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{{Short description|English metallurgist, businessman and naturalist}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Josiah Marshall Heath
| name = Josiah Marshall Heath
| image = <!--(as myimage.jpg, no 'File:')-->
| image = <!--(as myimage.jpg, no 'File:')-->
| image_size =
| image_size =
| alt =
| alt =
| caption =
| caption =
| birth_date = <!-- {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1790|11|08}}
| birth_place =
| birth_place =
| death_date = 1851
| death_date = {{Death date|1851|01|28|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| resting_place =
| other_names =
| other_names =
| residence = Sheffield
| citizenship =
| citizenship =
| nationality = English
| nationality = [[English people|English]]
| fields = [[Metallurgy]]
| fields = [[Metallurgy]]
| workplaces = Sheffield
| workplaces = Sheffield
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| doctoral_students =
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| notable_students =
| known_for = Use of [[manganese]] for [[crucible steel]]
| known_for = Use of [[manganese]] for [[crucible steel]]
| influences =
| influences =
| influenced =
| influenced =
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| footnotes =
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| spouse =
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| children =
| children =
}}
}}


'''Josiah Marshall Heath''' (died 1851)<ref name="Beolens"/> was an [[English people|English]] [[metallurgist]], businessman and [[ornithologist]], who invented the use of [[manganese]] to deoxidize steel.<ref name="Bishop"/> In [[India]] he learned the local steelmaking processes, including [[wootz]], but having failed to found a profitable steel mill there he returned to England and settled in [[Sheffield]]. His patent kick-started Sheffield's steel industry, but the poor wording of his patent caused competitors not to pay him [[royalties]],<ref name="Bishop"/> and he died in poverty.
'''Josiah Marshall Heath''' (8 November 1790 – 28 January 1851)<ref name="Beolens"/> was an English [[metallurgist]], businessman and [[naturalist]], who invented the use of [[manganese]] to deoxidise steel.<ref name="Bishop"/> In India he learned the local steel-making processes, including [[wootz]], but having failed to found a profitable steel mill there he returned to England and settled in [[Sheffield]]. His patent kick-started Sheffield's steel industry, but the poor wording of his patent caused competitors not to pay him [[royalties]],<ref name="Bishop"/> and he died in poverty.


== Career in India ==
== Career in India ==
At the start of the 19th Century, metallurgy in [[Company rule in India|British India]] was very traditional, localised and artisanal. Around 1825, Heath (who wanted to continue the important progress of European methods), obtained from the British [[East India Company]] the monopoly of iron production over a large area centred on [[Madras]]. In 1830, factories were built at [[Parangipettai|Porto Novo]], in the south of the Arcot district, with a government loan.
Heath was the son of Rear-Admiral William Heath (1749-1815) and his first wife Rebecca (1765-1795) who was the daughter of Rev. Josiah Marshall, rector of [[Fahan]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Heath, Robert Amadeus |url=https://archive.org/details/heathiananotesg00drakgoog/page/n9/mode/1up |title=Heathiana: Notes genealogical and biographical of the family of Heath |year=1882 |place=London}}</ref> He joined the East India Company in 1806 as a Writer in the [[Madras Presidency]]. In 1808 he became an assistant to the secretary of the Board of Revenue and in 1809 an examiner under the Secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1811 he became a registrar of Chingleput Zilla. In 1812 he was deputy commercial resident at Salem. At the start of the 19th century, metallurgy in [[Company rule in India|British India]] was very traditional, localised and artisanal. In 1820 he left his civil service position.<ref>{{cite book |author=Prinsep, Charles Campbell |url=https://archive.org/details/recordofservices00prinrich/page/73/mode/1up |title=Record of services of the Honourable East India Company's civil servants in the Madras presidency, from 1741 to 1858 |publisher=Trübner |year=1885 |place=London |page=73}}</ref> Around 1825, Heath (who wanted to continue the important progress of European methods), obtained from the British [[East India Company]] the monopoly of iron production over a large area centred on [[Madras]]. He studied iron and steel making in England and returned to India in 1830 where he built a factory at [[Parangipettai|Porto Novo]], in the south of the Arcot district, with a government loan.


