<P> William Walker Scranton, manager and owner of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had also investigated the process in Europe . He built a mill in 1876 using the Bessemer process for steel rails and quadrupled his production . </P> <P> Bessemer steel was primarily used in the United States for railroad rails . During the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, a major dispute arose over whether crucible steel should be used instead of the cheaper Bessemer steel . In 1877, Abram Hewitt wrote a letter urging against the use of Bessemer steel in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge . Bids had been submitted for both crucible steel and Bessemer steel; John A. Roebling's Sons submitted the lowest bid for Bessemer steel, but at Hewitt's direction, the contract was awarded to J. Lloyd Haigh Co...</P> <P> Using the Bessemer process, it took between 10 and 20 minutes to convert three to five tons of iron into steel--it used to take at least a full day of heating, stirring and reheating to achieve this . </P> <P> The blowing of air through the molten pig iron introduces oxygen into the melt which results in oxidation, removing impurities found in the pig iron, such as silicon, manganese, and carbon in the form of oxides . These oxides either escape as gas or form a solid slag . The refractory lining of the converter also plays a role in the conversion--clay linings are used when there is little phosphorus in the raw material--this is known as the acid Bessemer process . When the phosphorus content is high, dolomite, or sometimes magnesite, linings are used in the alkaline Bessemer limestone process . These are also known as Gilchrist--Thomas converters, after their inventors, Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas . In order to produce steel with desired properties, additives such as spiegeleisen (a ferromanganese alloy), can be added to the molten steel once the impurities have been removed . </P>

Who came up with a quicker way to make steel