BESSEMER

city, Jefferson county, north-central Alabama, U.S. Named for Sir Henry Bessemer, it was founded on the site of Fort Jonesboro in 1887 by Henry F. DeBardeleben, a local coal baron who built the first steel plant in the area. Bessemer's Bell furnace produced the first basic iron in Alabama. In 1922 an explosion at the nearby dolomite mine killed 100 persons. The city was planned as a steel centre, and its manufactures included railroad cars, pipe, structural materials, chemicals, and explosives. Service industries now dominate the city's economy. Inc. 1887. Pop. (1990) 33,581; (1994 est.) 31,822.