Let's just say this ol' boy isn't taking anybody's word for it.

Wait till he finds out he is also testing the strength of his vise.......

Back then everyone was testing iron and steel, and studying it, the Brits were actully doing better than we were, but no one knew what was in any given batch of iron or steel from day to day. it wasn't till decades later anyone was doing chemistry at the foundry to make sure they were making the same thing every day. It was one of the things that delayed the use of iron and steel for large scale buildings. The brits were designing bridges with 400% safety factors...and they were failing. They were failing under loads well under what the iron was supposed to be good for, and nobody knew why....

Testing wasn't really the answer, because the wrong question was being asked, it wasn't 'how strong is this stuff we have' it was 'what is this stuff we have'....

There is tho, a long and neglected history of testing machines, many of them are increadibly innovative and clever. Look up Tinius-Olson sometime....

Brits didn't always use first-class finished steel products.  A substantial portion of the Titanic's rivets have been found to be substandard. Used anyway, weak rivets were a factor which contributed to its destruction.