Bessemer process. History of invention and production

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Bessemer process. History of invention and production

The history of technology, technology, objects around us

Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us

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Bessemer process, Bessemerization of cast iron, production of Bessemer steel - the process of redistribution of liquid iron into cast steel by blowing compressed air through it, ordinary atmospheric or oxygen-enriched. The purge operation is carried out in a Bessemer converter.

Bessemer process
Bessemer converter

The transformation of cast iron into steel occurs due to the oxidation of impurities contained in cast iron - silicon, manganese and carbon (sometimes also iron) with oxygen from the blast air. Despite the increase (with the oxidation of impurities) of the melting point of the metal, it remains in a liquid state due to the release of heat during oxidation reactions. The term "Bessemer process" is usually assigned to the so-called acid converter process, which is carried out in an acid-lined unit (siliceous material, dinas).

The process was proposed in England by Henry Bessemer in 1856.

It is not known whether there is a gene for invention, but Henry Bessemer clearly inherited his father's ability to the full extent. Anthony Bessemer, a native of London, made several useful inventions during his five years of work at the Paris Mint, for which, at the age of 26, he was honored to be admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. His son Henry from the age of 17 was engaged in all kinds of mechanics and metallurgy, and at 23 he made his first serious invention - he came up with a needle stamp for stamps so that they could not be reused.

Thus, Henry increased the amount of the annual income of the British treasury by 100000, for which he was awarded a knighthood in 1879. Over the next few years, in his laboratory at Baxter House in London, he made more than 30 very successful inventions, among which were methods for the production of paints, oils, sugar, glass, the design of railway cars, mine ventilation systems and centrifugal pumps.

After the end of the Crimean War, Henry Bessemer took up arms, inventing a new type of spin-stabilized projectile, but the British military showed no interest in this development. But the French became interested in it, and somehow the captain of the French army, Claude Etienne Mignet, the inventor of a rifled bullet, complained to the British inventor about the insufficient strength of cast iron cannons, which did not allow the use of such heavy shells. It was a challenge, and Bessemer accepted it.

Returning to Baxter House, he set about experimenting. During one of the heats, Bessemer drew attention to an unmelted piece of cast iron and increased the air supply to the furnace. Imagine his surprise when half an hour later he found this piece in an unchanged state. Picking it up with tongs, he suddenly saw a thin crust of decarburized steel.

The next experiment was already purposeful: Bessemer began to blow air through a crucible with molten iron. At the same time, the melt almost got out of control - it turned out that when air is blown, silicon and carbon burn out, during which a huge amount of heat is released. As a result, the crucible became like an active volcano and spit flames for a long time. In the following experiments, the inventor equipped it with a tapering conical neck ... and at the same time refused to use the furnace at all, limiting himself only to the initial heating of scrap iron in the converter.

In October 1855, Henry Bessemer received a patent for his process, and in 1856 he gave a famous talk at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) "The production of malleable iron and steel without the use of fuel." Such an absurd statement of the question caused a friendly laugh in the audience. However, after the end of the report, and especially after a visual demonstration of the method, no one laughed anymore. And after a few years, during which Bessemer, who did not sit idly by, debugged all the details of his process, metallurgists gradually switched to it.

The production of forged steel - one of the cornerstones of the Industrial Revolution - became fast, massive and cheap.

Author: S.Apresov

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