On a daily basis, these men worked with molten steel at extremely high temperatures in the Bessemer Furnace of the Bethlehem Iron Company. The Bessemer Process was patented by the English inventor Sir Henry Bessemer in 1855. In this process, molten pig iron is poured into a large vessel, called a bessemer converter, and air is blown through the metal, expelling most impurities in the form of gas or as slag. This process was instrumental in pushing the Industrial Revolution forward, as it made steel-making relatively inexpensive and fast, and the process helped make the production of engineering steel and the construction of railroads on a wide scale more feasible. (Courtesy of Lucille and jack McGinnis.)
Arcadia
