Bessemer Converter at Hönnetal Cycle Path

The "Bessemer pear" is four meters high and weighs 18 tons. It is impressive not only because of its sheer size, but also because of its enormous importance for Menden's industrial history. It is one of three Bessemer pears that converted pig iron into steel in the Rödinghausen iron foundry from 1915 to the 1960s.

Barely there and already smeared

In 1890, the Rödinghausen iron foundry was founded in Lendringsen. Initially, gray cast iron was melted in two cupola furnaces to produce cast iron. Since 1915, three Bessemer pears have been turning pig iron into steel in a newly built foundry hall. In the process developed by Heinrich Bessemerweg in 1856, air is blown into the molten pig iron mass from below. With these Bessemer pears, three tons of steel could be produced in 20 minutes - previously it took 24 hours.In 1986, the Rödinghausen ironworks was still one of the ten largest foundries in Germany, but ten years later the operation was shut down.