Iron, Steel and Swords Script - Page 1 Roozeboom's First Iron - Carbon Phase Diagram
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Steel Guys General Remarks Here are some notes about some of the (early) "Heroes" of Steel Science (and Engineering). It is a purely subjective collection and does not pretend to do justice to the history of the field or the people involved. I will not even remotely try to establish a "ranking", and that's why names appear in alphabetical order. The first part covers some heroes of iron and steel in some detail, the second part gives only "quickies", typically because not much can be easily found about these guys or because they have been covered elsewhere. William Roberts-Austen It's actually Sir William Chandler Roberts-Austen, a British metallurgist Advanced (1843–1902). While he was born just a Roberts, he later (1885) assumed the name of Roberts-Austen at the request of his uncle, Major Austen, as a condition of inheritance. A double-barreled name is a small price for getting rich, I guess. In 1870 he was appointed to the Chair of Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines (RSM) and started his researches into the structure and properties of steel. He was one (and a distinguished one) of the group or researchers at the RSM and elsewhere who developed the new study of metallography. He then became the head of the new William Roberts-Austen department of Metallurgy in South Kensington in 1880 and received * March 3, 1843, Kennington recognition from many overseas institutions. He was a man of wide † November 22, 1902, London interests, charming and understanding people, which made him very popular. Source: F.X. Kayser and J.W. He is celebrated as the guy who came up with the first iron-carbon Patterson: "Sir William Chandler Roberts-Austen His Role in the phase diagram. That is almost but not quite true, see below. Development of Binary Diagrams and Roberts-Austen is also remembered for being the first scientist who Modern Physical Metallurgy", Journal of performed a quantitative measurement of diffusion in the solid state Phase Equilibria, Vol. 19 No. 1, 1998, (Au in Pb) after A. Fick established his diffusion laws. 11. What Austen really did was to publish the first "T - x" diagrams or measured temperature (T) composition (x) diagrams. His first one, and thus probably the very first one, concerned the copper (Cu) - silver (Ag) system; it was published in 1875 (see below) His first T - x diagram for the iron - carbon system appeared in 1897 (see below) and there is a minor dispute that one Albert Sauveur or one Reinhard Mannesmann preceded him. Anyway, T - x diagrams are not true phase diagrams because they are not equilibrium diagrams (even so they may come close) for the simple reason that "equilibrium" wasn't quite invented yet. Gibbs' ground-breaking work, while published in time from 1876 to 1878, was pretty much unknown for the reasons given here. It was H.W. Bakhuis Roozeboom who, invited by Austen to do so, produced the first "real" phase diagram; see below. Austen's first iron - carbon "T - x" diagram. An improved version is shown in this link Iron, Steel and Swords script - Page 1 Roozeboom's first iron - carbon phase diagram. References: First T - x diagram (Cu - Ag): W.C. Roberts, Proc. R. Soc. (London), 481-495 (1875). First iron - carbon T - x diagram: W.C. Roberts-Austen, Report 4, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., 33-100 (1897). First Iron - carbon phase diagram: H.W.B. Roozeboom, The Metallographist, 3, 293-300(1900). Edgar C. Bain Edgar C. Bain studied chemical engineering at the Ohio State University, finishing in 1916 with a MS but continuing for a Ph.D. in 1919. About 1920, Bain became interested in the X-ray diffraction studies being carried out by A. W. Hull at the General Electric Company Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. He joined Hull to explore the possible usefulness of X-rays in solving metallographic problems and used it as a new technique in metallurgy. As his biography (American Academy of Science) so aptly puts it: "There was at this time a great deal of ignorance and confusion Edgar C. Bain regarding the nature of metallic solid solutions. The general tendency * Sept 14th 1891, Ohio was to accept the prevailing view of the chemists that all matter is † Nov. 27th, 1971, Pennsylvania built up of molecules rather than atoms. Even the view that all metals are crystalline was by no means universally accepted". As one of my Source: American Academy of teachers, Urich Dehlinger, equally aptly but more briefly put it: Science "Regrettably we also have chemistry besides physics". In his first published articles (1921) Bain presented the first experimental evidence that metallic solid solutions are essentially a simple replacement of atoms of solvent by those of solute. In his 1923 paper, "The