Henry Bessemer in the context of "William Kelly (inventor)"

The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities and undesired elements, primarily excess carbon contained in the pig iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. Oxidation of the excess carbon also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.Virtually all the pig iron carbon is removed by the converter and so carbon must be added at the end of the process to create steel, 0.25% carbon content is a typical value for low carbon steel which is used in construction and other low-stress applications.

The modern process is named after its inventor, the Englishman Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1856. The process was said to be independently discovered in 1851 by the American inventor William Kelly though the claim is controversial.

The Bessemer Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) "for outstanding services to the steel industry, to the inventor or designer of any significant innovation in the process employed in the manufacture of steel, or for innovation in the use of steel in the manufacturing industry or the economy generally". The recipient is expected to prepare and deliver the Bessemer Lecture.

It was established and endowed to the Iron and Steel Institute in 1874 by Sir Henry Bessemer and was first awarded to Isaac Lowthian Bell in 1874. The Iron and Steel Institute merged in 1974 into the Institute of Metals, which in 1993 became part of the Institute of Materials, which in turn became part of the IOM3 in 2002.