John Thorpe Potts

1851 of London Works, near Birmingham.

'The gas furnace most commonly used in the American iron and steel works was invented about thirty years ago by the brothers Frederick and Charles William Siemens, German engineers resident in London. The first "Siemens furnace" built in this country [USA] under the sanction of these inventors was erected at the works of John A. Griswold & Co., at Troy, N. Y., in 1867, and was used as a "heating furnace." [Previous to this, however, in 1862, there had been erected, at the copper-works of Park, McCurdy & Co., in Pittsburgh, a "Siemens furnace" for refining copper; and in 1864 Park Brothers & Co. (also of Pittsburgh) built one of these furnaces for heating steel; and in the same year, in a neighboring establishment (James B. Lyon & Co.) one was constructed for melting glass. None of these furnaces were built from the inventors' plans or under their license, and all were abandoned after a short life.] This was followed in the same year by a heating furnace at the works of the Nashua Iron and Steel Company, Nashua, N. H., and early in 1868 the first "Siemens furnace" for melting steel in crucibles (often called a "pot furnace") was started in the works of Anderson & Woods at Pittsburgh. All these furnaces, and many subsequently constructed, were built from the plans of J. Thorpe Potts, an English engineer, who was one of the firm of Richmond & Potts, representatives of the inventors in this country.'

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