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Robert Forester Mushet (1811–1891) was a British metallurgist and businessman, born on 8 April 1811, in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. He was the youngest son of Scottish parents, Agnes Wilson and David Mushet; an ironmaster, formerly of the Clyde, Alfreton and Whitecliff Ironworks. In 1818/9 David Mushet built a foundry named Darkhill Ironworks in the Forest of Dean. Robert spent his formative years studying metallurgy with his father and took over the management of Darkhill in 1845.〔Anstis p. 85.〕 In 1848 he moved to the newly constructed Forest Steel Works on the edge of the Darkhill site where he carried out over ten thousand experiments in ten years〔Anstis p. 157〕 before moving to the Titanic Steelworks in 1862. It seems that Mushet only began using his middle name 'Forester' in 1845, and only occasionally at first. In his later years he said he had been given the name from the Forest of Dean, although he variously spelled it both 'Forester' and 'Forrester'.〔Anstis pp. 175–176.〕 In 1876 he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal by the Iron and Steel Institute, their highest award.〔Webb p. 14.〕 Robert Mushet died on 29 January 1891 in Cheltenham. He is buried with his wife and daughter, Mary, in Cheltenham Cemetery. == High quality steel == In the summer of 1848, Henry Burgess, editor of ''The Bankers' Circular'', brought to Mushet a lump of white crystallised metal which he said was found in Rhenish, Prussia.
Mushet carried out many experiments with the metal, discovering that a small amount added during the manufacture of steel rendered it more workable when heated. It was not until 1856, however, that he realised the true potential of this property when his friend Thomas Brown brought him a piece of steel, made using the Bessemer Process, asking if he could improve its poor quality. Mushet carried out experiments on the sample, based on those he had previously carried out with spiegeleisen. Henry Bessemer himself had realised that the problem of quality was due to impurities in the iron and concluded that the solution lay in knowing when to turn off the flow of air in his process; so that the impurities had been burned off, but just the right quantity of carbon remained. Despite spending tens of thousands of pounds on experiments, however, he could not find the answer.〔Anstis p. 147.〕 Mushet's solution was simple, but elegant; he first burnt off, as far as possible, ''all'' the impurities and carbon, then reintroduced carbon and manganese by adding an exact amount of spiegeleisen. This had the effect of improving the quality of the finished product, increasing its malleability – its ability to withstand rolling and forging at high temperatures.〔〔Anstis p. 140.〕
Mushet's dream was never to be fulfilled. While others made fortunes from his discoveries, he failed to capitalise on his successes and by 1866 was destitute and in ill health. In that year his 16-year-old daughter, Mary, travelled to London alone, to confront Bessemer at his offices, arguing that his success was based on the results of her father's work.〔''Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S. An Autobiography'', ()〕 Bessemer, whose own process for producing steel was not economically viable without Mushet's method for improving quality, decided to pay Mushet an annual pension of £300, a very considerable sum, which he paid for over 20 years; possibly with a view to keeping the Mushets from legal action.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Forester Mushet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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