Sheffield is fortunate to have an industrial museum at Kelham Island that preserves and displays many artefacts from the history of the steel industry.
This huge piece of machinery is a Bessemer Converter. It is one of only three Bessemer Converters left in the world. It was used by the British Steel Corporation in Workington until the mid 1970s and produced the last Bessemer Steel made in Britain in 1974.
The Bessemer process - the conversion of iron into steel - was invented and patented by Henry Bessemer in 1856. The egg-shaped converter was tilted down to pour molten pig iron in through the top, then swung back to a vertical position and a blast of air was blown through the base of the converter in a dramatic fiery ‘blow'. Spectacular but dangerous flames and fountains shot out of the top of the converter. The converter was tilted again and the newly made steel was teemed or poured out. The first converters could make seven tonnes of steel in half an hour.
In 1858 Henry Bessemer moved to Sheffield and licensed his method to two steelmakers, John Brown and George Cammell, who both began to produce Bessemer Steel on an unprecedented scale by 1860. Others soon followed and within 20 years, Sheffield alone was producing 10,000 tons of Bessemer steel every week (this was almost a quarter of the country's total output). The invention marked the beginning of mass steel production, as huge amounts could be produced in a relatively short time compared to crucible steel production. The steel was most widely used for the railways that were stretching around the world.
The history of this converter and the development of the process is from the Kelham Island website.
Well, I'm overwhelmed - your comments and favs put this on the popular page, the fourth popular page entry in four days! - thank you all!
I still have difficulty imagining this huge container having air blasted through it and flames and fountains of sparks shooting out of the top. It must have been an awsome sight!
Ian
August 11th, 2016
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Well, I'm overwhelmed - your comments and favs put this on the popular page, the fourth popular page entry in four days! - thank you all!
I still have difficulty imagining this huge container having air blasted through it and flames and fountains of sparks shooting out of the top. It must have been an awsome sight!
Ian