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The Bessemer Process: How It Made Steel Production Cheaper and Larger-Scale

The Bessemer process used an air blast to turn molten pig iron into steel more cheaply and at greater scale, but it depended on low-phosphorus iron.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The Bessemer process made steel by blowing air through molten pig iron in a converter. The air oxidized impurities, and the heat released by oxidation kept the metal molten as carbon levels fell. This made steel faster and cheaper to produce in large quantities—but phosphorus-rich iron could leave the resulting steel brittle.

What was the Bessemer process?

It was an early industrial method for turning molten pig iron into steel at a scale and cost that had previously been difficult to achieve. Henry Bessemer patented the process in 1856. Its importance lay not in air-based iron refining as a whole, which had earlier precedents, but in the particular converter method associated with his patent and its eventual industrial use.

The patent did not immediately mean that good-quality steel could be made reliably at practical scale. Swedish industrialist Göran Fredrik Göransson achieved practical success in trials at Edsken. Tekniska museet dates the first forgeable steel produced by his method to 18 July 1858. Göransson had acquired a share in the Swedish patent in 1857, and in 1862 he built a Bessemer works at Sandviken. The London exhibition that year also helped bring the process wider attention.

How did the Bessemer process make steel?

1. Melt the pig iron

Iron ore was smelted to produce pig iron, which was then melted and charged into a converter. Pig iron contains more carbon and other impurities than the steel sought from the process.

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2. Blow air through the molten metal

Air was forced through the melt. Oxygen reacted with carbon and other oxidizable impurities. These reactions released heat, helping keep the iron molten without relying solely on external fuel during the blow.

3. Stop the blow at the desired carbon level

As carbon was oxidized, its concentration fell. The operator stopped the air blast when the desired carbon content had been reached, leaving metal that could be made into forgeable steel. The process depended on controlling the blow: continuing to remove carbon beyond the target would not produce the intended steel.

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Why was phosphorus a problem?

The Bessemer process did not remove phosphorus effectively. When the iron charge contained too much phosphorus, the finished steel could be brittle. That constraint made the method unsuitable for many ores, regardless of its speed or ability to generate heat internally. Practical success therefore depended on selecting appropriate, low-phosphorus feedstock.

This limitation is central to understanding the process’s uneven adoption. It was not a universal way to turn any iron into good steel; the chemistry of the available ore shaped whether a works could use it successfully.

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Why did the Bessemer process matter?

By making large-volume steel production cheaper, the process helped broaden steel’s use in railways and other infrastructure. Historical production figures show the scale it reached in particular regions, though they describe different places and production categories and should not be treated as directly comparable.

  • Tekniska museet reports Swedish Bessemer steel output of 0.1 million tonnes in 1872 and 1.5 million tonnes in 1882. The same undated museum page reports a peak of 2.1 million tonnes in 1889.
  • Sheffield Museums Trust describes Sheffield Bessemer production in the 1880s as 10,000 tons per week, or a quarter of the country’s total.
  • Tekniska museet says the expansion of production brought the Swedish steel price down to one quarter of its prior level.

These figures illustrate the process’s industrial impact, not a single worldwide output series. The cited museum pages do not state clear publication years for these figures.

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What replaced it?

Bessemer steelmaking did not remain the dominant route indefinitely. Open-hearth production, also known as the Siemens-Martin process, gained share as the 19th century progressed. In Sweden, open-hearth steel had overtaken Bessemer steel by 1895, according to Tekniska museet. The available historical accounts establish this shift and the Bessemer process’s phosphorus constraint, but do not provide a consistent numerical comparison of the two methods’ batch sizes, operating times, or steel quality.

A surviving piece of this industrial history is the pilot converter made for the Barrow Haematite Steel Company works at Barrow-in-Furness. The Science Museum Group records its first cast of steel in May 1865 and describes the Bessemer process as the first viable method of producing steel in large quantities. The recorded converter measures 2,600 × 3,000 × 1,600 mm and weighs 1,300 kg.

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