Editing Bessemer process (section)

{{short description|Steel production method}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
[[File:Bessemer converter.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Bessemer converter, schematic diagram]]
The '''Bessemer process''' was the first inexpensive [[industrial process]] for the [[mass production]] of [[steel]] from molten [[pig iron]] before the development of the [[open hearth furnace]]. The key principle is [[steelmaking|removal of impurities]] and undesired elements, primarily excess carbon contained in the [[pig iron]] by [[oxidation]] with air being blown through the molten iron. Oxidation of the excess carbon also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
Virtually all the [[pig iron]] carbon is removed by the converter and so  carbon must be added at the end of the process to create steel, 0.25% carbon content is a typical value for low carbon steel which is used in construction and other low-stress applications.   



The modern process is named after its inventor, the Englishman [[Henry Bessemer]], who took out a [[patent]] on the process in 1856.<ref name="wag361"/> The process was said to be independently discovered in 1851 by the American inventor [[William Kelly (inventor)|William Kelly]]<ref name="wag">{{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Donald |title=Science and Civilisation in China: Vol. 5, Part 11: Ferrous Metallurgy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAud8CE5stsC&pg=PA363 |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-87566-0 |pages=363–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Bessemer process |encyclopedia=Britannica |volume=2 |pages=168 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2005}}</ref> though the claim is controversial.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gordon |first=Robert B. |title=American Iron, 1607–1900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osSG7ceTGekC&pg=PA221 |year=2001 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6816-0 |pages=221–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29633?msg=welcome_stranger |title=The Beginnings of Cheap Steel by Philip W. Bishop |access-date=23 February 2018 |via=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi762.htm |title=No. 762: Kelly's Converter |website=www.uh.edu |access-date=23 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Shaping Technology/building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change |date = 29 September 1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7i1hO90ZDHUC&pg=PA112 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-26043-5 |pages=112–}}</ref>

The process using a basic [[refractory]] lining is known as the "basic Bessemer process" or [[Gilchrist–Thomas process]] after the English discoverers [[Percy Gilchrist]] and [[Sidney Gilchrist Thomas]].