And by the way...
"The world production of steel grew exponentially (like chips today): 22 kto in 1867, 500 kto in 1870, 1 Mto in 1880 and 28 Mto around the turn of the century." (
http://www.baronesteel.com/history.html)
"The process of converting iron into steel had long been known among
the Eastern nations before it was introduced into Europe. The Hindoos
were especially skilled in the art of making steel, as indeed they
are to this day; and it is supposed that the tools with which the
Egyptians covered their obelisks and temples of porphyry and syenite
with hieroglyphics were made of Indian steel, as probably no other
metal was capable of executing such work. The art seems to have been
well known in Germany in the Middle Ages, and the process is on the
whole very faithfully described by Agricola in his great work on
Metallurgy.*
[footnote...AGRICOLA, De Re Metallica. Basle, 1621....]"
(
http://www.nimblewisdom.com/Iron_Worker ... N_HUNTSMAN)
They were mass producing steel a year before it was invented? and they were converting iron into steel for tools and weapons centuries before that?