In 1833, the company was named the "Porto Novo Steel and Iron Company", the workshops were enlarged and a new factory was built at [[Beypore]] in the [[Malabar region]]. The steel was of very good quality, and was even exported to Great Britain where it was used, notably, in the construction of the [[Menai Suspension Bridge]] and the [[Britannia Bridge]], across the Menai Straits between mainland Wales and [[Anglesey]] ({{lang-cy|Ynys Môn}}). But the business ran at a loss, because of management failings, technical inexperience, lack of funding and the sole use of charcoal as a combustion agent. (A buyer had previously suggested to Heath that he move his factory to the Burdwan district of [[Bengal]], where coal was abundant, but he did not act on the suggestion.)
In 1833, the company was named the [[Porto Novo Iron Works|Porto Novo Steel and Iron Company]], the workshops were enlarged and a new factory was built at [[Beypore]] in the [[Malabar region]]. The steel was of very good quality, and was even exported to Great Britain where it was used, notably, in the construction of the [[Menai Suspension Bridge]] and the [[Britannia Bridge]], across the Menai Straits between mainland Wales and [[Anglesey]] ({{lang-cy|Ynys Môn}}). But the business ran at a loss, because of management failings, technical inexperience, lack of funding and the sole use of charcoal as a combustion agent. (A buyer had previously suggested to Heath that he move his factory to the Burdwan district of [[Bengal]], where coal was abundant, but he did not act on the suggestion.)


The business was taken over by the East India Company in 1853, who continued running it as a going concern until 1874, when it was placed into liquidation.<ref name=SteelIndia>{{cite book | first = Radhe Shyam | last = Rungta | title = The Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851&ndash;1900 | series = Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | year = 1970 | chapter = Appendix 5 : A brief history of Iron and Steel industry in India | page = 276 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=aMIkcVsGi_gC&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>
The business was taken over by the East India Company in 1853, who continued running it as a going concern until 1874, when it was placed into liquidation.<ref name=SteelIndia>{{cite book | first = Radhe Shyam | last = Rungta | title = The Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851&ndash;1900 | series = Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | year = 1970 | chapter = Appendix 5 : A brief history of Iron and Steel industry in India | page = 276 | isbn = 9780521073547 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aMIkcVsGi_gC&pg=PA276}}</ref>


Heather married Charlotte Catherine, daughter of General Charles Fraser (c.1737–95) and Isabella Hook (1755–1821), in Madras in 1816.
⚫
== Career in England ==
⚫
On returning to England, Heath profited from his experience and observations of traditional Indian metalworking. In 1839 he filed a patent concerning the use of a compound of [[manganese]] and [[carbon]] which he had invented and called "[[carbide]]". This is not what is now called carbide, but was a mixture of mixture of only those two elements.


⚫
== Career in England ==
⚫
<!-- Editor's note: I have back translated this quotation from the French WP article. It would be better to get the original English. -->{{quote|I propose to produce a superior quality of cast steel, by taking ordinary bars of steel, ground as usual, or mixtures of iron or malleable iron and carbonaceous materials, with 1 to 3 parts per hundred by weight of carbide of manganese, and then placing them in a crucible and subjecting them to a heat suitable to melt these materials; when they have become liquid, they can be cast in a mould, in the usual manner. I do not claim to be part of my invention the use of any of these and mixtures of malleable cast iron, or ductile iron and carbonaceous material, but only the use of manganese carbide in any method of converting molten iron to cast steel.|J.M. Heath, patent of 5 April 1839|Quoted in Percy<ref name=Percy/><sup>[Back translated from French Wikipedia]</sup>}}
⚫
On returning to England, Heath profited from his experience and observations of traditional Indian metalworking. In 1839 he filed a patent concerning the use of a compound of [[manganese]] and [[carbon]] which he had invented and called "[[carbide]]". This is not what is now called carbide, but was a mixture of only those two elements.


