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National Resources Planning Board 



Table 2. — Amount of research by the principal iron- and slcel- 

 making countries, 1900 to 1930 



TOTAL RESEARCH 



as is given in table 2 depends to a large degree on the 

 judgment of the individual making the comparison, 

 especially in what constitutes significant research. 



Each of the factors in the top half of table 2 is the sum 

 of the factors obtained for four main divisions of metal- 

 lurgical progress, namely: (1) Important developments 

 in the manufacture of steel and cast iron, (2) important 

 developments in the treatment of steel, including me- 

 chanical working, heat treatment, welding, coatings, 

 and other operations connected with these, (3) research 

 in the constitution and structure of carbon and alloy 

 steels and plain and alloy cast irons, and (4) research in 

 the properties of ferrous materials. 



Each of the factors in the lower half of table 2 was 

 obtained by taking into account only the published 

 papers dealing with constitution and structure, the 

 physical chemistry of steel making, theoretical treat- 

 ments of mechanical deformation, theory of heat treat- 

 ment, and other subjects which were considered to have 

 advanced the science of physical metallurgy. 



Comparison of Research 

 In the World, 1900 to 1930 



If it is assumed that the data given in table 2 repre- 

 sent with reasonable accuracy the status of world 

 research in the iron and steel industry from 1900 to 

 1930, several interesting conclusions can be drawn. 

 First, and most important: It is clear, considering the 

 size of the industry in the United States, that only about 

 half as much total research was done in this country 

 between 1900 and 1930 as in each of the other three 



countries. The proportion of fundamental research 

 was even less. Another interesting fact is that the 

 amount of fundamental research (in relation to iron and 

 steel production) in the United States and in Great 

 Britain remained fairly constant for the 30 years under 

 consideration. 



In German}- and France the amount in proportion to 

 production varied more en-atically. Fundamental re- 

 search in Germany fell off immediately after the First 

 World War but bounced up remarkably by 1923 when 

 llie inflation was at its height, despite the fact that 

 production did not increase greatly. France con- 

 tributed a great deal proportionately to metallurgical 

 knowledge in the first decade of the century. In the 

 third decade the research factors are much lower; the 

 amoimt of research did not increase as production 

 increased. Another interesting point is that, although 

 there is a tendency for the amount of research, espe- 

 cially of the fundamental sort, to decrease in depression 

 years, the research factor is also lower when there is a 

 sudden boom in the industry. Apparently this is due 

 to lack of time for the work rather than to lack of 

 money. Such a condition is shown for the United 

 States, Germany, and France in 1910 (table 2). 



Despite an annual production of steel ingots plus pig 

 iron of less than 1 million tons, Swedish metallurgists 

 publish between 10 and 20 papers a year which are 

 without question definite and valuable contributions 

 to the iron and steel industry, especially to fundamental 

 knowledge. No research factors have been calculated 

 for Sweden as the number of papers and the production 

 of ferrous materials are so small that such a factor would 

 mean very little. Considering the size of the country, 

 however, the research work of its metallurgists is of 

 considerable importance. 



The contributions of Italian research workers to the 

 advance of the iron and steel industry have been few, 

 with the exception of the work of Stassano on the 

 electric furnace and of Giolitti on heat treatment. 

 Reports of importance varied between 5 and 10 annu- 

 ally in 1900 to 1930. Italy's combined production of 

 pig iron and steel ingots ranged from 500,000 to 

 2,000,000 tons annually in the same period. 



Little work of interest was done by Japanese metal- 

 lurgists until after the First World War, when the 

 research of Honda, Murakami, Sato, and a few others, 

 most of whom were connected with the Tohoku Im- 

 perial University, attracted attention. Most of the 

 work of the Japanese metallurgists has been on the 

 constitution of carbon and alloy steels and on the 

 development of magnetic materials; nearly all their 

 reports have been printed in English or German. 



Russia contributed little to the advance of the iron 

 and steel industry prior to the revolution and practically 

 nothing between 1917 and 1925. Of the relatively 



