In the 1870s, the French industrialist Pierre Manhès began his first attempts with a small, ordinary Bessemer converter of 50 kg in his factory in Vedène, then in factories in Éguilles, near Avignon. He sought to refine a matte with 25 to 30% copper previously melted in a crucible. But like Hollway, he did not succeed in completely refining the matte. The oxidation of undesirable elements occurred as expected, but the operation was quickly disrupted by the appearance of metallic copper. The matte, which was an ionic compound, was immiscible with the slag, but also with the molten metal. The latter, which is denser (ρ ≈ 9), went to the bottom of the converter and clogged the tuyeres.
Pierre Manhès then patented the use of additives whose oxidation would release enough heat to avoid getting stuck. In the end, it was the Frenchman Paul David, then an engineer in his factory in 1880, who suggested the solution. He proposed horizontal tuyeres placed at a sufficient distance from the bottom of the converter so that the copper could gather below them and the air blow constantly in the matte. By 1881, their converter was both technically operational and cost-effective.
In the autumn of 1884, the process was adopted in the United States by the Parrot Silver and Copper Company in Butte, Montana. The two types became larger and larger, increasing from a capacity of one ton to eight tons in 1912, and even fifteen tons for cylindrical converters in 1920.