⚫
<!-- Editor's note: I have back translated this quotation from the French WP article. It would be better to get the original English. -->{{blockquote|I propose to produce a superior quality of cast steel, by taking ordinary bars of steel, ground as usual, or mixtures of iron or malleable iron and carbonaceous materials, with 1 to 3 parts per hundred by weight of carbide of manganese, and then placing them in a crucible and subjecting them to a heat suitable to melt these materials; when they have become liquid, they can be cast in a mould, in the usual manner. I do not claim to be part of my invention the use of any of these admixtures of malleable cast iron, or ductile iron and carbonaceous material, but only the use of manganese carbide in any method of converting molten iron to cast steel.|J.M. Heath, patent of 5 April 1839|Quoted in Percy<ref name=Percy/><sup>[Back translated from French Wikipedia]</sup>}}
[[File:Josiah Marshall Heath grave Kensal Green Cemetery.JPG|thumb|Grave at Kensal Green]]
This compound, together with the development of [[crucible steel]], made the steel malleable when hot, and amenable to brazing and welding,<ref name=Percy>{{cite book
This compound, together with the development of [[crucible steel]], made the steel malleable when hot, and amenable to brazing and welding,<ref name=Percy>{{cite book
| first= John | last= Percy |language = French (author's authorised translation) |authorlink=John Percy (metallurgist)
| first= John | last= Percy |language = French |authorlink=John Percy (metallurgist)
| title= Traité complet de métallurgie
| title= Traité complet de métallurgie
| publisher = Librairie polytechnique de Noblet et Baudry
| publisher = Librairie polytechnique de Noblet et Baudry
Line 57: Line 61:
| volume = 4 | pages = 282&ndash;286
| volume = 4 | pages = 282&ndash;286
| url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?ArianeWireIndex=index&p=1&lang=FR&q=Trait%C3%A9+m%C3%A9tallurgie+Percy}}</ref> even though the steel was formed from iron founded with addition of sulphur.<ref name=Bessemer>{{cite book
| url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?ArianeWireIndex=index&p=1&lang=FR&q=Trait%C3%A9+m%C3%A9tallurgie+Percy}}</ref> even though the steel was formed from iron founded with addition of sulphur.<ref name=Bessemer>{{cite book
| first= Henry | last = Bessemer | authorlink=Henry Bessemer
|first=Henry
|last=Bessemer
|authorlink=Henry Bessemer
| title = Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S An autobiography; With a Concluding Chapter
|title=Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S An autobiography; With a Concluding Chapter
| year= 1905, 2010
|origyear=1905
|year=2010
| pages = 260&ndash;261
|pages=260&ndash;261
| url = http://www.history.rochester.edu/ehp-book/shb/start.htm}}</ref>
|url=http://www.history.rochester.edu/ehp-book/shb/start.htm
|url-status=dead
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204102958/http://www.history.rochester.edu/ehp-book/shb/start.htm
|archivedate= 4 February 2007
}}</ref>


