1813-1898

English Inventor and Engineer

The early manufacture of steel in England is invariably discussed with one of the nineteenth-century's greatest inventors: Sir Henry Bessemer. Born on Jan. 19, 1813 in Charlton, Hertfordshire, England, Bessemer showed great promise early in his youth. According to his account of his life in An Autobiography (1905), he was interested in mechanical and chemical processes as early as his seventh year. He recalled making his first machine, a contraption that produced small, white pipeclay bricks for model making. Since his father was a type-founder, Bessemer also had early access to molten metals, which he used for a variety of experimental castings. In his autobiography he mentions walking around the English countryside with a favorite dog, picking up lumps of clay, and molding them into different shapes. Later, at home, he would make molds from the shapes and cast them into type...