<P> In the case of Mushet, he was assisted by the patent being allowed to lapse in 1859 through non-payment of fees . Mushet's procedure was not essential and Bessemer proved this in 1865 by exhibiting a series of steel samples made using his process alone, but the value of the procedure was shown by its near universal adoption in conjunction with the Bessemer process . Whether or not Mushet's patents could have been sustained is not known, but in 1866 Robert Mushet's 16 - year - old daughter travelled to London to confront Henry Bessemer at his offices, arguing that Bessemer's success was based on the results of her father's work . Bessemer decided to pay Mushet an annual pension of £ 300 (equivalent to £ 26,000 in 2016), a very considerable sum, which he paid for 25 years . </P> <P> In 1866, Bessemer also provided finance for Zerah Colburn, the American locomotive engineer and journalist, to start a new weekly engineering newspaper called Engineering based in Bedford Street, London . It was not until many years later that the name of Colburn's benefactor was revealed . Before Engineering was launched, Colburn, through the pages of The Engineer, had given support to Bessemer's work on steel and steelmaking . </P> <P> The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £ 40 per long ton to £ 6--7 per long ton, along with greatly increasing the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material . The process also decreased the labor requirements for steel - making . Before it was introduced, steel was far too expensive to make bridges or the framework for buildings and thus wrought iron had been used throughout the Industrial Revolution . After the introduction of the Bessemer process, steel and wrought iron became similarly priced, and some users, primarily railroads, turned to steel . Quality problems, such as brittleness caused by nitrogen in the blowing air, prevented Bessemer steel from being used for many structural applications . Open - hearth steel was suitable for structural applications . </P> <P> Steel greatly improved the productivity of railroads . Steel rails lasted ten times longer than iron rails . Steel rails, which became heavier as prices fell, could carry heavier locomotives, which could pull longer trains . Steel rail cars were longer and were able to increase the freight to car weight from 1: 1 to 2: 1 . </P>

Who invented a process for making steel that greatly influenced the industrial age
find me the text answering this question