The Steel Age 1800s-present

_Elsa_

‘With more than 1.6 billion tonnes of steel produced globally each year, steel is one of the most abundant man-made materials on the planet today. An alloy, it is made up almost exclusively of iron (as much as 99 per cent), while its secondary component carbon contributes up to 2 per cent by weight. Carbon is added to increase iron’s tensile strength, but it also contributes other properties such as hardness, resulting in a metal so versatile that it is one of the great building blocks of the modern world.

Although steel has been known to civilisations globally for up to 4,000 years, it wasn’t until the arrival of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century that it could be mass-produced in industrial quantities.

Steel started its journey to ubiquity as a semi-precious metal, often produced in a haphazard way in bloomeries, a rudimentary type of smelting furnace. But by the Iron Age it was an established alternative to copper alloys. Because of its hardness, along with its ability to produce long-lasting sharp edges, it was vital to the arms industry. In prehistoric times, when steel was very rare, such was its value that when Alexander the Great defeated the ancient Indian king Porus he was rewarded not with gold, but steel.

Bessemer’s invention, which removed impurities from iron via an oxidisation process to produce steel, was the catalyst required to set the Industrial Revolution in full flow. A new breed of entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie emerged to exploit this inexhaustible new material, casting rail networks across continents, building vertical cities in the form of skyscrapers and rolling out vast quantities of low-cost utility items such as cutlery.

Globally, production has shifted, with the recent economic boom in China and India creating mushrooming demand. China is currently the top producer, taking a one-third market share. Steel is also the world’s most recycled material.’ (Source)

“Here is a picture of the Bessemer invention,” says Rip. “On the left you can see the first invention. On the right is the converted version. Here is a bit more information on this invention.” 

‘The Bessemer process remained in use for over 100 years, and the final Bessemer converter only ceased production in 1968. Today, the process has been replaced by the electric arc furnace and the basic oxygen process, which allows more scope to add alloys, and offers more time to analyse the chemical composition of the steel. Bessemer converters also struggled to remove phosphorus from steel and did not lend themselves to recycling significant quantities of scrap metal.” (Source) 

Let’s continue - The Aluminium Age 1800s-present