HUNTSMAN, BENJAMIN English in ventor and steel manufacturer, was born in Lincolnshire in 1704. He started business as a clock and toolmaker at Doncaster. He experimented in steel manufacture, and at Handsworth, near Sheffield, at last produced a satisfactory cast steel, purer than any then in use. The Sheffield cutlery manufacturers refused it be cause it was too hard, but it was largely used in France, and the competition of imported French cutlery made from it forced the English makers to use it. Huntsman had not patented his process, and its secret was discovered by a Sheffield ironfounder, who, according to a popular story, obtained admission to his works in the disguise of a tramp. Benjamin Huntsman died in 1776. See Smiles, Industrial Biography (1879).