Research Paper On Henry Bessemer

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A man named Sir Henry Bessemer was born on January 19, 1813 in the city of Charlton, Hertfordshire, in England. Bessemer was an engineer and inventor whose process was the first to manufacture steel in an inexpensive way during the year 1856. Eventually, this led to the Bessemer converter. Bessemer was born into a family with mechanical skills, as his father was a typefounder and engineer. In his early years, he showed remarkable skill when dealing with mechanics, as well as having the eye for invention. After Bessemer invented things like moveable stamps and the typesetting machine, he began to make a kind of “gold” powder from brass that he used in his paints. Bessemer’s secret process soon began to bring him wealth, as the florid decoration …show more content…

One of his greater inventions was his sugarcane-crushing machinery with an advanced design. However, he became devoted to his work in metallurgy. In his time there were only two iron-based construction materials: wrought iron was made from cast iron in underdeveloped furnaces by the taxing manual process known as “puddling” (puddling is when you begin to stir the melted iron to get all the carbon out), and cast iron made by treating iron ore with coke (the chemical, not the drink) in the blast furnace. Cast iron was excellent for purposes like columns, bridge piers, or engine parts. Wrought iron was good for girders, rails, and other spans. Puddling removed carbon (which makes cast iron brittle) and produced a material that could be rolled or forged, but only in large lumps of 100–200 pounds, and that was full of slag (stony waste material that comes out of the iron when forged). The large lumps had to be tediously forged together by steam hammers so they could then be rolled into any useful shape or length. Steel was made by adding carbon to the wrought iron that was pure. This was a slow and now discontinued method. The material was hard and it would always take an edge. This process made it useful almost entirely for cutting

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