henry bessemer is controversially said to have independently discovered a process to mass-produce steel in america.
who is controversially said to have independently discovered a process to mass-produce steel in america?
henry bessemer
throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, the english steelmakers produced blister and crucible steel which required specialized equipment like finery forges and puddling furnaces and cost over £50 per long ton. in the 18th century, innovations like steamboats, railroads, and guns increased demand for wrought iron and steel. the mount savage iron works in maryland was the largest in the united states in the late 1840s, and the first in the nation to produce heavy rails for the construction of railroads. in the 1850s, american william kelly and englishman henry bessemer independently discovered that air blown through the molten iron increases its temperature by oxidizing the carbon and separating additional impurities into the slag. the kelly-bessemer process, because it reduces the amount of coke needed for blasting and increases the quality of the finished iron, revolutionized the mass production of high-quality steel and facilitated a drastic drop in steel prices and expansion of its availability.
technological and industrial history of the united states
shōwa steel produced pig iron and steel, and the steel mill was soon surrounded by a large industrial complex of other factories to produce a variety of metal products. sumitomo steel pipe established a plant to produce steel pipes, and manchurian roll manufacturing company to produce steel mill rolls. to feed the furnaces, coal mines were established at fushun, 35 kilometers to the east, which also led to electric power plants, coal liquefaction plants, cement works, brick kilns. by the end of the 1930s, there were over 780 japanese industrial plants in fengtian province.
showa steel works