英国人亨利·贝塞默爵士在19世纪发明了第一种廉价批量生产钢铁的工艺。这是对现代摩天大楼发展的重要贡献。

第一个钢铁制造系统

美国人威廉·凯利（William Kelly）最初拥有“空气吹除生铁中碳的系统”的专利，这是一种称为气动法的钢铁生产方法。空气被吹入熔化的生铁中，以氧化和去除不需要的杂质。

这是贝塞默的出发点。当凯利破产时，贝塞默（Bessemer）买下了他的专利。贝塞默一直在从事类似的炼钢工艺。Bessemer于1855年申请了“利用气流的脱碳工艺”专利。

现代钢铁

现代钢是用基于贝塞默工艺的技术制造的。关于第一个钢锭的制造，Bessemer说：

"I well remember how anxiously I awaited the blowing of the first 7-cwt. charge of pig iron. I had engaged an ironfounder's furnace attendant to manage the cupola and the melting of the charge. When his metal was nearly all melted, he came to me and said hurriedly, "Where be going to put the metal, maister?" I said, "I want you to run it by a gutter into that little furnace," pointing to the converter, "from which you have just raked out all the fuel, and then I shall blow cold air through it to make it hot." The man looked at me in a way in which surprise and pity for my ignorance seemed curiously blended, and he said, "It will soon be all of a lump." Notwithstanding this prediction, the metal was run in, and I awaited with much impatience the result. The first element attacked by the atmospheric oxygen is the silicon, generally present in pig iron to the extent of 1 1/2 to 2 percent; it is the white metallic substance of which flint is the acid silicate. Its combustion furnishes a great deal of heat, but it is very undemonstrative, a few sparks and hot gases only indicating the fact that something is going quietly on. But after an interval of 10 or 12 minutes, when the carbon contained in grey pig iron to the extent of about 3 percent is seized on by the oxygen, a voluminous white flame is produced which rushes out of the openings provided for its escape from the upper chamber, and it brilliantly illuminates the whole space around. This chamber proved a perfect cure for the rush of slags and metal from the upper central opening of the first converter. I watched with some anxiety for the expected cessation of the flame as the carbon gradually burnt out. It took place almost suddenly, and thus indicated the entire decarburisation of the metal. The furnace was then tapped, when out rushed a limpid stream of incandescent malleable iron, almost too brilliant for the eye to rest upon. It was allowed to flow vertically into the parallel undivided ingot mould. Then came the question, would the ingot shrink enough, and the cold iron mould expand enough, to allow the ingot to be pushed out? An interval of eight or 10 minutes was allowed, and then, on the application of hydraulic force to the ram, the ingot rose entirely out of the mould and stood there ready for removal."

贝塞默因对科学的贡献于1879年被封为爵士。大规模生产钢材的“贝塞默工艺”是以他的名字命名的。安德鲁·卡内基（Andrew Carnegie）在19世纪末研究了贝塞默法和英国钢铁工业后，极大地推动了美国钢铁工业的发展。

罗伯特·穆谢（Robert Mushet）在1868年发明了钨钢，亨利·布雷利（Henry Breary）在1916年发明了不锈钢。