'''Manganese carbide''', as described by Heath, was made by heating the crucible with a mixture of [[manganese oxide]] and [[tar]]: at high temperature the carbon in the tar causes an oxygen reduction ("[[redox]]") in the manganese oxide. Heating the mixture is a costly process, so Heath proposed that his licencees add the manganese and charcoal directly to the crucible so as to make [[crucible steel]]. The heat necessary to make the steel also means the charcoal contributes to the redox of the manganese oxide. But although Heath's process removes the need for preparing the carbide separately, it also involves a loss of control over the process. It is difficult to apply his invention in isolation, because making steel in a crucible requires the use of other methods which are always kept as trade secrets &ndash; so that other steel producers contested the validity of Heath's patent as describing his actual process.<ref name=Bessemer/> Heath's innovation worked, but nobody would pay royalties on it. After nine years of legal proceedings, the British [[House of Lords]] (then the highest court in the land) recognised the patent in its aspect of the first use of manganese oxide. Thomas Webster, one of Heath's lawyers, wrote:
Manganese carbide, as described by Heath, was made by heating the crucible with a mixture of [[manganese oxide]] and [[tar]]: at high temperature the carbon in the tar causes an oxygen reduction ("[[redox]]") in the manganese oxide. Heating the mixture is a costly process, so Heath proposed that his licencees add the manganese and charcoal directly to the crucible so as to make [[crucible steel]]. The heat necessary to make the steel also means the charcoal contributes to the redox of the manganese oxide. But although Heath's process removes the need for preparing the carbide separately, it also involves a loss of control over the process. It is difficult to apply his invention in isolation, because making steel in a crucible requires the use of other methods which are always kept as trade secrets &ndash; so that other steel producers contested the validity of Heath's patent as describing his actual process.<ref name=Bessemer/> Heath's innovation worked, but nobody would pay royalties on it.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/b28083088/page/n44/mode/1up|title=The metallurgy of iron|year=1900| author=Roberts-Austen, W.C.|pages=25-26| place= London|publisher=Charles Griffin}}</ref> After nine years of legal proceedings, the British [[House of Lords]] (then the highest court in the land) recognised the patent in its aspect of the first use of manganese oxide. Thomas Webster, one of Heath's lawyers, wrote:
{{quote|Unfortunately, a very great uncertainty is cast over the procedure used to maintain and defend property relating to inventions. The Heath case is one of the most extraordinary examples of such uncertainty. After twelve years of argument in front of eighteen judges, Privy Counsellors and lords, the result was only that twelve judges, presided over by Lord Brougham and the Lord Chancellor, found for Mr. Heath by seven in favour and six against; of the eleven judges who then heard the case in the House of Lords, in the final trial, seven were in favour and four against.|Thomas Webster|Quoted in Percy<ref name=Percy/><sup>[Back translation from French Wikipedia]</sup>}}<!-- Editor's note: I have back translated this quotation from the French WP article. It would be better to get the original English. -->
{{blockquote|Unfortunately, a very great uncertainty is cast over the procedure used to maintain and defend property relating to inventions. The Heath case is one of the most extraordinary examples of such uncertainty. After twelve years of argument in front of eighteen judges, Privy Counsellors and lords, the result was only that twelve judges, presided over by Lord Brougham and the Lord Chancellor, found for Mr. Heath by seven in favour and six against; of the eleven judges who then heard the case in the House of Lords, in the final trial, seven were in favour and four against.|Thomas Webster|Quoted in Percy<ref name=Percy/>}}<ref>{{cite book | title=The Case of Josiah Marshall Heath, The Inventor and Introducer of The Manufacture of Welding Case Steel from British Iron | date = 15 February 2012 | last= Webster | first = Thomas | publisher = Gale | series = Making of Modern Law | isbn=978-1275108066 }}</ref><!-- needs original text to be verified--><ref>{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines |last=Ure |first=Andrew |authorlink=Andrew Ure |volume=2 |year=1856 |publisher=[[D. Appleton & Company]] |location=New York |pages=733–734|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeQIAAAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | series=The art of extracting metals from their ores and adapting them to various purposes of manufacture |title=Iron and Steel|volume=2|first=John|last=Percy|authorlink=John Percy (metallurgist)|publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]]|year=1864}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/patentsforinven54offigoog/page/n63/mode/1up|title=Patents for inventions. Abridgement of specification.|year=1858|pages=49-50}}</ref>


Because of this, Heath was impoverished before he died.<ref name=Bessemer/> The general adoption of his process lowered the price of quality steel by 30% to 40% in the Sheffield market (Heath himself was content with a 2% reduction in the selling price).<ref name="Bishop">{{cite book
Because of this, Heath was impoverished before he died.<ref name=Bessemer/> The general adoption of his process lowered the price of quality steel by 30% to 40% in the Sheffield market (Heath himself was content with a 2% reduction in the selling price).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Creators of the Age of Steel |last=Jeans |first=William T. |year=1884 |publisher=[[Chapman & Hall]] |location=New York |pages=56&ndash;57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIZsAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref name="Bishop">{{cite book
| first = Philip W. | last= Bishop
| first = Philip W. | last= Bishop
| title = The Beginnings of Cheap Steel
| title = The Beginnings of Cheap Steel
Line 77: Line 88:


