Sidney Gilchrist Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Sidney Gilchrist Thomas | |
| Born | 16 April 1850 |
| Died | 1 February 1885 (aged 34) |
| Nationality | English |
Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (16 April 1850 – 1 February 1885) was an English inventor, best known for his role in the iron and steel industry. [1]
Thomas was born at Canonbury, London, and was educated at Dulwich College. [2] His father, a Welshman, was in the Civil Service, and his mother was the daughter of the Rev. James Gilchrist. His father's death left the family with a considerably reduced income, so Thomas gave up his original idea of becoming a doctor and obtained an appointment as a police court clerk, which he kept until May 1879. [3]
During these twelve years, besides the work of a busy police court, which brought him into intimate contact with social problems, he found time to study chemistry, and attended lectures at the Birkbeck Institute (which later became Birkbeck College). George Chaloner, the chemistry teacher at the Institute, remarked one evening that "the man who eliminates phosphorus by means of the Bessemer converter will make his fortune." This caught the attention of Thomas, and he set himself the task of solving the problem of eliminating phosphorus from iron produced by Bessemer converters. [4] By the end of 1875 he was convinced that he had discovered a method. He communicated his theory to his cousin, Percy Gilchrist, who was a chemist at the former Blaenavon Ironworks, Blaenavon in Wales, and experiments were made which proved satisfactory. Edward Martin, manager of the Blaenavon Works, gave facilities for conducting the experiments on a larger scale [5] and undertook to help in taking out a patent. In March 1878, the first public announcement of the discovery was made at the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute; Thomas and Gilchrist took out a patent in May, [6] but without attracting much attention. In September a paper was written by Thomas and Gilchrist on the "Elimination of Phosphorus in the Bessemer Converter" for the autumn meeting of this institute, but it was not read until May 1879. Thomas, however, made the acquaintance of Edward Windsor Richards, the manager of Bolckow Vaughan & Co's works at Cleveland, Yorkshire, whom he interested in the process, and from this time the success of the invention was assured and domestic and foreign patents were taken out. [3]
The "basic process" invented by Thomas, also known as the Gilchrist–Thomas process, was especially valuable on the continent of Europe, where the proportion of phosphoric iron is much larger than in Britain, and both in Belgium and in Germany the name of the inventor became more widely known than in his own country. In the United States, although non-phosphoric iron largely predominated, immense interest was taken in the invention. [3] The improved process resulted in much more slag forming in the converter. Thomas discovered that this "basic slag" could be useful and profitable as a phosphate fertiliser, [7] known as Thomas meal. [8]
In 1883, jointly with George James Snelus, who had previously discovered the process but had failed to develop it, he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal of the Iron and Steel Institute for their work on dephosphorisation. [9]
Thomas had been overworking for years, and his lungs became affected. A long sea voyage and a residence in Egypt proved unavailing in restoring his health; he died in Paris in 1885 and was buried at Passy. [7]
He had what William Ewart Gladstone, in a review of the Memoirs published in 1891, described as an "enthusiasm of humanity," and he left his fortune to be used for philanthropic work. A police court mission was endowed in his memory.
In July 1960 an obelisk dedicated to his memory was erected in South Wales by the Newport and District Metallurgical Society in conjunction with the Iron and Steel Institute. Financial contributions came from many sources and reflected acknowledgment of his work from the United Kingdom and other countries. The former American Society for Metals, in 1985, struck a commemorative plaque in recognition of the historical importance of the ironworks and honouring his work there. The obelisk and plaque may be seen at the ironworks.
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
Sir Henry Bessemer was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years from 1856 to 1950. He also played a significant role in establishing the town of Sheffield, nicknamed ‘Steel City’, as a major industrial centre.
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to that of cast iron. It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions, which give it a wood-like "grain" that is visible when it is etched, rusted, or bent to failure. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion resistant, and easily forge welded, but is more difficult to weld electrically.
