Making Steel from the Kelly-Bessemer Process

(See also Kelly invented the "pneumatic process.")

William Kelly got the US patent in 1856 and refined his converter in the Cambria Steel Co. in Johnstown. PA. The Eureka Iron company in Wyandotte, MI, then used it in 1864. The Pennsylvania Steel Co. in Steelton, PA, was the first plant built specifically to make steel instead of iron. After Kelly got a US patent renewal, the steel industry successfully avoided paying royalties to Kelly by claiming that Bessemer was the inventor of the process. [RodneyOhebsion]

The previous cementation process makes you appreciate why steel was so expensive before this process was developed.

Don Cassata posted
An early photo of the Kelly Converter. An early steelmaking process pioneered in Cambria Iron Co. 1860's.
Randy Wilson: They were using the Bessemer process over in England before any one started it up here in the U.S.
Dennis DeBruler

Randy Wilson It is true that England, with their better capital, put it into production sooner. But let's be clear that Kelly invented it. Kelly started in 1847 and had his process working by 1851. Bessemer got a patent in 1855, but Kelly waited until 1857 and then soon went bankrupt. It wasn't until 1864 that a steel mill used the "air-boiling process" in the U.S.

("As early as 1847, Kelly began experimenting with what he called an air-boiling process in which he forced air into molten iron. By 1851, he apparently was beginning to produce steel in this cost saving manner. Apparently, there is some evidence that those working with Bessemer in England had learned about what Kelly was doing in Kentucky and tried to imitate the process." http://detroit1701.org/Eureka%20Iron%20Works.html)

Mike Theisler commented on Don's post

 

Randy Wilson commented on Don's post
The Pennsylvania Steel Company. 1st steel plant built in America.
Now owned by Cleveland-Cliffs
Dennis DeBruler

Randy Wilson In 1864, Eureka Iron Works in Wyandotte, MI, was the first to use the Kelly/Bessemer Process.

http://detroit1701.org/Eureka%20Iron%20Works.html

Randy Wilson

Dennis DeBruler I agree however, The Pennsylvania Steel Company was the first plant built specifically to make steel. They were not a converted Iron company.

Dennis DeBruler

Randy Wilson So Pennsylvania Steel was the first "greenfield" steel plant. That is a significant distinction.

Randy Wilson

Dennis DeBruler Yessir!

Robert Rice Sr. posted
This is a diagram of a Bessemer converter for those who don't know how it worked. It was tilted so that the belly could be filled with molten pig iron then tiled back upright as air was blown into the bottom to blow impurities out of the iron. It could be used alone or in conjunction with an open hearth furnace to make steel.
Garry Stewart: Invented by Henry Bessemer and I think the first one was installed at workington iron and steel company, Cumberland, England. I just can't remember which year.
Dennis DeBruler: Garry Stewart It was invented by Willilam Kelly in the US. Henry Bessemer simply hired a couple of Kelly's assistants.
https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2017/03/making-steel-from-bessemer-kelly-process.html

I knew that an American invented making steel with blown air in parallel with Bessemer developing the idea in England. If you have been reading the railroad histories in this blog, you will have noticed that a lot of railroads were being built in the early 1850s. The Midwest railroads were competing to buy iron rails imported from Europe. They must have been cast iron because they are described as brittle. They tended to crack, split, and loose chunks. It was well known that steel would make better rails. But it was too expensive. (Wrought iron was not brittle, but it was also too expensive to provide the quantity of rails needed by the railroads.) Steel was also wanted for bridges, ship hulls, etc.

Cannons suffered from the same problem, they needed to be made from ductile steel instead of brittle cast iron. But steel was too expensive to make the guns needed by the Crimean War. Since necessity is the mother of invention, and steel was necessary in the 1850s, Sir Henry Bessemer invented a new process to make guns while William Kelly, a metallurgist, invented the same process. Kelly purchased an iron factory in Eddyville, KY, in 1846. "As early as 1847, Kelly began experimenting with what he called an air-boiling process in which he forced air into molten iron. By 1851, he apparently was beginning to produce steel in this cost saving manner."

Apparently, there is some evidence that those working with Bessemer in England had learned about what Kelly was doing in Kentucky and tried to imitate the process. Many people were attempting to improve the production of steel since the demand for industrial products was growing rapidly. Kelly, however, did not obtain a United States patent for his process until 1857. Unfortunately, he went into bankruptcy in that year and had to sell the rights to his patent for a small sum. Steel making firms wishing to use the Bessemer paid for the use of the patent but 95 percent of the funds went to Henry Bessemer and only 5 percent to William Kelly. It is no wonder that the Bessemer process came to dominate steel making since it produced steel for about 15 percent of the cost of the previous blooming method. [Detroit1701]

Even after the Bessemer Process was developed, steel rails were more expensive than iron rails, but they lasted 10 times longer than iron rails so railroads wanted the steel rails. An iron mill in Detroit installed the first commercial scale pneumatic process converter in America in 1864. The steel ingots from that plant were rolled into the first steel rails in America in a Chicago plant in 1965.

Bessemer also invented the converter vessel that was in a vertical position for the blow, but then could be turned to pour the contents into a ladle.

save_image for The Bessemer Process: What It Is and How It Changed History
Dennis DeBruler: I'm one of those people who do not accept Bessemer as the inventor of the "pneumatic process." William Kelly had been "boiling iron" in the US years before Bessemer turned his attention to improving iron for cannons. http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/steel.htm

 

Memoirs of History posted

The 19th century witnessed the birth of the industrial age, and at its molten core was the Bessemer process. Invented by English engineer Sir Henry Bessemer in 1856, this revolutionary technique transformed the way we produced steel. By blowing air through molten iron to remove impurities, the process made steel production faster, cheaper, and more efficient. This breakthrough had far-reaching consequences, shaping everything from the construction of skyscrapers and bridges to the mass production of automobiles and railways.

The Bessemer process quite literally built the foundations of modern civilization, providing the strong and versatile steel necessary for the infrastructure that defines our world today. 

Dennis DeBruler: Actually, it was invented by William Kelly in America in 1847. The American steel industry credited Bessemer so that they could avoid paying patent royalties to Kelly. For example, http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/steel.htm

Leon Haniel posted

The end of the Chertal steel mill (BE)

Liege Belgium

Converter 1 is standing in the middle of the industrial wasteland just like an unknown sculpture.

A short video:



A longer video:


I could not find a date for this film. This plant is obsolete, not only because it is using the Bessemer process, but because the steel is being poured into molds. The Bessemer process was replaced by the Open-Hearth method. Now plants use a Basic Oxygen Converter and continuous casting.

While looking for a photo, I found 77 other ones. The one I was after was in 44 more photos.

I didn't read this article because it didn't mention the Kelly name for the process.