Editing Bessemer process (section)

==Importance==
[[File:Production fonte fer acier France G-B.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|lang=en|Evolution of the production of wrought (puddled) iron, pig iron and steel in Great-Britain and France. The transition between each metal can be noticed on these graphics, for both countries.]]
[[File:A scene in a steel mill, Republic Steel, Youngstown, Ohio.jpg|thumb|upright|Bessemer furnace in operation in [[Youngstown, Ohio]], 1941.]]

In 1898, ''[[Scientific American]]'' published an 1890 speech by politician and ironmaking industrialist Abram S. Hewitt<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-14 |title=Abram Stevens Hewitt {{!}} Industrialist, Educator, Philanthropist {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abram-Stevens-Hewitt |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> called ''Bessemer Steel and its Effect on the World'' explaining the significant economic effects of the increased [[Supply (economics)|supply]] in cheap steel. They noted that the expansion of railroads into previously sparsely inhabited regions of the country had led to settlement in those regions, and had made the trade of certain goods profitable, which had previously been too costly to transport.<ref>{{Cite journal| volume = 78| issue = 13| pages = 198| title = Bessemer Steel and its Effect on the World| journal = Scientific American| date = 1898| jstor = 26116729}}</ref>

The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6–7 per long ton, along with greatly increasing the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material. The process also decreased the labor requirements for steel-making. Before it was introduced, steel was far too expensive to make bridges or the framework for buildings and thus wrought iron had been used throughout the [[Industrial Revolution]]. After the introduction of the Bessemer process, steel and wrought iron became similarly priced, and some users, primarily railroads, turned to steel. Quality problems, such as brittleness caused by nitrogen in the blowing air,<ref>{{cite book |title=Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics |last=Rosenberg |first=Nathan |year=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, New York |isbn=0-521-27367-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/90 90] |url=https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/90 }}</ref> prevented Bessemer steel from being used for many structural applications.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Misa |first=Thomas J. |title=A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore, Md. |series=Johns Hopkins studies in the history of technology |isbn=0-8018-6052-0 |year=1999 |orig-year=1995 |oclc=540692649 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PClGkh3qicgC }} [https://archive.today/20120805234054/http://www.umn.edu/~tmisa/NOS/1.1_intro.html Chapter 1 online].</ref> [[Open hearth furnace|Open-hearth steel]] was suitable for structural applications.

Steel greatly improved the productivity of railroads. Steel rails lasted ten times longer than iron rails. Steel rails, which became heavier as prices fell, could carry heavier locomotives, which could pull longer trains.<ref>{{cite book |title=Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics |last=Rosenberg |first=Nathan |year=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, New York |isbn=0-521-27367-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/60 60, 69] |url=https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/60 }}</ref> Steel rail cars were longer and were able to increase the freight to car weight from 1:1 to 2:1.