Steel and Mass Production in the Second Industrial Revolution

The mass production of cheap steel was one of the defining features of the Second Industrial Revolution. The development of the Bessemer process and the open hearth process made possible the production of steel in quantities and at prices that would have been unimaginable a few decades earlier.

The Importance of Steel

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that is stronger, harder, and more versatile than either iron or wrought iron. The addition of small amounts of carbon to iron produces a material that can be hardened by heat treatment, that can be rolled or forged into a wide range of shapes, and that is suitable for a vast range of applications.

Before the development of the new steelmaking processes in the mid-nineteenth century, steel was a relatively scarce and expensive material, produced by the cementation process and other traditional methods. The new processes transformed steel from a specialty product into a mass-produced commodity.

The Bessemer Process

The Bessemer process, developed by Henry Bessemer and patented in 1856, was the first inexpensive industrial method for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron. The article on the Bessemer process describes the development and the limitations of this important process in more detail.

The Bessemer process had a revolutionary effect on the steel industry. The price of steel fell sharply, and the production of steel rose rapidly. In 1870, the world was producing less than 500,000 tons of steel a year; by 1900, the figure had risen to about 28 million tons, and by 1913 it was over 70 million tons.

The Open Hearth Process

The open hearth process, developed in the 1860s by Carl Wilhelm Siemens and Émile Martin, was an alternative to the Bessemer process that allowed for greater control over the composition of the steel. The open hearth process could use scrap steel as well as pig iron as a raw material, and it was particularly useful for producing high-quality steel for demanding applications.

The Geography of the Steel Industry

The steel industry of the late nineteenth century was concentrated in particular regions of the world, with the largest producers being the United States, Germany, and Britain.

In the United States, the steel industry was concentrated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding region. The American steel industry was dominated by the Carnegie Steel Company, founded by Andrew Carnegie in the 1870s and built into the largest steel producer in the world by the 1890s. The article on Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry describes his career in more detail.

In Germany, the steel industry was concentrated in the Ruhr Valley, in western Germany. The German steel industry was dominated by firms like Krupp and Thyssen, which were closely tied to the German state and played an important role in the industrialization of Germany.

The Great Steel Companies

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the rise of the great steel companies, which came to dominate the industry. The most important of these were the Carnegie Steel Company, Krupp, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and the various Japanese steel companies.

These great steel companies were among the first modern industrial corporations, with their complex structures of ownership, management, and finance. They also developed new methods of management, new ways of organizing production, and new relationships with their workers and with the state.

The Effects of Cheap Steel

The availability of cheap steel had a transformative effect on many other industries. Steel rails replaced the older iron rails on the major railway lines. Steel hulls replaced iron hulls in shipbuilding. Steel frames replaced iron frames in large buildings. The demand for steel was a major stimulus to the iron ore and coal industries.

In this section

Andrew Carnegie and the American Steel Industry The life and career of Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born American industrialist who built the Carnegie Steel Company into the largest steel producer in the world. The Bessemer Process The story of the Bessemer process, the invention by Henry Bessemer that transformed steel from a specialty product into a mass-produced commodity.