Nature of Solid Solutions" he reported data on fourteen binary alloy systems. After a short interlude with the Atlas Steel Corporation, where he worked on tool steels, and Union Carbide, where working with Cr- steels and discovered the "g-loop, he accepted the offer to head the research laboratory of the United States Steel Corporation. There, together with E. S. Davenport, he investigated the influence of time on microstructure, leading to the "invention" of time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams (originally called "S-curves"), his everlasting contribution to science. Bain might also be called one of the first Materials Scientists because he was interested in the science, the deep stuff behind what was happening, and not only on empirical engineering of steel. In 1934 Bain's colleagues christened some new kind of microstructure "bainite" a name that has stuck until today. Iron, Steel and Swords script - Page 2 Sir Henry Bessemer Bessemer's father Anthony was a British type setter and inventor who lived in Paris and made some money there before he had to leave due to the unpleasantness around the French revolution that started in 1789. That's why Henry was born on a small estate in the village of Charlton on January 19th 1813. Henry was an inventor who no only got many patents (around 130) but actually made quite a bit of money with inventions like making "gold" powder from brass for use in paints or a method of compressing graphite powder into solid graphite, important for making pencils. Making money with patents is a really impressive achievement! Trust me! I, like most everybody I know, haven't made much money yet with my 30+ patents. One of his inventions was a new kind of rifled artillery shell that was supposed to spin around its long axis in order to stabilize its flight. That is a common thing by now. However, accelerating a projectile down the barrel and into a spin will keep the shell a bit longer in the barrel, causing the pressure to increase - and the state-of-the-art cast Sir Henry Bessemer iron cannon to explode. * 19 January 1813, England † 5 March 1898 Bessemer, not given to giving up lightly, set out to make stronger cannons and in going about this invented the Bessemer process for Source: Internet a large mass-producing steel, patented in 1856. Except he didn't. Because it is actually the Kelly - Bessemer process. William Kelly, an American subject, had started to do experiments along the same line as Bessemer already in 1847. He only applied for a patent after he heard about Bessemer in 1857. The usual patent squabbles ensued and Kelly essentially lost and was bought out. Nevertheless we credit him for his ideas. Bessemer's invention worked on a lab scale - but not in production for a number of reasons that we know quite well today but nobody knew then. The remarkable fact about Bessemer is that he didn't give up! He applied himself in admirable ways and finally succeeded. This link gives some technical details. Bessemer was knighted in 1879, became a fellow of the Royal Society, and so on and so forth. He is still a name known to many. Strangely enough for such a famous guy, the picture shown here here seems to be the only one we have. Adolf Ledebur (Karl Heinrich) Adolf Ledebur had to fight to get a good education in essentially mining-related disciplines. Not having the necessary money was the issue, and he was forced to spend quite some time in between studying with doing practical work around mining and foundries in order to raise cash. But in 1862, only 25 years old, he graduated from the "Collegium Carolinum" in Braunschweig, the prestigious predecessor of the Technical University Braunschweig. He worked his way up. For example, from 1869 to 1871 he headed a Adolf Ledebur foundry. After 13 years of practical work in high positions. In 1884 he * Jan. 11th. 1837, Blankenburg / finally became a Professor for "Hüttenkunde und Gießereiwesen" Germany (mining and casting science and engineering) at the "Königliche † June 7th. 1906, Freiberg / Bergakademie" (Royal Mining and Metals Academy) in Freiberg/ Saxonia / Germany Saxonia, still among Germany's No 1 institutions in the field. 1899 to 1901 he was the first elected president of his university Source: Freiberg (before they were instituted by royalty or so), and again from 1903 to 1905 Even the Japanese turned to him and he earned many honors (and probably some cash) because he was instrumental in establishing a big steel complex in Japan. He became quite famous, not everybody gets to be on a medal as shown here. This medal was endowed by the association of of German foundry engineer in 1934 and presented to outstanding scientists / engineers working the field. Iron, Steel and Swords script - Page 3 While Ledebur is still remembered today because "Ledeburit" is the name of the pseudo2 phase cementite / pearlite.