Inventor Flyer
Steel making process
Discovery
The first working Bessemer Converter was made in 1858. He started working on a device that would make huge productions of steel in 1855. He planned to make big money producing steel for the railroads and artillery. Bessemer was working with a normal furnace when some pieces of iron where left on the side of a ladle, and were left above the furnace's heat. When he went to push the rest of the iron into the ladle, he found steel shells. The hot air had turned iron pieces to steel.
William Bessemer
Man who made a machine called the Bessemer converter which converted iron to steel.
How it works
This is what the converter is made of and looks like. Molten Iron is in the vessel while air is forced into the chamber and makes purer, purer, and purer. Then they add their own materials to make it into Steel.
Bessemer converter
Creation
This led him to redesign his furnace so that it would force air through the iron using pumps. The oxygen in the air ignited silicon and carbon impurities in the iron. As the iron became hotter, more impurities burned off, making the iron hotter, burning off more impurities, producing a purer iron, which turns to steel easily.
It is made into squares on both sides and an X-beam in the middle. A pole is put through the converter to crank, so the iron turned to steel will pour out. The steel vessel has forced air blown in through the bottom in the Tuyeres, or the bottom of the vessel. When the impurities are burned off they put in other materials the turn it to steel and then they pour out the result of about 2,240 pounds of steel every time they pour out the result.
Then & Now
Steel has been a major factor back then and now. Steel is now more resourceful then it was back then. There are more factories to make steel but the process itself hasn't really change that much. They have added some other materials and now put it into a different vessel to convert to steel. The U.S has 500,000-250,000 steel workers in the U.S. Steel is more refined and the safety process has also changed. Steel is used for bridges, railroads, bike locks, knives, and power lines.