William Arthur Bone

“ After carrying on the manufacture for two years, Bell and his partners satisfied themselves of the feasibility of their plan, and entering into negotiation with Messrs. Dorman, Long & Co., a leading firm of manufacturers who were among the first to manufacture rolled steel girders in this country, they formed in 1899 an amalgamation, and important steel works were built at Clarence. The Clarence works are now producing about 1000 tons of pig iron daily, and 4000 tons of ingots and 2400 tons of finished steel weekly. ”

“ Losh, Wilson & Bell, in Newcastle, and a year later joined his father at the firm's ironworks at Walker. In 1827 there had been erected at these works what was considered then to be a very powerful rolling mill capable of turning out 100 tons per week of bar iron; the puddling process was installed in 1833, and five years later there was added a second mill for rolling rails. John Vaughan, the superintendent of this mill, by virtue of his character and practical knowledge about iron, exercised on the young man a powerful directing influence. ”

“ He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1887. Another conspicuous contribution to metallurgical chemistry was his proof of the true practical value of the molybdate method for the determination of phosphorus in steel, a process which is now universally employed in steel-works laboratories.
In 1872 he was appointed works manager (and subsequently general manager) of the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Company, Workington, where he remained until 1900. He also became director of several mining concerns in Cumberland. ”

“ Bell was not slow to profit by this example. In 1852 his firm acquired a lease, from the Ward-Jackson family, of important ore supplies at Normanby, and ultimately, in 1854, they started their Clarence works, with three blast furnaces, on the north bank of the Tees opposite Middlesbrough, then a very small and newly incorporated borough. The only rival works in the district were those of Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan & Company and of Messrs. Cochrane & Company. These three firms were the pioneers of the Cleveland industry. ”

“ Subsequently Bell's firm turned its attention to the manufacture of steel. As a result of experiments on a large scale for the utilisation of Cleveland pig iron in the manufacture of steel, open hearth furnaces were erected at Clarence, and steel was first made there in Jan. ”

“ Bell's scientific attainments rank very high. 'For the last fifty years of his life he had few superiors in general knowledge of chemical metallurgy and he was an unrivalled authority on the blast furnace and the scientific processes of its operation' cf. ”

“ In 1867 he married Lavinia Whitfield, daughter of David Woodward, a silk manufacturer of Macclesfield, and had three sons and three daughters. Two of his sons (George James and John Ernest) became mining engineers, whilst the third (Percy Woodward) is an electrical engineer. ”

“ In both capacities his eminence was soon universally acknowledged. Taking an active part in the establishment of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1869, he filled the office of president during 1873–5, and was the first recipient of the Bessemer gold medal in 1874. ”