It’s ironic that the attached article about the Entire History of Steel was given to me by our very own Ken Steele in Sales! Ken thought that our readers would enjoy the Entire History of Steel, and he could not have been more correct!
With raw materials that truly come from the heavens, steel, in its initial form was used as far back as 2,500 BC as an alternative to bronze. Around 1,800 BC, people along the Black Sea wanted to develop a metal stronger than bronze that could be used for weapons. By 500 BC, the Chinese built furnaces to smelt and mold iron. For 1,700 years, iron was the material used for developing swords and other weapons. Finally, in 1851, cast iron and glass was used as a construction material at the Great Exhibition of Industry and shortly after, Henry Bessemer set out to produce steel in large quantities.
In 1850, American steel made the scene though at a rate of about 1/5 that of Britain. After the Civil War, all attention was focused on the development of American steel and this brought great wealth and development to the US. Ever since then, steel has been the material used to provide strength, durability and flexibility to industry worldwide. For transportation, construction and of course, packaging, steel continues to be the world’s most dominate raw material.