Bessemer process
Noun
Meaning
an industrial process for making steel using a Bessemer converter to blast air through molten iron and thus burning the excess carbon and impurities; the first successful method of making steel in quantity at low cost
Source: WordNetHypernyms
Examples
As early as 1895 in the UK it was being noted that the heyday of the Bessemer process was over and that the open hearth method predominated.
As the forests of Britain and Europe continued to be over-harvested to supply the keels of larger wooden boats, and the Bessemer process ( patented in 1855) cheapened the cost of steel, steel ships and boats began to be more common.
Basic oxygen steelmaking is essentially an improved version of the Bessemer process (decarburization by blowing oxygen as gas into the heat rather than burning the excess carbon away by adding oxygen carrying substances into the heat).
By 1865, steel rails had only just been introduced, as the Bessemer process and open hearth furnace steel making processes started to be established in the United States.
Sidney Gilchrist Thomas's invention consisted of using dolomite or sometimes limestone linings for the Bessemer converter rather than clay, and it became known as the 'basic' Bessemer rather than the 'acid' Bessemer process.
He adopted the Bessemer process to increase production.