To comprehend steel, we must first understand iron, as the two metals are essentially identical. Steel has an iron content of 98-99% or higher. The minor residue is carbon, which makes a significant impact in the characteristics of the metal. Let us now travel back in time to see how it all began. Civilizations learned thousands of years ago that adding carbon to iron might result in a metal that was considerably tougher and stronger than iron alone. This was the beginning of steel, and it has since progressed. Steel has been utilized in a wide range of applications, from agriculture to construction, and its use has grown in popularity over time.

During the Industrial Revolution in England in the late in the late 18th century, , James Watt's creation of the steam engine enabled the blasting of air into the blast furnace with a machine. This enabled the mass manufacture of iron. Although iron was the primary catalyst for this revolution, it was far from a novel material. It had been around since the Iron age, over 3000 years. . For generations, the British had turned their iron ores into iron and steel by burning the raw material with tree-derived charcoal. However, the availability of coal began to modify the equation in the 18th century. Coal was far more abundant and needed less labor than charcoal and could be used more efficiently to heat iron ore.

However, by the mid-eighteenth century, the iron industry had begun to decline. To process the iron ore, iron workers needed charcoal, but charcoal was in short supply because the wood needed to manufacture charcoal was expensive . This created an industrial concern. What was now required was a process for smelting iron in large tonnage amounts. It required a more efficient heat source than charcoal, perhaps a new fuel for processing iron ores. The creation of the coke-smelting method, which employed coal instead of charcoal to produce a more intense heat, resulted from the hunt for a new fuel source. This procedure made it possible to smelt iron in greater amounts and more efficiently, allowing the industry to grow and become more profitable.

They discovered coal as a fuel source. Over the course of a century, significant change happened when coal replaced charcoal as the smelting process's fuel. Coke was discovered to be a significantly superior substance for turning iron ore to iron and ultimately steel. It was made by heating coal in the absence of oxygen. The supplies were suddenly both inexpensive and plentiful. This transformation transformed the industry and the utilization of iron and steel. Coke was a considerably more efficient smelting fuel than charcoal because it burnt hotter and longer. Furthermore, it was considerably more cost-effective and abundant.

The transition of the iron and steel industry from charcoal to coke, however, was accompanied by various additional technical issues, such as the high concentration of sulfur in coal, which, combined with other impurities, renders iron brittle. Steel was more durable and less brittle than iron, but it was more difficult to produce. This prompted the creation of even more new inventions. The use of coke helped the iron to become hotter and more fluid when melted, allowing it to be refined and controlled more easily. This enabled the development of new processes that enabled the production of steel, which had a higher melting point and was less brittle than iron.

About 1856 , Henry Bessemer conducted a series of classic experiments to burn off the carbon in iron by experimenting with various furnace designs. When attempting to make steel, he discovered that he didn't need to heat or supply fuel to the charge of molten iron: the 4% carbon present in the cast iron would burn and produce heat by blowing air through the molten metal after it was removed from the furnace, keeping the metal hot and fluid while also reducing the carbon content. This resulted in the development of the Bessemer's process.This invention transformed steel production by enabling enormous amounts of steel to be manufactured fast and cheaply. It was also significantly more efficient than earlier techniques of steel manufacturing because it did not require the costly fuel or high temperatures that were previously required.