== Other work ==
== Other work ==
The [[Greater Asiatic yellow bat]] (''Scotophilus heathi'') was named in his honour<ref name="Beolens">{{cite book
The [[Greater Asiatic yellow bat]] (''Scotophilus heathi'') was named in his honour after he presented the type specimen to the [[Zoological Society of London]], together with a large collection of Asiatic birds.<ref name="Beolens">{{cite book
| first1 = Bo | last1= Beolens
| first1 = Bo | last1= Beolens
| first2= Michael | last2= Watkins
| first2= Michael | last2= Watkins
Line 87: Line 98:
| isbn = 978-0-8018-9304-9
| isbn = 978-0-8018-9304-9
| page= 182
| page= 182
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=I-kSmWLc6vYC&pg=PA182}}</ref> The [[fishing cat]] was described as a new species based on a specimen sent by Heath from India.<ref name="Bennett1833">{{cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=E. T. |year=1833 |title=Characters of a New Species of Cat (Felis, Linn.) from the Continent of India, presented by J. M. Heath, Esq. |url=http://www.archive.org/stream/lietuvostsrmoksl33liet#page/n81/mode/2up |journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London |volume=Part I |pages=68–69}}</ref> Among the bird specimens sent by Heath were a [[Eurasian griffon vulture]] collected from near Madras.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gurney, John Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/descriptivecatal01gurn/page/72/mode/1up |title=A descriptive catalogue of the Raptorial Birds in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum. Part 1. |publisher=John van Voorst |year=1864 |place=London |page=72}}</ref>
| url = http://books.google.com/books?id=I-kSmWLc6vYC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref> after he presented the type specimen to the [[Zoological Society of London]], together with a large collection of Asiatic birds.

When Heath was posted in Coimbatore around 1818 he experimented with the cultivation of Bourbon cotton (''[[Gossypium hirsutum]]'').<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heath |first=J. M. |date=1838 |title=On the Cultivation of Cotton in India |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-25207524 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |language=en |volume=5 |issue=10 |pages=372–378 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00015343 |issn=1356-1863}}</ref>

A casket that belonged to [[Tipu Sultan]] which was taken by Colonel Henry Fraser in 1799 and sent to his mother. This then went to the youngest daughter Charlotte Catherine who became Heath's wife. Heath passed it on to a cousin.<ref>{{cite book |title=East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 |publisher=University College London |year=2018 |editor1=Finn, Margot |pages=25-38 |editor2=Smith, Kate}}</ref>


== References ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


{{authority control}}
== Further reading ==
*{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines |last=Ure |first=Andrew |authorlink=Andrew Ure |volume=2 |year=1856 |publisher=[[D. Appleton & Company]] |location=New York |pages=733–734|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=KeQIAAAAIAAJ}}
*{{cite book |title=The Creators of the Age of Steel |last=Jeans |first=William T. |year=1884 |publisher=[[Chapman & Hall]] |location=New York |pages=56&ndash;57 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FIZsAAAAMAAJ}}
*{{cite book | title=The Case of Josiah Marshall Heath, The Inventor and Introducer of The Manufacture of Welding Case Steel from British Iron | date = 15 February 2012 | last= Webster | first = Thomas | publisher = Gale | series = Making of Modern Law | isbn=978-1275108066 }}
*{{cite book | series=The art of extracting metals from their ores and adapting them to various purposes of manufacture |title=Iron and Steel|volume=2|first=John|last=Percy|authorlink=John Percy (metallurgist)|publisher=[[John Murray (publisher)|John Murray]]|year=1864}}


<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Heath, Josiah Marshall
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=English metallurgist, ornithologist, and businessman
|DATE OF BIRTH=
|PLACE OF BIRTH=
|DATE OF DEATH=1851
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Josiah Marshall}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Josiah Marshall}}
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]

Latest revision as of 14:43, 6 May 2024

Josiah Marshall Heath
Born(1790-11-08)8 November 1790
Died(1851-01-28)28 January 1851
NationalityEnglish
Known forUse of manganese for crucible steel
Scientific career
FieldsMetallurgy
InstitutionsSheffield

Josiah Marshall Heath (8 November 1790 – 28 January 1851)[1] was an English metallurgist, businessman and naturalist, who invented the use of manganese to deoxidise steel.[2] In India he learned the local steel-making processes, including wootz, but having failed to found a profitable steel mill there he returned to England and settled in Sheffield. His patent kick-started Sheffield's steel industry, but the poor wording of his patent caused competitors not to pay him royalties,[2] and he died in poverty.

