Editing Bessemer process (section)

===Industrial revolution===
[[Alexander Lyman Holley]] contributed significantly to the success of Bessemer steel in the United States. His ''[[A Treatise on Ordnance and Armor]]''<ref name=Holley>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DBY5opvFChQC |archive-url= https://archive.org/details/treatiseonordnan00hollrich |last1= Holley |first1= Alexander Lyman |title= A Treatise on Ordnance and Armor |date= 1865 |publisher= [[Routledge|Trübner & company]] |archive-date= 27 June 2007}}</ref> is an important work on contemporary weapons manufacturing and steel-making practices. In 1862, he visited Bessemer's Sheffield works, and became interested in licensing the process for use in the US. Upon returning to the US, Holley met with two iron producers from [[Troy, New York]], [[John F. Winslow]] and [[John Augustus Griswold]], who asked him to return to the United Kingdom and negotiate with the [[Bank of England]] on their behalf. Holley secured a license for Griswold and Winslow to use Bessemer's patented processes and returned to the United States in late 1863.<ref>{{Cite ANB |title=Holley, Alexander Lyman |year=1999 |first=Stephen H. |last=Cutliffe |id=1300778}}</ref>

The trio began setting up a mill in [[Troy, New York]] in 1865. The factory contained a number of Holley's innovations that greatly improved productivity over Bessemer's factory in Sheffield, and the owners gave a successful public exhibition in 1867. The Troy factory attracted the attention of the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]], which wanted to use the new process to manufacture steel rail. It funded Holley's second mill as part of its Pennsylvania Steel subsidiary. Between 1866 and 1877, the partners were able to license a total of 11 Bessemer steel mills.

One of the investors they attracted was [[Andrew Carnegie]], who saw great promise in the new steel technology after a visit to Bessemer in 1872, and saw it as a useful adjunct to his existing businesses, the [[Keystone Bridge Company]] and the Union Iron Works. Holley built the new steel mill for Carnegie, and continued to improve and refine the process. The new mill, known as the [[Edgar Thomson Steel Works]], opened in 1875, and started the growth of the United States as a major world steel producer.<ref>Thomas J. Misa, ''A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925'' (1995): [http://www.tc.umn.edu/~tmisa//NOS/1.3_develop.html chapter on Holley and Bessemer process online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115060526/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~tmisa/NOS/1.3_develop.html |date=15 January 2010 }}</ref> Using the Bessemer process, [[Carnegie Steel]] was able to reduce the costs of steel [[railroad]] rails from $100 per ton to $50 per ton between 1873 and 1875. The price of steel continued to fall until Carnegie was selling rails for $18 per ton by the 1890s. Prior to the opening of Carnegie's Thomson Works, steel output in the United States totaled around 157,000 tons per year. By 1910, American companies were producing 26 million tons of steel annually.<ref name="Harcourt Brace Jovanovich">{{Cite book |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=978-0-15-518800-6 |last1=Heilbroner |first1=Robert L. |last2=Singer |first2=Aaron |title=The economic transformation of America |date=1977 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/economictransfor0000heil }}</ref>

[[William Walker Scranton]], manager and owner of the [[Lackawanna Steel Company|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.<ref name="kashuba.ww">[http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/william-walker-led-industry-in-the-city-1.885217 Cheryl A. Kashuba, "William Walker led industry in the city"], ''The Times-Tribune,'' 11 July 2010, accessed 23 May 2016</ref>

Bessemer steel was used in the United States primarily 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Brooklyn Bridge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43118341/ |newspaper=New York Daily Herald |date=14 January 1877 |page=14 |via=newspapers.com {{free access}} |access-date=26 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-1831-3 |last=McCullough |first=David |title=The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge |date=31 May 2007}}</ref> Bids had been submitted for both [[crucible steel]] and Bessemer steel; [[John A. Roebling's Sons]] submitted the lowest bid for Bessemer steel,<ref>{{cite news |title=Monthly Meeting of the Trustees |url=https://bklyn.newspapers.com/clip/19592569/brooklyn_daily_eagle_the_bridge/ |newspaper= Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=12 January 1877 |page=2 |via=Brooklyn Public Library; newspapers.com {{free access}} |access-date=26 April 2018}}</ref> but at Hewitt's direction, the contract was awarded to [[J. Lloyd Haigh Co.]]<ref>{{cite book | last=Reier | first=Sharon | title=Bridges of New York | publisher=Dover Publications | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-486-13705-6 | oclc=868273040 | page=20}}</ref>