Sir Henry Bessemer created a new process for making steel and his earliest Bessemser Converters were sited at Workington and Millom Cumbria UK.

West Cumbria is blessed with coal, iron ore and limestone so iron making became well established at Workington and Millom with ships, locos and machines made from cast iron.  But brittle iron needed to be turned into high quality steel.  Fortunately Henry Bessemer’s invented a convertor the first of which were sited at Millom and Workington and tough flexible steel was then rolled at Workington’s steel works to make rails.  Even when the Bessemer convertor closed and steel production ended there were steel ingots brought from more efficient works to be rolled into steel rails and exported around the world.  The loading, firing and transport of molten steel in the Bessemer Convertor is shown with workers before health and safety improved dangerous working practices.

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Created / Uploaded by Peter Nicholson