Career in India[edit]

Heath was the son of Rear-Admiral William Heath (1749-1815) and his first wife Rebecca (1765-1795) who was the daughter of Rev. Josiah Marshall, rector of Fahan.[3] He joined the East India Company in 1806 as a Writer in the Madras Presidency. In 1808 he became an assistant to the secretary of the Board of Revenue and in 1809 an examiner under the Secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1811 he became a registrar of Chingleput Zilla. In 1812 he was deputy commercial resident at Salem. At the start of the 19th century, metallurgy in British India was very traditional, localised and artisanal. In 1820 he left his civil service position.[4] Around 1825, Heath (who wanted to continue the important progress of European methods), obtained from the British East India Company the monopoly of iron production over a large area centred on Madras. He studied iron and steel making in England and returned to India in 1830 where he built a factory at Porto Novo, in the south of the Arcot district, with a government loan.

In 1833, the company was named the Porto Novo Steel and Iron Company, the workshops were enlarged and a new factory was built at Beypore in the Malabar region. The steel was of very good quality, and was even exported to Great Britain where it was used, notably, in the construction of the Menai Suspension Bridge and the Britannia Bridge, across the Menai Straits between mainland Wales and Anglesey (Welsh: Ynys Môn). But the business ran at a loss, because of management failings, technical inexperience, lack of funding and the sole use of charcoal as a combustion agent. (A buyer had previously suggested to Heath that he move his factory to the Burdwan district of Bengal, where coal was abundant, but he did not act on the suggestion.)

The business was taken over by the East India Company in 1853, who continued running it as a going concern until 1874, when it was placed into liquidation.[5]

Heather married Charlotte Catherine, daughter of General Charles Fraser (c.1737–95) and Isabella Hook (1755–1821), in Madras in 1816.

Career in England[edit]

On returning to England, Heath profited from his experience and observations of traditional Indian metalworking. In 1839 he filed a patent concerning the use of a compound of manganese and carbon which he had invented and called "carbide". This is not what is now called carbide, but was a mixture of only those two elements.

I propose to produce a superior quality of cast steel, by taking ordinary bars of steel, ground as usual, or mixtures of iron or malleable iron and carbonaceous materials, with 1 to 3 parts per hundred by weight of carbide of manganese, and then placing them in a crucible and subjecting them to a heat suitable to melt these materials; when they have become liquid, they can be cast in a mould, in the usual manner. I do not claim to be part of my invention the use of any of these admixtures of malleable cast iron, or ductile iron and carbonaceous material, but only the use of manganese carbide in any method of converting molten iron to cast steel.

— J.M. Heath, patent of 5 April 1839, Quoted in Percy[6][Back translated from French Wikipedia]
Grave at Kensal Green

This compound, together with the development of crucible steel, made the steel malleable when hot, and amenable to brazing and welding,[6] even though the steel was formed from iron founded with addition of sulphur.[7]

Manganese carbide, as described by Heath, was made by heating the crucible with a mixture of manganese oxide and tar: at high temperature the carbon in the tar causes an oxygen reduction ("redox") in the manganese oxide. Heating the mixture is a costly process, so Heath proposed that his licencees add the manganese and charcoal directly to the crucible so as to make crucible steel. The heat necessary to make the steel also means the charcoal contributes to the redox of the manganese oxide. But although Heath's process removes the need for preparing the carbide separately, it also involves a loss of control over the process. It is difficult to apply his invention in isolation, because making steel in a crucible requires the use of other methods which are always kept as trade secrets – so that other steel producers contested the validity of Heath's patent as describing his actual process.[7] Heath's innovation worked, but nobody would pay royalties on it.[8] After nine years of legal proceedings, the British House of Lords (then the highest court in the land) recognised the patent in its aspect of the first use of manganese oxide. Thomas Webster, one of Heath's lawyers, wrote:

Unfortunately, a very great uncertainty is cast over the procedure used to maintain and defend property relating to inventions. The Heath case is one of the most extraordinary examples of such uncertainty. After twelve years of argument in front of eighteen judges, Privy Counsellors and lords, the result was only that twelve judges, presided over by Lord Brougham and the Lord Chancellor, found for Mr. Heath by seven in favour and six against; of the eleven judges who then heard the case in the House of Lords, in the final trial, seven were in favour and four against.

