<P> The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace . The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron . The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten . </P> <P> Related decarburizing with air processes had been used outside Europe for hundreds of years, but not on an industrial scale . One such process has existed since the 11th century in East Asia, where the scholar Shen Kuo of that era described its use in the Chinese iron and steel industry . In the 17th century, accounts by European travelers detailed its possible use by the Japanese . </P> <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>

Who developed a method to mass-produce steel in america