Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Blowing air through molten iron burned out impurities in minutes. The figure is taken from Science Museum, London, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a history fact?

Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Bessemer process made steel cheap enough to build with

Blowing air through molten iron burned out impurities in minutes Henry Bessemer patented his converter in 1856, blowing air through molten pig iron to burn off carbon and silicon. Earlier steel was costly and made in small batches, so it went into cutlery and swords rather than bridges. Cheap steel soon went into rails, ships, boilers and tall buildings. It sits in Mondo's history collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Science Museum, London

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: steel, manufacturing, invention

Bessemer process made steel cheap enough to build with: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Blowing air through molten iron burned out impurities in minutes. The figure is taken from Science Museum, London, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a history fact?: Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.