Notes: | Taken from Vanity Fair, 6th November, 1880. Born eight and sixty years ago, Sir Henry bessemer, an artist, and exhibited pictures 50 years since. But he preferred modelling to painting and as he modelled he found he preferred mechanics to both. A man of great natural powers, indomitable energy, he worked in various directions until at length he hit upon a new method of making steel so much more cheaply and more speedily than any other way known and has earned a well-earned fortune for Sir Henry himself. He is a simple orderly man of precise habits and well-regulated affections. He daily takes two walks of a mile each and is devoted to his grandchildren. He is very fond of gardening. He has laid out for himself, at Denmark Hill, lakes, ferneries, and looking glasses in wonderful fashion. He invented a swinging saloon which was to prevent sea-sickness, but which has not yet been successful in practice. He is now devoted to astronomy and is engaged in completing and erecting in his garden the largest telescope in the world, with a four foot lens. Altogether he is one of the strongest, simplest man of his time. He is entirely unknown to the fine ladies and gentlemen. |