— Thomas Webster, Quoted in Percy[6]

[9][10][11][12]

Because of this, Heath was impoverished before he died.[7] The general adoption of his process lowered the price of quality steel by 30% to 40% in the Sheffield market (Heath himself was content with a 2% reduction in the selling price).[13][2][6]

Other work[edit]

The Greater Asiatic yellow bat (Scotophilus heathi) was named in his honour after he presented the type specimen to the Zoological Society of London, together with a large collection of Asiatic birds.[1] The fishing cat was described as a new species based on a specimen sent by Heath from India.[14] Among the bird specimens sent by Heath were a Eurasian griffon vulture collected from near Madras.[15]

When Heath was posted in Coimbatore around 1818 he experimented with the cultivation of Bourbon cotton (Gossypium hirsutum).[16]

A casket that belonged to Tipu Sultan which was taken by Colonel Henry Fraser in 1799 and sent to his mother. This then went to the youngest daughter Charlotte Catherine who became Heath's wife. Heath passed it on to a cousin.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2009). The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-8018-9304-9.
  2. ^ a b c Bishop, Philip W. (1959). The Beginnings of Cheap Steel. Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology. Project Gutenberg. pp. 27–47. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  3. ^ Heath, Robert Amadeus (1882). Heathiana: Notes genealogical and biographical of the family of Heath. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Prinsep, Charles Campbell (1885). Record of services of the Honourable East India Company's civil servants in the Madras presidency, from 1741 to 1858. London: Trübner. p. 73.
  5. ^ Rungta, Radhe Shyam (1970). "Appendix 5 : A brief history of Iron and Steel industry in India". The Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851–1900. Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology. Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 9780521073547.
  6. ^ a b c d Percy, John (1865). Traité complet de métallurgie (in French). Vol. 4. Paris: Librairie polytechnique de Noblet et Baudry. pp. 282–286.
  7. ^ a b c Bessemer, Henry (2010) [1905]. Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S An autobiography; With a Concluding Chapter. pp. 260–261. Archived from the original on 4 February 2007.
  8. ^ Roberts-Austen, W.C. (1900). The metallurgy of iron. London: Charles Griffin. pp. 25–26.
  9. ^ Webster, Thomas (15 February 2012). The Case of Josiah Marshall Heath, The Inventor and Introducer of The Manufacture of Welding Case Steel from British Iron. Making of Modern Law. Gale. ISBN 978-1275108066.
  10. ^ Ure, Andrew (1856). A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines. Vol. 2. New York: D. Appleton & Company. pp. 733–734.
  11. ^ Percy, John (1864). Iron and Steel. The art of extracting metals from their ores and adapting them to various purposes of manufacture. Vol. 2. John Murray.
  12. ^ Patents for inventions. Abridgement of specification. 1858. pp. 49–50.
  13. ^ Jeans, William T. (1884). The Creators of the Age of Steel. New York: Chapman & Hall. pp. 56–57.
  14. ^ Bennett, E. T. (1833). "Characters of a New Species of Cat (Felis, Linn.) from the Continent of India, presented by J. M. Heath, Esq". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. Part I: 68–69.
  15. ^ Gurney, John Henry (1864). A descriptive catalogue of the Raptorial Birds in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum. Part 1. London: John van Voorst. p. 72.
  16. ^ Heath, J. M. (1838). "On the Cultivation of Cotton in India". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 5 (10): 372–378. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00015343. ISSN 1356-1863.
  17. ^ Finn, Margot; Smith, Kate, eds. (2018). East India Company at Home, 1757-1857. University College London. pp. 25–38.
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