"One day [in 1856] a...
- 石康
- 2025-05-13 11:11:22
"One day [in 1856] a Sheffield-based engineer named Henry Bessemer stood up at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and announced he had [been able to make iron as strong as the samurai sword of the Japanese]. His process didn’t require the elaborate procedures of the samurai. He could create tons of liquid steel. It was a revolution in the making.
The Bessemer process was ingeniously simple. It involved blowing air through the molten iron, so that the oxygen in the air would react with the carbon in the iron and remove it as carbon dioxide gas. It required a knowledge of chemistry that for the first time put steelmaking on a scientific footing. Moreover, the reaction between the oxygen and the carbon was extremely violent and gave off a lot of heat. This heat raised the temperature of the steel, keeping it hot and liquid. The process was straightforward and could be used on an industrial scale; it was the answer.
The only problem with the Bessemer process was that it didn’t work. Or at least that was what everyone who tried it said. Soon, angry steelmakers, who had bought the license from Bessemer and invested large sums of money in equipment only to produce brittle iron, started asking for their money back. He had no answers for them. He didn’t really understand why the process was successful sometimes and unsuccessful at others, but he continued to work on his technology, and with the help of the British metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet he adapted his technique. Rather than trying to remove the carbon until just the right amount was left, about 1 percent, Mushet suggested removing all the carbon and then adding 1 percent carbon back in. This worked and was repeatable.
Of course, when Bessemer tried to interest the world in this new process, the other steelmakers ignored him, assuming that it was yet another swindle. They insisted that it was impossible to create steel from liquid iron, and that Bessemer was a con artist.
In the end he saw no option but to set up his own steel works and just start making the stuff himself. After a few years the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was manufacturing steel so much more cheaply and in such larger quantities than his rival firms that they were eventually forced to license his process, in the end making him extremely rich and ushering in the machine age."
~ Source: "Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World" by Mark Miodownik
The Bessemer process was ingeniously simple. It involved blowing air through the molten iron, so that the oxygen in the air would react with the carbon in the iron and remove it as carbon dioxide gas. It required a knowledge of chemistry that for the first time put steelmaking on a scientific footing. Moreover, the reaction between the oxygen and the carbon was extremely violent and gave off a lot of heat. This heat raised the temperature of the steel, keeping it hot and liquid. The process was straightforward and could be used on an industrial scale; it was the answer.
The only problem with the Bessemer process was that it didn’t work. Or at least that was what everyone who tried it said. Soon, angry steelmakers, who had bought the license from Bessemer and invested large sums of money in equipment only to produce brittle iron, started asking for their money back. He had no answers for them. He didn’t really understand why the process was successful sometimes and unsuccessful at others, but he continued to work on his technology, and with the help of the British metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet he adapted his technique. Rather than trying to remove the carbon until just the right amount was left, about 1 percent, Mushet suggested removing all the carbon and then adding 1 percent carbon back in. This worked and was repeatable.
Of course, when Bessemer tried to interest the world in this new process, the other steelmakers ignored him, assuming that it was yet another swindle. They insisted that it was impossible to create steel from liquid iron, and that Bessemer was a con artist.
In the end he saw no option but to set up his own steel works and just start making the stuff himself. After a few years the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was manufacturing steel so much more cheaply and in such larger quantities than his rival firms that they were eventually forced to license his process, in the end making him extremely rich and ushering in the machine age."
~ Source: "Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World" by Mark Miodownik
