<P> Steel is often cited as the first of several new areas for industrial mass - production, which are said to characterise a "Second Industrial Revolution", beginning around 1850, although a method for mass manufacture of steel was not invented until the 1860s, when Sir Henry Bessemer invented a new furnace which could convert molten pig iron into steel in large quantities . However, it only became widely available in the 1870s after the process was modified to produce more uniform quality . Bessemer steel was being displaced by the open hearth furnace near the end of the 19th century . </P> <P> This Second Industrial Revolution gradually grew to include chemicals, mainly the chemical industries, petroleum (refining and distribution), and, in the 20th century, the automotive industry, and was marked by a transition of technological leadership from Britain to the United States and Germany . </P> <P> The increasing availability of economical petroleum products also reduced the importance of coal and further widened the potential for industrialisation . </P> <P> A new revolution began with electricity and electrification in the electrical industries . The introduction of hydroelectric power generation in the Alps enabled the rapid industrialisation of coal - deprived northern Italy, beginning in the 1890s . </P>

When did the industrial revolution began in europe