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Sir Henry Bessemer Facts & Worksheets

Sir Henry Bessemer was an English inventor who designed a steel-making process called Bessemer Process, the first cost-efficient process of manufacturing steel.

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Sir Henry Bessemer was an English inventor who designed a steel-making process called Bessemer Process, the first cost-efficient process of manufacturing steel. It also led to his invention of the Bessemer converter. He made steel available in industrial quantities at an affordable price. He also received 110 patents throughout his life for his inventions and innovations.

See the fact file below for more information on the Sir Henry Bessemer or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Sir Henry Bessemer worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

  • Sir Henry Bessemer was born on January 19, 1813, in Charlton, Hertfordshire, England.
  • His father, Anthony Bessemer, was an inventor and engineer who fled from the French Revolution and moved to London. He invented the machine that makes medallions and could produce steel dies from a larger model and the process of making gold chains. The latter allowed him to buy a small estate in the village of Charlton, where Henry was born. His name, Henry, was given by his godfather, Henry Caslon, who employed the older Bessemer as a punchcutter.
  • There are no existing records about Henry’s education. Historians believed that he was primarily self-taught and has excellent inventive skills since childhood. He helped in his father’s gold chain production and learned metallurgy through that.

EARLY INVENTIONS

  • Bessemer already has his own business at the age of 17. He produced metal alloys and bronze powder. In 1843, after being surprised by the high price of gold paint, he designed a six steam-powered machine for making bronze powder, used in manufacturing gold paint. This endeavor gave him enough funds to pursue different inventions.
  • In 1848, he patented a method for making a continuous ribbon of plate glass. It failed commercially, but it gave him enough experience designing furnaces, which proved valuable later in his steel-making process.
  • He also invented machines not related to metallurgy, such as an advanced design of sugar cane-crushing machinery, the type-setting machine, and a way of compressing graphite powder into solid graphite for pencils.

NEED FOR AFFORDABLE STEEL

  • During the Crimean War in 1853, Bessemer’s interest in steel-making sparked when he invented a new type of gun with a rifled barrel. From his conversation with Napoleon III in 1854, he knew he needed a strong metal required for better artillery.
  • Bessemer knew that steel would be very efficient for making this, but it was too expensive to use for mass-produced artilleries.
  • He licensed the patent for his process to four ironmasters, for a total of 27,000 pounds, but they failed to produce the quality he had promised. He repurchased them for 32,000 pounds.
  • Eventually, Bessemer solved his problem on his own. He designed the Bessemer process, a steel-making process that removes carbon, silicon, and other impurities from molten pig iron by oxidation in a blast of air in a furnace called a Bessemer converter.

THE BESSEMER PROCESS

  • Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer converter, which he used in making steel. It is a pear-shaped furnace, which is 10 feet in diameter and 20 ft high.
  • It was made of steel and fire bricks to resist heat. It has air holes at the base called tuyeres that allow the entry of air into the converter.
  • The converter can be tilted horizontally to allow the entrance of the raw material called the pig iron.
  • A blast of hot air entered into the air holes on the side of the converter to its base.
  • The hot air oxidizes the impurities, the silicon and manganese, of the pig iron, and turn into silicon dioxide and manganese dioxide that get expelled out.
  • The carbon monoxide will also be oxidized and turn into a blue flame at the converter’s mouth. The manganese oxide and the silicon oxide react with each other to become a part of the slag. The carbon monoxide burns off, the blue dies out.
  • A required amount of spiegeleisen, or an alloy of carbon and manganese, will be added to the iron alloy.
  • The hot blast of air was continuously ensuring the mixing of the alloy with molten iron.
  • The process produced molten steel and can be placed into ladles or moulds by tilting the converter. This process was named the Bessemer process and was patented in 1856.

THE PROCESS’ PROBLEM

  • Henry Bessemer commercialized the process himself by founding the steel firm Henry Bessemer Company in Sheffield in 1859.
  • However, the Bessemer’s process was unable to remove excess phosphorus and caused the steel to be brittle.
  • In 1879, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas solved the problem using refractory lining, which can be clay, dolomite, limestone, or magnesite, to the converter.
  • The so-called Basic Bessemer used limestone which reacts with the phosphorus to form phosphate of limestone that can be removed and used as an agricultural fertilizer.

THE IMPACT OF STEEL

  • Before Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer process, many industries could only use cast iron and wrought iron because of the lack of steel.
  • Engineers and designers used cast iron on railway structures such as bridges and tracks, which led to accidents and disasters because of the hazardous nature of the iron.
  • By inventing the Bessemer process, the industrial revolution moved from the age of iron to steel. Steel became available at a lower price, from 40 pounds per tons to 7 pounds.
  • The process can also produce steel in large quantities. And most importantly, steel lasted ten times longer than cast iron. The authorities replaced all cast iron-made railways and structures with steel.
  • The Bessemer process remained in use until 1968 when the final Bessemer converter ceased production. The process was replaced by the electric arc furnace and the basic oxygen process.
  • Henry Bessemer died as a very wealthy man in 1898 at Denmark Hill, London. He had lived to enjoy the massive impact of his invention.

Sir Henry Bessemer Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Sir Henry Bessemer across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Sir Henry Bessemer worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Sir Henry Bessemer who was an English inventor who designed a steel-making process called Bessemer Process, the first cost-efficient process of manufacturing steel. It also led to his invention of the Bessemer converter. He made steel available in industrial quantities at an affordable price. He also received 110 patents throughout his life for his inventions and innovations.

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