1-148-490 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Henry Bessemer, English engineer and inventor, 1881. Born at Charlton, near Hitchen, Hertfordshire, Bessemer (1813-1893) took out many patents but is best remembered for his invention of the Bessemer process, patented in 1855, for more cheaply producing steel from pig iron in a Bessemer converter. He established a steelworks which utilised the process at Sheffield in 1859. Bessemer was knighted in 1859 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. From Men of Mark by Thompson Cooper. (London, 1881).