Sir Henry Bessemer

1813-1898

English Inventor and Engineer

The early manufacture of steel in England is invariably discussed with one of the nineteenth-century's greatest inventors: Sir Henry Bessemer. Born on Jan. 19, 1813 in Charlton, Hertfordshire, England, Bessemer showed great promise early in his youth. According to his account of his life in An Autobiography (1905), he was interested in mechanical and chemical processes as early as his seventh year. He recalled making his first machine, a contraption that produced small, white pipeclay bricks for model making. Since his father was a type-founder, Bessemer also had early access to molten metals, which he used for a variety of experimental castings. In his autobiography he mentions walking around the English countryside with a favorite dog, picking up lumps of clay, and molding them into different shapes. Later, at home, he would make molds from the shapes and cast them into type metal.

By the time he was 17 years of age, he was familiar with all sorts of metal works, including foundries, large melting furnaces, and the combination of various metals to produce alloys. At this time his father decided to move the family business to London, a move that delighted the young Bessemer, who claims he never tired of walking the interesting streets full of shops, galleries, and squares.

During the ensuing years he patented numerous inventions that brought him both wealth and fame. Among them were the movable stamps for dating deeds and other important documents, the manufacture of "gold" powder from brass, and an advanced design of sugarcane-crushing machines. Much of his income was generated by the artistic decor of the times, in which gilding and heavy, florid trims were popular. The powdered brass was used in paints to produce the "gold" look that was so prevalent in this era.

Although he is credited with numerous developments during and after the Crimean War (1853-56), his work with metals in that era was one of the achievements that spread the Industrial Revolution from Europe to the rest of the world. The war effort inspired him to work on producing a stronger type of iron that would withstand greater pressures and temperatures. When he found that the excess oxygen he was using in his furnace seemed to remove the carbon from the pre-heated iron pigs he was using, he carried purification further by blowing air through the melted cast iron, rendering it hotter and easier to pour.

Although Bessemer is credited with being the first to mass-produce steel, there were many others who contributed ideas, adaptations, and advanced methods of removing impurities from pig iron. These included William Kelly (1811-1888), an American who conceived of and developed—independently but concurrently with Bessemer—the same purification process used by Bessemer; Robert Forester Mushet, and Goran Goransson. Their improvements resulted in a revolution of the construction industry and provided low-cost steel to replace the perishable iron formerly used on railroads and other basic industries.

Bessemer's work led to the open-hearth process in the late 1860s, which eventually replaced much of the original furnace operations. However, even in his later years (he was still working at age 70), Bessemer went on discovering and developing new processes and machinery. He is credited with building the first solar furnace as well as an astronomical telescope. The latter was not for public use but for his own entertainment. Also, the prestige that London enjoys today as a world center for diamonds is due in part to the set of machines designed by Bessemer for polishing the valuable stones.

The British government honored Bessemer with a knighthood in 1879 and a fellowship in the Royal Society. He died in London on March 15, 1898.

GERALD F. HALL