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"Respectable Gentleman on the Mail Coach..."Some wonderful circumstantial evidence of Sanderson activities appears in the diaries of Johann Conrad Fischer (1773-1854). Founder of the Swiss firm which still bears his name, and himself a steelmaker, Fischer made frequent visits to England throughout his life. When in the North, he never failed to call on the Sanderson's. Here are some extracts from his writings. July, 4,1825 (at Birmingham) As I had an appointment with Mr. John Sanderson, a Sheffield manufacturer of cast steel … I was only able to go out for a short time in the morning. I had made the acquaintance of this very respectable gentleman on the mailcoach (from Sheffield) to Birmingham. With his two brothers he operates the largest cast steel plant in England. They trade with North and South America … we got on so well together that he actually confided in me the extent of his weekly output which would have appeared incredible to anyone who did not know industrial conditions in England. October, 5, 1827 (at Sheffield) … I hurried to Mr. Sanderson at the cast steel works in distant West Street. He was in his office and greeted me in a very friendly manner as did his two partners to whom I was introduced. He offered to put me up for the night if I were staying in Sheffield but I declined. We had a discussion about methods of making steel and then I decided to take my leave. But instead of showing me out he took me to his coal warehouse and let me see the fine light coke he uses. To my immense astonishment he then took me to the melting plant which was in full operation. For a time I watched the melting and the casting and then I went to the cementation works where they make steel by the cementation process from Swedish iron which is marked with the letter 'L' and is therefore called ‘Hoop L’. This iron is the best material for making steel by the cementation process which is then turned into cast steel. Sanderson's steel made by the cementation process is a really first class product and its uniformity leaves nothing to be desired. July, 31, 1845 (at Sheffield) … After lunch I went to my old friend Mr. Sanderson … Sanderson's are the biggest manufacturers of cast steel in Sheffield for they have 36 melting furnaces and 6 cementation furnaces. (Seven years later Sanderson's had 110 melting furnaces (holes) and 10 cementation furnaces.) In this entry Fischer describes the processes in detail - Ed.) October, 31, 1846 (at Sheffield) … At 11 a.m. I went to Sanderson's Works, the younger gentleman was available. He took me to the firm's rolling mills which are a very long way from the casting plant. They have eleven rolling mills and some furnaces. The rolling mills turn out steel ingots (he meant bars - Ed) in various forms - square, flat and round. They are beautifully made and have no blemishes. You will always find that Englishmen are never satisfied unless they have got a thing absolutely right … In a later visit on July, 7, 1851, Fischer was entertained to tea at Charles Sanderson's home (Egerton House, Glossop Road) and remarks that Mrs. Sanderson was "a very pleasant and well read lady". Fischer had a technical discussion on the subject of ore smelting with Charles Sanderson, who says Fischer, was "an able mineralogist". Charles Sanderson (1803-1873) who was John Sanderson's son, evidently took part in the Sanderson Brothers & Co management, but was not shown as a partner. By the 1860's he had his own works in Sharrow Vale, where he made and tilted steel. "Iron...Stewed or Digested with Charcoal"The following is an extract from Sir Richard Phillips' "Personal Tour" published in 1828. 'As steel is the raw material of the Sheffield productions, I visited Sanderson's steel manufactory in West Street, Sheffield, and also their works at Attercliffe, for hammering, tilting and rolling steel. The conversion of iron into steel is, according to modern and reasonable theory, the combining it with carbon; and for this purpose it is, as it were, stewed or digested with charcoal. Swedish bar iron is put into a furnace in layers with charcoal and then exposed for seven or eight days to an intense heat, during which the air is excluded. The process is gauged by means of some loose bars inserted through a hole into the furnace, and the conversion of the ends of these bars is a test that the process is complete. If the steel be for elastic purposes, two or three days suffice: but for hard or blister steel, six, seven or eight days are necessary. The fracture is now short and grainy instead of being fibrous as in iron, and it is often sold in that state; but for the purposes of steel manufacture it is broken, melted and cast into ingots. This is effected by putting about 28 lbs of the broken bars into crucibles made of Stourbridge clay, and then these are exposed to the intense heat of a coke air furnace. I saw thirty of these in action on the premises of Messrs Naylor and Sanderson, each containing two crucibles, and the whole 7½ cwt of bar steel. I then beheld the crucibles drawn out by iron tongs, and the melted steel poured out, like water, into moulds of the form of ingots, about two-feet long, and two-inches square. (In later years the crucibles held 50 lbs or more). In this state the steel is porous; but to confer solidarity, the ingots are conveyed to the hammering, tilting and rolling mills at Attercliffe. Here, by the power of a water wheel, fifteen feet in diameter, hammers are worked weighing from 3 to 4% cwt. and strike, at ten or twelve inches fall, from one hundred or two hundred and twenty times a minute. The ingots, at a strong red heat, are exposed to the action of these hammers, and the metal condensed while the dimensions are lessened and the length increased. The same bars are then submitted, at the same degree of heat, to what is called the tilting hammer, which gives three hundred strokes per minute, and by the dexterity of the workmen the bars are reduced to rods perfectly fashioned. In adjoining premises, worked by other water wheels, are arrangements of cast iron rollers for flattening the ingots into sheets, and drawing them out into lengths either square, round or triangular; the different shapes and sizes depending on the form of the grooves through which the heated bars are drawn. All this is effected with a degree of celerity and readiness in the men employed which, to a stranger, is astonishing; while the noise of the hammers and the rattle of the machinery are deafening. Six tons a week are hammered down by one hammer; about three tons of average size are tilted; and twenty-four tons can be rolled, working day and night by relays of hands, which is often necessary, owing to the increased demand for steel, especially for the American market. The men in this severe labour get from 18s. to 24s per week, and these combined works employ 70 to 80.  
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