Sir Henry Bessemer FRS (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor. His steel-making process was the most important method for making steel in the nineteenth century for nearly 100 years. He helped make Sheffield, known as the "Steel City," a major industrial center.

Bessemer worked to lower the cost of making steel for military equipment. He created a method to blow air through molten pig iron to remove impurities. This made steel easier, faster, and cheaper to produce, which changed structural engineering. Bessemer was one of the most important inventors of the Second Industrial Revolution. He created at least 128 inventions in the areas of iron, steel, and glass. Unlike many inventors, he completed his projects and earned money from their success. In 1879, he was knighted for his contributions to science and became a member of the Royal Society.

Father: Anthony Bessemer

Bessemer's father, Anthony, was born in London to a Huguenot family. At about 21, he moved to Paris. He worked as an inventor and was employed by the Paris Mint, where he created a machine to make medallions that could produce steel dies from a larger model. At age 26, he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences for his improvements to the optical microscope. Due to the French Revolution, he had to leave Paris and returned to Britain. There, he invented a process for making gold chains, which was successful. This allowed him to buy a small estate in the village of Charlton, near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where Henry was born. According to Henry Bessemer, his name was given to him by his godfather, Henry Caslon, who employed his father as a punchcutter.

Early inventions

Bessemer earned his first fortune by creating six steam-powered machines to make bronze powder, which was used in gold paint. At that time, bronze powder was only made in Nuremberg. Bessemer studied the Nuremberg bronze powder, then copied and improved it so it could be made in large amounts. This was an early example of copying and improving an existing product.

The process was kept secret, and only members of Bessemer’s immediate family could enter the factory. The handmade Nuremberg powder sold in London for £5 12 shillings (£5.60p) per pound. Bessemer lowered the price to £2/6 (£0.12p). The money earned from selling the paint helped him fund his other inventions.

Bessemer patented a method for making a long strip of plate glass in 1848, but it was not successful in business. He gained experience designing furnaces, which later helped him develop his new steel-making process.

Bessemer process

Henry Bessemer became interested in the problem of making steel during his work to improve the construction of guns. From 1850 to 1855, Bessemer focused on creating a method to produce cheap steel for making weapons. However, William Kelly, an American inventor in Kentucky, received a patent in 1857, which made Bessemer’s earlier patent in 1855 less valuable.

On August 24, 1856, Bessemer described his method at a meeting of the British Association in Cheltenham. He called his process "The Manufacture of Malleable Iron and Steel without Fuel." His full description was published in The Times. The Bessemer process used oxygen from air blown through molten pig iron to remove impurities and create steel. James Nasmyth had previously worked on a similar idea but stopped after hearing Bessemer’s presentation. Bessemer later offered Nasmyth a third of the value of his patent, but Nasmyth declined because he was retiring.

Many industries faced challenges because they relied on cast iron and wrought iron, which were not as strong as steel. Cast iron was especially dangerous, as seen in accidents like the Dee Bridge disaster in 1847 and the Tay Bridge disaster in 1879. Wrought iron was more reliable but still less common than cast iron.

The Bessemer process was very important for industry because it made steel production cheaper, leading to steel replacing cast and wrought iron in many uses. Bessemer licensed his patent to five ironmakers, but they struggled to produce high-quality steel. A Swedish ironmaker, Göran Fredrik Göransson, succeeded using purer pig iron from his country. Bessemer later tried using iron from Cumberland hematite but had limited success due to difficulties controlling carbon levels.

Robert Forester Mushet conducted many experiments at Darkhill Ironworks and discovered that controlling carbon and adding manganese from spiegeleisen improved steel quality. Bessemer tried to share his improved method with others but faced resistance. He eventually built steelworks in Sheffield with partners like W & J Galloway & Sons. Over time, his company produced steel more cheaply than competitors, leading to widespread use of his process. Bessemer earned over a million pounds in royalties from his patent.

Mushet, however, received no financial benefit and became poor by 1866. His daughter, Mary, visited Bessemer in London and argued that her father’s work was the basis for Bessemer’s success. Bessemer later gave Mushet an annual pension of £300 for over 20 years.

Bessemer also operated steelworks in Greenwich, London, near the River Thames, starting around 1865.

W. M. Lord noted that Bessemer was unusual because he turned his idea into a practical process and successfully profited from it, unlike many inventors who did not benefit from their own creations.

Other inventions

Bessemer was an inventor who created many things and held at least 129 patents from 1838 to 1883. His inventions included military weapons, tools for making stamped postage stamps, a machine to remove sugar from sugar cane, and other creations related to iron, steel, and glass. These are explained in detail in his autobiography.

After experiencing seasickness in 1868, he designed the SS Bessemer, also known as the "Bessemer Saloon," a passenger steamship with a cabin on gimbals to stay level even in rough seas, helping passengers avoid seasickness. The ship’s system used hydraulics controlled by a person watching a spirit level. A model and a trial version were built in his garden in Denmark Hill, London. However, the ship was never tested properly on the ocean because it damaged part of the Calais pier during its first trip, causing investors to lose trust, and the ship was later scrapped.

In 1857, Bessemer also received a patent for a method of casting metal between rotating rollers. This idea is the basis for today’s continuous casting processes, and it is still used in modern steel production.

Death

Bessemer died in March 1898 at Denmark Hill, London. He is buried in West Norwood cemetery, London SE27. Other important Victorians, including Sir Henry Tate, Sir Henry Doulton, and Baron de Reuters, are also buried there.

Honours and legacy

Henry Bessemer was given a special title by Queen Victoria for his work in science on June 26, 1879. That same year, he became a member of the Royal Society. In 1891, the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland gave him an honorary membership. In 1894, he was chosen as an International Member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1895, he became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Kelham Island Industrial Heritage Museum in Sheffield keeps an early example of a Bessemer converter for people to see.

A school in Hitchin was named after him. When the school was torn down in the 1980s, the new road built there was called Bessemer Close in 1995. Bessemer Way in Rotherham is also named in his honor. In 2009, a pub called "The Fountain" in Sheffield was renamed "The Bessemer" to honor Henry Bessemer, who greatly influenced the city’s growth. In Workington, Cumbria, a local pub now bears his name.

In 2002, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) was created by combining older organizations, including the Iron and Steel Institute, of which Bessemer was president from 1871 to 1873. During his time as president, the Iron and Steel Institute started the Bessemer Gold Medal. Today, IOM3 continues to give this medal each year to people who have made important contributions to the steel industry. Recent winners include Indira Samarasekera.

Many English engineers felt sad that Bessemer, who helped develop industry so much, was not given more recognition by his own government. They noted that in the United States, where the Bessemer process was widely used, eight cities or towns were named after him.