Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — A Sun Furnace. [ARTICLE]

A Sun Furnace.

Sir Henry Bessemer, the well-known inventor of the steel process which bears his name, tells how he tried to construct a “sun furnace” and failed. His invention was intended to revolutionize not only the science of metallurgy, but the whole world. It was to attain a temperature of nearly 66,000 degrees, *nd therefore fuse anything and everything, and Sir Henry puts the blame of its failure to fulfill these expectations on the stupidity of a country lensmaker.The“sun furnace” oonsisted of a wooden building thirtyfive feet high and about twelve feet square. A few feet from the ground was fixed a large inclinable mirror for catching the rays of the sun; from this mirror the rays were to be reflected onto a number of powerful super-imposed lenses above, which, by a simple arrangement, were to throw the enormously concentrated rays upon whatever object might be in the crucible below. Such was the mighty plan, but the manufacturer of the upper glasses brought it miserably to naught, for instead of turning them out uniform he made them all different and thus spoiledthe focus.—[New York Telegram.