Pierre-Émile Martin (; 18 August 1824,

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...

– 23 May 1915, Fourchambault) was a French industrial engineer. He applied the principle of recovery of the hot gas in an

open hearth furnace An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial Industrial furnace, furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to Steelmaking, produce steel. Because steel is difficult to ma ...

, a process invented by

Carl Wilhelm Siemens Sir Carl Wilhelm Siemens (4 April 1823 – 19 November 1883), anglicised to Charles William Siemens, was a German-British electrical engineer and businessman. autobiography Sir Carl Wilhelm Siemens FRS FRSA, anglicised to Charles William Sie ...

. In 1865, based on the Siemens process, he implemented the process which bears his name for producing steel in a hearth by remelting scrap steel with the addition of cast iron for the dilution of impurities. His work earned him the award of the

Bessemer Gold Medal The Bessemer Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) "for outstanding services to the steel industry, to the inventor or designer of any significant innovation in the process employed in the manufact ...

of the

Iron and Steel Institute The Iron and Steel Institute was a British association originally organized by the iron trade of the north of England. Its object was the discussion of practical and scientific questions connected with the manufacture of iron and steel. History The ...

in 1915 and of the French nation (knight in 1878 then

Officer of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

in 1910).

Martin steel

The metal obtained using Martin's process has been called Martin steel. This steel contain much less impurities than those produced in the Bessemer converter, and its composition much better controlled. The development of the process made it possible to use scrap steel and cast iron and to produce steel with a reputation for being of better quality than Bessemer steel. On the other hand, the process takes longer and the production costs are consequently higher. The invention was tested and implemented at the Sireuil foundry in Charente. The product was awarded a Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867.

Martin-Siemens Process

The process of refining steel in a hearth, as developed by Pierre-Émile Martin, consists of smelting a mixture of cast iron and scrap or ore, then refining it by decarburization, desulfurization and dephosphorization. This method makes it possible to produce fine and alloy steels by adding noble elements. The process employs a gas-heated reverberatory furnace with recovery of the heat from the flue gases as in the Siemens system.

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Bibliography

* * Article includes content from the equivalent article in French Wikipedia 1824 births 1915 deaths People from Bourges French engineers People of the Industrial Revolution Bessemer Gold Medal 19th-century French businesspeople {{France-engineer-stub