76 MODERN SCIENCE OF METALS 



has already produced a series of extremely valuable 

 light alloys of surprising strength. Certain of 

 these possess mechanical properties in regard to 

 strength and ductility equal to those of good mild 

 steel combined with a specific gravity of less than 

 three-eighths that of steel, so that weight for 

 weight they are two and one-third times as strong. 

 With the ever-increasing importance of air-craft, 

 and the demand for materials which combine 

 lightness with strength which is thus created, this 

 achievement of modern metallurgy stands out as of 

 first-rate importance. There can be no question 

 that it is a definite fruit of the study of alloys 

 carried out as a scientific study for its own sake. 

 The examples chosen from the wide field of 

 modern metallurgy briefly outlined above will, 

 it is hoped, be enough to show that in this field 

 the advancement of science in fact the very 

 growth of a new science has resulted in industrial 

 developments of the highest possible importance, 

 affecting and in some cases revolutionising what 

 is probably the largest of all the world's industries. 

 It has already been emphasised that to a large 

 extent this new science has grown up as the result 

 of research work carried out with purely scientific 

 purposes. Not only this, but for a long time the 

 exponents of metallurgical practice not merely 

 neglected the young science, but went out of their 

 way to scoff at and to deride it. The remark 

 was sometimes made: "What can the microscopic 

 study of a minute area, no larger than a pin-point, 



