11113] Recent Advances in Scientific Steel Metallurgy GOl 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETINCx, 



Friday, January 24, 1913. 



His Grace The Duke of Northumberland, K.G. P.O. D.C.L. 

 F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



Professor John Oliver Arnold, D.Met. F.R.S. 



Recent Advances in Scientific Steel Metallurgy. 



In having to address this distinguished audience to-night, I find 

 myself in a somewhat disconcerting position. Last Friday you 

 listened to a discourse from one of the world's greatest exponents 

 of pure science. As an exponent of applied science, I realize my 

 limitations, and warned by the fate of Icarus, I shall not attempt to 

 emulate Sir J. J. Thomson in his classical, or shall I say Ionic, flights 

 into ethereal regions. Nevertheless, I have to get somewhere, and 

 will do my best. Perhaps with some accuracy I may obliquely de- 

 scribe my position by a reference to the student of physics who was 

 asked to define scientifically the terms transparent, translucent, and 

 opaque. He replied that if he attempted a very scientific answer he 

 was afraid he might not satisfy the examiners. He could, however, 

 convince them that he understood the meaning of the terms by a 

 practical example. " For instance," he said, " the windows of this 

 examination room were once transparent, they are at present trans- 

 lucent, but if not speedily cleaned, they will soon be opaque." 



To render clear the exact nature of certain modern scientific 

 advances in steel metallurgy, it is necessary briefly to consider what 

 is known of the past history of steel, more particularly with refer- 

 ence to cutting implements, whether for the purposes of peace or war. 

 That steel (or to be more accurate probably steely-wrought iron) was 

 known to the ancients, say 3000 years ago, seems to be proved 

 by a passage translated by Pope from the ninth book of Homer's 

 " Odyssey " :— 



" And as when armourers temper in the ford 

 The keen-edged pole-axe, or the shining sword, 

 The red-hot metal hisses in the lake, 

 So in his ej'eballs hissed the plunging stake." 



As has been truly remarked by Roscoe and Schorlemmer, the 

 above description can be applied only to steel, that is to say, to 

 iron containing a very considerable percentage of carbon. 



So far as definite records are concerned, the story of early 

 British steel metalkirgy is wrapped in profound obscurity, and its 



