Honours and Legacy
Bessemer was knighted for his contribution to science on 26 June 1879, and in the same year was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He was conferred with Honorary Membership of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1891. In 1895, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Sheffield's Kelham Island Industrial Heritage Museum, maintains an early example of a Bessemer Converter for public viewing. He has also had a Street named after him in the town Hitchin (Bessemer Close) bordering the village of Ickleford in 1995, and has a road named Bessemer Way in Rotherham in his honour. In 2009, the public house "The Fountain" in Sheffield City Centre was renamed "The Bessemer", in homage to Henry Bessemer who had a huge impact on the Steel City's development. That a man who did so much for industrial development did not receive higher recognition from his own government was a source of deep regret to English engineers, who alluded to the fact that in the United States, where the Bessemer process found much use, eight cities or towns bore his name.
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