Primitive man learned to make iron by placing iron ore and charcoal in a clay pot and building a fire in the pot. A crude bellows provided the forced draft that started a smelting or reduction action that deposited iron at the bottom of the pot, which when removed and hammered, could be forged into a variety of shapes. This was a far cry from the process discovered in the mid-1800s that formed the basis of the giant steel industries being developed in Europe and America. The blast furnace was invented by Henry Bessemer, an English metallurgist whose process was thereafter referred to as the Bessemer process. This process involved the introduction of forced air into the pig iron refining procedure, which raised the temperature of the crucible so that any impurities in the molten pig iron were burned away, and in the process, a more malleable metal was created—steel.