This is a section of a gun muzzle bent cold under a steam hammer - an example of the ductility of Bessemer steel. Steel was the most versatile form of iron but was expensive and only available in small quantities until 1856, when Henry Bessemer invented the converter. This speeded up the process of turning large amounts of iron into steel by removing carbon. Within decades steel production had soared as mechanical and civil engineers used the material to build longer bridges, bigger ships, taller buildings, stronger machinery and rails to take heavier and faster trains.

Inv. 1869-41