Editing Iron (section)

====Steel====
{{Main|Steel}}
{{See also|Steelmaking}}
Steel (with smaller carbon content than pig iron but more than wrought iron) was first produced in antiquity by using a [[bloomery]]. Blacksmiths in [[Luristan]] in western Persia were making good steel by 1000 BC.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=32}} Then improved versions, [[Wootz steel]] by India and [[Damascus steel]] were developed around 300 BC and AD 500 respectively. These methods were specialized, and so steel did not become a major commodity until the 1850s.<ref>Spoerl, Joseph S. [https://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-carnegie-steel.htm A Brief History of Iron and Steel Production] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602031459/https://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-carnegie-steel.htm |date=2 June 2010 }}. Saint Anselm College</ref>

New methods of producing it by [[carburizing]] bars of iron in the [[cementation process]] were devised in the 17th century. In the [[Industrial Revolution]], new methods of producing bar iron without charcoal were devised and these were later applied to produce steel. In the late 1850s, [[Henry Bessemer]] invented a new steelmaking process, involving blowing air through molten pig iron, to produce mild steel. This made steel much more economical, thereby leading to wrought iron no longer being produced in large quantities.<ref>{{cite book | url={{Google books|fUmTX8yKU4gC|page=PA190|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} | pages = 190–91 | title = Encyclopedia of the Elements: Technical Data – History – Processing – Applications | isbn = 978-3-527-61234-5 | last1 = Enghag | first1 = Per | date = 8 January 2008| publisher = John Wiley & Sons }}</ref>