Developed in the middle of the last century, the
open hearth or Siemens-Martins process, as it is
known, accounted for a major proportion of UK steel
production until the early 1970's. For economic and
quality reasons it has been replaced by the Electric
Arc Furnace and the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking
process. There are no open hearth furnaces in use
in Britain today but they are still in use in Russia and
Eastern Europe.