Continuing our quest to celebrate inventors and inventions hailing from Yorkshire during HLK’s 175 years in existence, we look at three important figures of the steel industry and the impact their discoveries have had.
Henry Bessemer (1813 – 1898)
Although not a Yorkshireman by birth, much of Henry Bessemer’s work and interests were in Sheffield and he is credited with being largely responsible for putting the city on the map as the centre of the steel industry.
Bessemer was a prolific inventor, registering over 130 patents, but is best known for developing the Bessemer process which was a revolutionary method for mass producing steel by blowing air through molten pig iron to remove impurities. It produced high quality steel more quickly and more cheaply than previous methods and transformed industries such as railways, shipbuilding, and construction as it made steel more affordable and readily available.
Sir John Brown (1816 – 1896)
Sir John Brown was born in Sheffield and became an important and influential figure within the iron and steel industry.
At the age of 28, Brown formed John Brown and Company which from the start was very successful; one of Brown’s inventions was a conical steel spring buffer for railway carriages. By 1859 the company had expanded hugely, upscaling to a 30 acre site and producing rails for the rapidly expanding rail network. However, Brown’s most important and arguably, his greatest achievement was the armour plating for ships in the British Navy. Brown recognised that it would be possible to use rolled steel which could be made up to a foot thick, as armour plating.
Brown also helped to further develop the Bessemer process, thus significantly expanding the scope of the Sheffield steel industry.
Harry Brearley (1871 – 1948)
Harry Brearley, born in Sheffield in 1871 was a metallurgist. In 1908 he was recruited as lead researcher at Brown Firth Laboratories. Shortly after his appointment he was commissioned by a small arms manufacturer to find a way to extend the life of gun barrels which eroded away too quickly.
Brearley researched ways to create an erosion resistant steel and began experimenting with alloys containing chromium. He made several variations of his alloys, ranging from 6% to 15% chromium with differing levels of carbon and on 13 August 1913 he created a steel with 12.8% chromium and 0.24% carbon, which is arguably the first example of stainless steel. The discovery of this process which has led to so many applications in all aspects of life was in fact accidental – the product he had created was corrosion free rather than erosion free. As it did not rust, what we now call stainless steel was first called “rustless steel” by Brearley.
In 1920, Brearley was awarded the Iron and Steel Institute’s Bessemer Gold Medal.
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