In 1845/6 the Dothée brothers established a tinplate factory in Longdoz in Liège Province,[1][2] then in 1862/3 the Dothée brothers merged their business with the Société anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux, Usines et Charbonnages de l'Espérance (founded 1836[3]) forming the Société des Charbonnages, Hauts Fourneaux et Laminoirs de l'Espérance.

[note 1][6] The company became the largest Belgian producer of sheet metal, reaching a peak production of 142,000 tonnes in 1948.

[5] In 1960 the company formed, in joint venture with Allegheny Ludlum, a new stainless steel producer: Allegheny-Longdoz (ALZ) in Genk, Flanders.

The museum contains the reconstruction of the earliest Belgian blast furnace, 19th century steam engines and steam driven machinery, as well as other historically important industrial inventions, including the second prototype dynamo of Zénobe Gramme (1871) and a Herman Hollerith Tabulating machine (1889),[2][5] 50°41′25″N 5°39′34″E / 50.690272°N 5.659527°E / 50.690272; 5.659527 (Chertal steelworks) Production at the Chertal site continued through Cockerill, Cockerill-Sambre, Arcelor, and ArcelorMittal ownership.

[17] Hot rolling briefly stopped in from May to April 2009 due to the economic downturn caused by the financial crisis of 2007–2010.

[17] In October 2011 ArcelorMittal announced the closure of liquid steel ("hot phase") production at its Liège division, including blast furnaces in Seraing and part of the plant at Chertal.