Home › B › Bessemer (SIR HENRY an Eng-order)

Bessemer (SIR HENRY an Eng-order)

SIR HENRY, an Eng-order to produce steel. By this process, lish inventor, born in Charlton, Hertfordshire, Jan. 19, 1813; began modeling and designing patterns when 18 years old; chose engineering as a profession, and, after long and costly experiments, announced, in 1856, his discovery of a SIR HENRY BESSEMER means of rapidly and cheaply converting pig iron into steel, by blowing a blast of air through the iron when in a state of fusion (see BESSEMER STEEL).

For this discovery discovery the Institution of Civil Engineers awarded him the Gold Telford Medal, and several foreign governments honored him with valuable tokens. In the United States appreciation of his great discovery took the form of creating industrial cities and towns under his name. He was elected President of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain in 1871; knighted by the Queen in 1879, and received the freedom of the city of London in 1880. He died in London, March 15, 1898.