Original pilot Bessemer converter, 1865.

Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) was an English inventor and engineer who invented a cheap process for maufacturing steel. He patented a process by which molten pig iron was converted to steel by blowing air through it in a Bessemer converter.This removed most of the impurities and no extra fuel was required, because the carbon, oxidised during the blow, generated great heat. Establishing a steelworks in Sheffield, England, Bessemer manufactured guns and, later, steel rails.