<P> 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 there is little to back up this claim . </P> <P> The process using a basic refractory lining is known as the "basic Bessemer process" or Gilchrist--Thomas process after the English discoverers Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas . </P> <P> A system akin to the Bessemer process has existed since the 11th century in East Asia . Economic historian Robert Hartwell writes that the Chinese of the Song Dynasty innovated a "partial decarbonization" method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast . Sinologist Joseph Needham and historian of metallurgy Theodore A. Wertime have described the method as a predecessor to the Bessemer process of making steel . This process was first described by the prolific scholar and polymath government official Shen Kuo (1031--1095) in 1075, when he visited Cizhou . Hartwell states that perhaps the earliest center where this was practiced was the great iron - production district along the Henan--Hebei border during the 11th century . </P> <P> In the 15th century the finery process, another process which shares the air - blowing principle with the Bessemer process, was developed in Europe . In 1740 Benjamin Huntsman developed the crucible technique for steel manufacture, at his workshop in the district of Handsworth in Sheffield . This process had an enormous impact on the quantity and quality of steel production, but it was unrelated to the Bessemer - type process employing decarburization . </P>

Who invented the process to remove impurities by blasts of cold air blown through heated iron