William Kelly, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was an American inventor. He is credited with being one of the inventors of modern steel production, through the process of injecting air into molten iron, which he experimented with in the early 1850s. A similar process was discovered independently by Henry Bessemer and patented in 1855. Due to a financial panic in 1857, a company that had already licensed the Bessemer process was able to purchase Kelly's patents, and licensed both under a single scheme using the Bessemer name. Kelly's role in the invention of the process is much less known.
Siderite is a mineral composed of iron(II) carbonate (FeCO3). Its name comes from the Ancient Greek word σίδηρος (sídēros), meaning "iron". A valuable iron ore, it consists of 48% iron and lacks sulfur and phosphorus. Zinc, magnesium, and manganese commonly substitute for the iron, resulting in the siderite-smithsonite, siderite-magnesite, and siderite-rhodochrosite solid solution series.
Basic oxygen steelmaking, also known as Linz-Donawitz steelmaking or the oxygen converter process is a method of primary steelmaking in which carbon-rich molten pig iron is made into steel. Blowing oxygen through molten pig iron lowers the carbon content of the alloy and changes it into low-carbon steel. The process is known as basic because fluxes of burnt lime or dolomite, which are chemical bases, are added to promote the removal of impurities and protect the lining of the converter.
A ganister is hard, fine-grained quartzose sandstone, or orthoquartzite, used in the manufacture of silica brick typically used to line furnaces. Ganisters are cemented with secondary silica and typically have a characteristic splintery fracture.
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks.
Percy Carlyle Gilchrist FRS was a British chemist and metallurgist.
Puddling is the process of converting pig iron to bar (wrought) iron in a coal fired reverberatory furnace. It was developed in England during the 1780s. The molten pig iron was stirred in a reverberatory furnace, in an oxidizing environment, resulting in wrought iron. It was one of the most important processes of making the first appreciable volumes of valuable and useful bar iron without the use of charcoal. Eventually, the furnace would be used to make small quantities of specialty steels.
Blaenavon Ironworks is a former industrial site which is now a museum in Blaenavon, Wales. The ironworks was of crucial importance in the development of the ability to use cheap, low quality, high sulphur iron ores worldwide. It was the site of the experiments by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and his cousin Percy Gilchrist that led to "the basic steel process" or "Gilchrist–Thomas process".
The Gilchrist–Thomas process or Thomas process is a historical process for refining pig iron, derived from the Bessemer converter. It is named after its inventors who patented it in 1877: Percy Carlyle Gilchrist and his cousin Sidney Gilchrist Thomas. By allowing the exploitation of phosphorous iron ore, the most abundant, this process allowed the rapid expansion of the steel industry outside the United Kingdom and the United States.
W & J Galloway and Sons was a British manufacturer of steam engines and boilers based in Manchester, England. The firm was established in 1835 as a partnership of two brothers, William and John Galloway. The partnership expanded to encompass their sons and in 1889 it was restructured as a limited liability company. It ceased trading in 1932.
The Lancashire Steel Company was a short-lived business operating from Manchester, England, in the 1860s. It was established to exploit the recent introduction of the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel.
Edward Windsor Richards, known as Windsor Richards, was a British engineer, and steel maker.
Edward Pritchard Martin was a British engineer, and steel maker.
John Percy FRS was an English metallurgist.
George James Snelus was an English metallurgist, known to be the first to remove phosphorus from pig iron, by oxidizing it in a converter lined with basic refractory materials. Facing difficulties to perform a reliable and cheap lining, he delayed further improvements and failed to find a practical solution, which was finally found by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas.
The Cleveland Institution of Engineers (CIE) is a regional engineering institution in the Teesside region of England. It aims to serve the regional scientific and engineering community through a wide range of technical lectures and visits and by acting as the professional body for materials scientists and engineers. The CIE is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the world and has been in continuous existence since it was founded in 1864. It is affiliated to the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a founder members of the Cleveland Scientific Institution
The Manhès–David process is a refining process of the copper mattes, invented in 1880 by the French industrialist Pierre Manhès and his engineer Paul David. Inspired by the Bessemer process, it consists of the use of a converter to oxidise with air the undesirable chemical elements contained in the matte, to transform it into copper.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
