The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
Related decarburizing with air processes had been used outside Europe for hundreds of years, but not on an industrial scale.[1] One such process (similar to puddling) was known in the 11th century in East Asia, where the scholar Shen Kuo of that era described its use in the Chinese iron and steel industry.[2][3] In the 17th century, accounts by European travelers detailed its possible use by the Japanese.[4]
The modern process is named after its inventor, the Englishman Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1856.[5] The process was said to be independently discovered in 1851 by the American inventor William Kelly[4][6] though the claim is controversial.[7][8][9][10]
The process using a basic refractory lining is known as the "basic Bessemer process" or Gilchrist–Thomas process after the English discoverers Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas.
^Ponting, Clive (2000), World History, A New Perspective, Pimlico, ISBN 0-7126-6572-2
^Needham, Joseph (2008). Science and civilisation in China, Volume 5, Part 7 (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 261–5. ISBN 9780521875660.
^Tanner, Harold (2009). China: A History. Hackett Publishing. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-87220-915-2.
^ abWagner, Donald (2008). Science and Civilisation in China: Vol. 5, Part 11: Ferrous Metallurgy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 363–5. ISBN 978-0-521-87566-0.
^Cite error: The named reference wag361 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Bessemer process". Britannica. Vol. 2. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2005. p. 168.
^Gordon, Robert B. (2001). American Iron, 1607–1900. JHU Press. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-0-8018-6816-0.
^The Beginnings of Cheap Steel by Philip W. Bishop. Retrieved 23 February 2018 – via www.gutenberg.org.
^"No. 762: Kelly's Converter". www.uh.edu. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^Shaping Technology/building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. MIT Press. 29 September 1994. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-0-262-26043-5.
The Bessemerprocess was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the...
Sir Henry Bessemer FRS (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique...
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formerly used. The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic Bessemerprocess) was an improvement to the Bessemerprocess, made by lining the converter with a...
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wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemerprocess, enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to the era of great expansion...
made from molten pig iron or from scrap. Since the invention of the Bessemerprocess, steel mills have replaced ironworks, based on puddling or fining methods...
(notably the Bessemerprocess) and acquired many mines in Germany and France. Initially, Krupp failed to gain profit from the Bessemerprocess due to the...
than direct conversion from cast iron as in puddling or the later Bessemerprocess. The ability to fully melt the steel removed any inhomogeneities in...
is the cathode and the negative is the anode. Anaerobic respiration Bessemerprocess Bioremediation Calvin cycle Chemical equation Chemical looping combustion...
improvements became the Heaton process. Another English metallurgist, Henry Bessemer had just created the Bessemerprocess of blowing air or pure oxygen...
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