Bochum, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, 11 m. by rail west from Dortmund. Pop. (1905) 118,000. It is a centre of the iron and steel industries, producing principally cast steel, cast iron, iron pipes, wire and wire ropes, and lamps, with tin and zinc works, coal-mining, factories for carpets, calcium carbide and paper-roofing, brickworks and breweries. The Bochumer Verein für Bergbau (mining) und Gusstahl Fabrication (steel manufacture) is one of the principal trusts in this industry, founded in 1854. There are a mining and a metallurgical school.