The history of steel starts somewhat 4000 years ago at the beginning of the Iron Age. This was the time when people discovered that iron is sturdier, harder, and stronger than bronze, and started using it for weaponry and tools.

For the next few thousand years, the iron’s quality was dependent on the availability of ore and the production methods.

When the 17th century arrived, the increasing urbanization in Europe required innovation. As the centuries passed by, this issue escalated, specifically with the expansion of railroads in the 19th century. So, in 1856, Henry Bessemer discovered a method to use oxygen to reduce carbon content and improve iron’s metallic properties. Modern steel was born!

Let’s look at the whole outline and understand how it all started and where we stand now!

Wrought Iron

Iron was produced for the first time in Anatolia around 2000 BC. By 1000, BC, the iron age was in full swing, and by 500 BC it had reached Europe. Historians believed China first came in contact with iron in 400 BC.

People were using small shaft furnaces, popularly termed blooms to make iron usable in the form of wrought bars, with a carbon content between 0.07% to 0.8%.

Cast Iron

Cast iron has a higher carbon content at around 2.5% to 4.5%. This form of iron or steel was first made in the 6th century BC by the Chinese. It became available in Europe around the 14th century. England got its first taste of this old form of steel at around 1500, and the USA had its first experience with it in 1619.

Most of the British 19th-century architecture is made from cast iron.

Blister Steel

Blister steel is considered one of the earliest forms of steel. It was first produced in Germany and England in the 17th century.

It was produced through a process termed cementation, which involved adding carbon content to molten iron. Bars of wrought iron were laid and heated in stone boxes with layers of charcoal between them for about a week. The new form of metal was reheated multiple times to distribute the carbon evenly.

Bessemer Steel

The 19th century is known for the widespread construction of railroads. They required a strong and malleable metal and producing cast iron was a slow process. To beat this inefficiency, Henry Bessemer introduced oxygen to molten iron in 1856 and set the foundation of the modern steel era.

Bessemer’s process comprised blowing oxygen while heating iron in a pear-shaped receptacle, termed a converter. Oxygen passed through the metal, reacted with carbon, and reduced carbon dioxide, which resulted in a purer iron.

The further improvements to the process came in the following manner:

· Robert Muschet introduced manganese, which reduced the requirement for oxygen, whose excess presence in the metal diminished its qualities.

· In 1876 Welshman Sidney Gilchrist Thomas added limestone to the Bessemer process, which removed phosphorus, an unwanted element in the steel mix.

The Open Hearth Process

Steel production went one step ahead in the 1860s when German engineer Karl Wilhelm Siemens created the open-hearth process.

This process involves converting scrap and liquid blast-furnace iron into liquid steel through the heat of combustion of gaseous or liquid fuels.

Pierre and Émile Martin of Sireuil from France used the Siemens device for the first time in 1864 to produce steel. This process had a superior result to the Bessemer converter.

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Steelmaking

The biggest breakthrough in the scrap steel and the iron industry was the electric arc furnace (EAF), which was invented by Paul Héroult, in 1889.

It allows the passing of an electric current through the charged material, which results in exothermic oxidation and temperatures as high as 3272°F or 1800°C.

In the initial days, it was only used for specialty steel, but by World War II, it had gained immense popularity through the manufacturing of steel alloys, which allowed small EAF mills to compete with major names in the industry, such as the US Steel Corp.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel was first developed by Harry Brearley in 1913 when he was looking for ways to remove erosion in the British army’s gun barrels. He added 12.8% chromium to iron, which eliminated the issue of corrosion and rust. Further improvements in stainless steel are as under:

· The martensitic stainless steel was patented in 1919, which paved way for today’s 410 stainless steel.

· The precipitation-hardening stainless steel was developed by William J. Kroll in 1929.

· In 1930, duplex stainless steel was developed in Sweden by Avesta Ironworks.

Green Steel

Steel has a massive impact on the environment. A single ton of steel production results in 1.83 tons of CO2 emissions.

To counter this, industries are striving to switch to green steel, which is a type of steel whose manufacturing doesn’t involve the use of fossil fuels.

One such innovation is introducing green hydrogen as a clean energy source for steel manufacturing. It only releases water vapors and doesn’t leave any residue, making it completely free of CO2 emissions.

Another option is to switch to EAF steelmaking, which is centered around the concept of recycling as it involves using scrap steel. The only issue is that it’s not completely environmentally friendly, but it’s still better than conventional blast furnaces.

We hope, by now, you would have learned quite a bit about the history of steel. We believe the Bessemer steel was the turning point in the steel industry as it introduced the modern form of this metal. What do you think was the point that made steel what it is now? Let us know in the comments below!

Everything You Need to Know About the History of Steel