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White, Wilson Process paper
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The Bessemer Steel Process and How it
Transcends the World’s Landscape
Wilson White
Junior division
Individual website
Process Paper: 466 words
Steel is ubiquitous in modern life and much cheaper than wood, making steel a very
favorable choice for house building, ship building, and the making of automobiles in mass
production. I chose the Bessemer process as a topic because when I took a STEM class last
semester, I realized just how important steel has been on all of our designs and the way that we
build. Also I saw a bridge in Los Alamos called the Omega bridge, and I wondered where the
steel came from for that bridge.
In conducting my research, I interviewed a structural engineer by email. He was
unfamiliar with the Bessemer Steel Process. But he knew how steel impacted our way that we
build our infrastructure. My most important sources were newspaper articles, documents,
pictures, and a letter. I also looked for documents Mr. H. Bessemer wrote himself as primary
sources. I found maps showing steel usage before and after the Bessemer Steel Process in
1864 specifically railroads. The newspaper articles were very important because they showed
what the society thought of the new steel, they thought of it as a resource that they could build a
very strong infrastructure on. These are my most important sources because I used them in my
website, and because it shows how barriers are broken by the Bessemer Steel Process.
Inexpensive steel broke barriers transforming our daily lives by making our living better, our
transportation better, and most of all the way we live would be much different without mass
amounts of steel. The Bessemer steel process broke many barriers by not only building
railroads but also skyscrapers that are more than nine stories tall. When Bessemer steel came
out in 1856 it was a life changing event not only in England and America but the entire world
which broke several hurdles, including buildings, trains, transportation, and railroads. The
Bessemer steel process impacted so many lives by making items such as keychains, utensils,
and anything else that you can think of leads down to steel making steel the most important item
White, Wilson Process paper
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in the world. Look around you right now there is more than likely something made out of steel.
This process also broke barriers by being able to change the way that we look at the way that
something could be made or built. We use steel a lot in most everything that we make or do and
even moving around. This is why the Bessemer Steel Process broke barriers.
I chose a website category because I had many pictures making my project very visual.
Some of my most important sources were pictures or written documents like letters, diagrams,
newspaper articles, and books. Creating a website allowed me to show how the process
changed throughout history and show the importance of the things that it affected. The
Bessemer steel process broke so many barriers that I had to narrow it down to how it changed
the landscapes because I felt like this is the one that sums it up a lot of them the best.