The first inexpensive industrial process for making steel, utilizing a large pear-shaped vessel called a converter. Compressed air is blown through the bottom of the molten pig iron, oxidizing impurities like silicon, manganese, and carbon. The oxidation generates enough heat to keep the metal liquid without an external fuel source, converting the brittle iron into usable steel in minutes.
Heard on the job
The museum has an original converter vessel from when the Bessemer process revolutionized the rail industry.