the grave, Thomas did not lose heart. 'He was
always full,' says his sister, i of quaint sayings and jokes
which relieved the heaviness of sick-room life. I think no
one, coming into the room, would have imagined the
anxieties which lay behind our fun and cheerfulness.'
The workers and their lots were ever in his mind.
' One of his favourite subjects of dreaming in the
gloaming ' (we quote his sister again), ' after we had
despatched our letters for the day was the possibility of
building a " model lodging house " which should be really
CH. xxn THE LAST DAYS IN PARIS 809
a model. There was, in the very first place, to be a lift
for goods at least ; for the poor women coming to the
Thames Police Court had often told him that one of the
strong objections the poor folk had to " model " dwellings
was the drag upon them, often delicate enough as they
were, of carrying every scuttle of coals or basket of
provisions to the top of the high buildings. There were
to be conversation rooms and reading rooms for men and
women.'
I Slag ' was still an engrossing topic of thought, and
Thomas carried on an elaborate correspondence with the
chemists who were working at the question under his
direction. In November there came news of the success
of the simple German plan of grinding the slag and then
applying it directly to the earth, and Thomas was in commu-
nication concerning the good tidings with Mr. Wrightson
of the North Eastern Steel Works, who sent samples for ex-
periment to his brother, Professor Wrightson of Salisbury.
The experiments thereupon conducted by Professor
Wrightson led the way to the adoption of the new
fertiliser in England. 1 1 may say,' says his sister, c that
Sidney some years previously had suggested this mode of
treatment to practical farmers ; but he was assured that
the earth would not assimilate the raw slag. He remained
in interesting correspondence with Mr. Wrightson, Pro-
fessor Wrightson, and Professor Munro up to the last.
At the same time he did not relax his direction of experi-
ments on other processes, and one of the last matters he
was able to take keen pleasure in was a telegram announcing
results obtained by Mr. Tucker.'
In November he writes to Mr. Gilchrist :
I 1 shall be thankful to welcome any method of utilising
the slag b\ treatment or non-treatment.'
310 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS CH. xxn
Early in this last month it had at length been finally
determined to move south to Grasse. Tickets had been
taken and a coupe-lit secured, and Thomas wrote to Mr.
Chaloner by the hand of his sister :
1 Cold and cholera are driving us from Paris. Address
on and after Saturday to Grand Hotel, Grasse, Alpes
Maritime.'
At the last moment, however, Thomas had a fresh
access of lung trouble, and his doctor advised that a
journey, even with every precaution, would probably be
fatal to him. From Paris he was destined not to move
again.
The clouds were indeed finally closing in upon the too
short sunshine of his life. In this very November Dr.
Llewellyn Thomas, Sidney's elder brother, died suddenly.
A letter came to the little Parisian household one morning
to say that Dr. Thomas was ill ; the same afternoon a
telegram announced his death. Sidney's sister immediately
crossed to London. It would not be fitting to attempt to
describe the gloom in which sat Sidney (unable himself to
quit the Avenue Marceau) and his mother (unable to quit
him) under the shadow of this affliction.
From that day it seemed as if Thomas had in truth
entered upon the pathway leading to the end. His sister
noticed upon her return from her sad journey, that Sidney
in sketching, as his wont was, future plans, always left
himself out of account. His great subject of anxiety
now was that the money he left behind him as the reward
of his inventions and the fruit of his toil should be spent,
(mainly spent, after a modest provision had been made for
the mother and sister who were so dear to him,) upon
bettering and making somewhat easier the hard lives of
CH. xxn THE LAST DAYS IK PARIS 311
the toilers who create all wealth. Over and over again he
impressed upon his sister the sacred trust he bequeathed
to her. Her discretion as to ways and times subject to
certain general lines which he laid down was to be abso-
lute ; but to the workers the money was in the bulk to go.
His mother he would urge, as she says, ' almost passion-
ately,' to husband her remaining vitality, that she might
live to help and strengthen his sister in her task.
If ever there were a logical consistent life that life
was Thomas's. The old boyish dream of making a fortune
had been realised as few dreams are, and (a far more
wonderful thing) the old boyishly imagined use to which
that fortune was to be put, the aid and comfort of the
needy and the oppressed, was to be realised too. A nature
uncorrupted by the ' deceitfulness of riches ' is a rare one
indeed.
