This vertical integration, combined with the adoption of the Bessemer process, allowed his mills to produce steel cheaper and faster than competitors. Legacy and Modern Industry.
William Kelly and the Oxygen Injection Breakthrough
In the early 19th century, the reverberatory furnace emerged as a game-changer, but the true catalyst for the steel industry was the Bessemer process. This material is steel, an alloy of iron and carbon that defines the skeletal structure of our cities and the tools that power our economy.
Invented by Henry Bessemer and patented in 1856, this method blasted air through molten pig iron to burn off the carbon and impurities. He melted iron and steel in small clay crucibles surrounded by coke, which allowed for a much higher temperature than traditional furnaces.
William Kelly and the Oxygen Injection Breakthrough
Benjamin Huntsman, working in the 1740s, developed the crucible steel process. The real bottleneck in history was not the idea of steel, but the ability to remove impurities—specifically excess carbon and silicon—from pig iron in a controlled and efficient manner.
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