The new company was named 'Crane' as a nod to, a thank you to and for George Crane, a British foundry owner whose kind understanding and support backed their desire to hire away his foundry's long time superintendent, ironmaster David Thomas, who had achieved regular successes in employing the new hot blast process and successfully worked out necessary additional methods to not only smelt iron, but produce fine quality cast iron and pig iron ready to make steel. These results positioned Crane's company's strongly to dominate British steel and iron manufacturing for decades. Crane was grateful, so with a younger Thomas assistant already on hand, allowed Thomas his big chance for fortune. LC&CN's Hazard not only hired him and paid his expenses to come to America and set up an ironworks using the new technique, but made him a partner in the enterprise in agreement of 31 December 1838.