ABSTRACT
Before the 1860s, the iron and steel industry primarily involved the manufacture of iron, which was relatively brittle and expensive. In 1856, Henry Bessemer invented an inexpensive technique for making steel. Steel is essentially iron that has been reheated and worked to remove impurities and make it more supple. In the Bessemer process, compressed air was blown through molten iron, causing many of the impurities to burn away. The process used coal instead of charcoal, allowing the molten iron to reach higher temperatures. This breakthrough launched a series of technological advances in metalmaking, but it did not eliminate the skill required to handle and shape the molten metal. Over time, however, the iron and steel industry relied more on science than tradition to transform iron ore into metal.
