Dec 22, 2009
Developed during the early 1850s, the Bessemer process was the first method for making steel cheaply and in large quantities. Although this process was named for its inventor, British engineer Henry Bessemer (1813–1898), William Kelly patented (the right to manufacture, use, and sell an invention) the process in the United States in 1857. In the Bessemer process, air is blown through molten (liquefied by heat) metal because the oxygen combines chemically with carbon and other impurities (manganese and silicon) and burns them out of the molten metal. Then the purified molten metal can be poured into molds. Within twenty years, the process was being used worldwide and American manufacturers were using the Bessemer process to make 90 percent of their steel.
Further Information: Hart-Davis, Adam. "Henry Bessemer, Man of Steel." Science and Technology Online. [Online] Available
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