A few years ago, I was walking near the old Union Station in Pittsburgh with a colleague only slightly younger than myself, when we happened upon some large-scale relics of the steel industry displayed for public viewing. “You don’t see too many of those in public parking lots,” I offered. “Um… what is it?” was the response. I suppose I was just a little surprised that a prominent materials scientist did not recognize a Bessemer converter—arguably the principal source of wealth during the U.S. industrial revolution—but this conversation took place back when steel was in decline, and many university Materials Science and Engineering departments had dropped it from the required curriculum