BESSEMER STEEL

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27914, 10 March 1956, Page 11

BESSEMER STEEL

GREAT INVENTION OF 100 YEARS AGO LONDON. To the Cheltenham meeting of the Royal Association for the Advancement of Science, a comparatively unknown Hertfordshire man quietly enunciated the points in his paper, “On the Manufacture of Malleable Iron and Steel Without Fuel,” and drew upon himself the limelight of the whole industrial world. His claims were met with almost as much incredulity as if they had referred to the turning of base metal into gold. But the truth of what Henry Bessemer said at the meeting on August 11. 1856, was soon confirmed, and his invention of a process for converting pig iron into steel earned him universal fame and. eventually, more than £1.000.000 in royalties. It also had an incalculably great effect on the future of structural and other forms of engineering. Henrj’ Bessemer, born at Charlton, near Hitthin, in 1813, was instructed in mechanics by his father. Early in his career he gave evidence of an inventive turn of mind, by producing perforated dies for preventing the reuse of old stamps. When he took up the study of steel, it led him into protracted experiments that cost a great deal of money, but finally to a success that more than justified the labour and expense. Among his later successes was the building of a doubleended cross-Channel steamer which had a large swinging saloon in the centre. The ship was named Bessemer. He founded the Iron and Steel Institute in 1869 and became its president in 1871. He died on March 15. 1898. The Bessemer process involves the blowing of air through molten pig iron. The bottle-shaped furnace, known as a converter, is perhaps the piece of steel-making equipment most familiar to the layman, since its spectacular performance, like a huge Roman candle, has for years been a perennially popular subject with photographers.