1. Origins of industrial steel production

By the middle of the 19th century, in 1851, the world's iron production was 60,000 t/year: this was indeed iron, obtained in a pasty state, as the high temperatures needed to melt steel were not yet known.

The second half of the 19th century was to prove decisive for the steel industry, with four major inventions spread over several decades of immense significance for the development of this industry and, by extension, the global economy (see Box 1).