It is right to say here that Thomas, unlike some of us
who, for weal or for woe, have become distrustful of old faiths,
was a firm believer in immortality. 'He was perfectly
persuaded,' says his sister, ' of a future existence. During
these last days he would say to Mother, " You I shall see
soon, dear Mother; but you, Lily, not for some fifty years
yet." He held, too, quite as firmly, that he should be
conscious of what we were doing here while he was
waiting for us. In the dusk of the evening he would
speculate, as we sat together, on the possibility of his
manifesting himself to us whom he so dearly loved.'
The new year of 1885 opened sadly, enough for those in
the Avenue Marceau, who now knew but too well that they
could only wait for the end. ' Sidney,' says his mother,
' only grew, the nearer that end approached, more gentle,
patient, and thoughtful, and more anxious to ease the
parting to us.' In these last days his devoted nurses
would get Thomas up as of old and settle him in his chair
312 SIDNEY GILCHRIST THOMAS CH. xxn
with his books and papers by his side, but it was little he
could write, and that laboriously. Most of his books even
were too heavy for him to hold. His sister would read
much to him.
In the middle of January his surviving brother Arthur,
now a fully qualified medical man, was summoned from his
professional duties to Paris, and his skilled and brotherly
care and help were greatly prized by the dying man.
The ' end ' came at length. In the early morning of
February 1, 1885, Sidney Thomas died quietly in his sleep,
in the presence of his mother, sister, and brother, breath-
ing only two or three heavy sighs. The immediate cause
of death was emphysema.
He had, by his great invention, left a far more perma-
nent mark upon the 'world than many a veteran general or
aged ' statesman ; ' but he had not completed his thirty-
fifth year. He was buried, by his own earnest desire, in
the Passy Cemetery. He had shown much distaste to the
notion of his dear ones crossing the Channel with his
body in the dreary winter weather.
His mother concludes the notes for her son's life from
which we have so often quoted by a citation from Jeremy
Taylor :
' It is a vast work any man may do, if he never be
idle ; and it is a huge way a man may go in virtue, if he
never goes out of his way by a vicious habit or a great
crime. Strive not to forget your time, and suffer none of
it to pass undiscerned. So God dresses us for Heaven/
813
CONCLUSION
THE old hackneyed, yet ever new and ever untranslat-
able, Virgilian line, fraught with all that ' tender majesty '
which makes the Latin singer dearer to us than even greater
poets, rises perforce to our memory as we contemplate the
death of this young inventor at an age when many have
scarcely entered upon their life-work, and as we dream of
so much he might have done in the world, perchance upon
quite different lines
Suiit lacrymse rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
No moral needs to be tagged to a memoir of Sidney
Thomas. His is a life which speaks for itself.
It only remains to add that the great process of steel
manufacture with which his name will be ever identified
has thriven and nourished as he expected it to thrive and
flourish. As we have seen, in 1878 there was not even in
existence any public record of successful dephosphorisation
of pig iron. In 1884, 864,000 tons of basic steel were
produced. In 1890 the production was 2,603,083 tons.
Moreover, in this last year, too, there were also produced,
together with the steel, 623,000 tons of slag, most of which
was used for fertilising purposes.
Thomas's plans for the disposal of his money for the
benefit of the toilers have (it is probably unnecessary to
Y
314 SIDNEY GILCHEIST THOMAS
say), been carried out by those loved ones whom he left
behind, and many a life has been gladdened by the results
of his labours. Truly his short life has a completeness
lacking to many long ones, and of him it may indeed be
said : Finis coronat opus.
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AN AMATEUR'S INVENTION
TO THE EDITOR OF *THE TIMES
Sir, Adverting to yoia* article upon what
is known as the Thornas|GilQhrist basic steel
process, may I emphasizjfe t^re charming and
entirely unassuming persorfejty of Sidney Gil-
christ Thomas ? During the last years of hia
career in the Civil Service his chief at the
Thames Police Court was my father, the late
John Ronaldson Lyell, M.A. I well remember
the. visits which Thomas paid to us from time
to time at our home at Hampstead. His
work over this invention in its later stages
necessarily involved journeys all over the
country, sometimes at a moment's notice.
These on occasion doubtless proved a some-
what disconcerting interruption to the routine
of a Metropolitan police court, but were always
most gladly and cheerfully arranged for by
his colleagues, who were pleased and proud to
help the young man whose scientific work was
showing promise of such striking success. ThL*
remarkable and epoch-making success when
it finally arrived never spoilt him, and during
the remainder of his short life he always kept
in touch with his old friends, with whom he
had been associated in the administration of
justice. Of Thomas it may truly be said,
"Quomodo fabula, sic vita ; non quam diu,
sed quam bene acta sit, refert."
I am your obedient servant,
JAMES P. R. LYEL&.
78, Woodstock-road, Oxford, Feb. 1.