THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF 

 ALLOY STEEL 1 



BY JOHN A. MATHEWS, PH. D. 



Operating Manager, Halcomb Steel Company 



PARAPHRASING the remark that has been made about books 

 we may well say, of making many alloys there is no end 

 and much study of them is a weariness to the flesh and 

 small profit to the maker. It is hardly necessary at this 

 late day that an article upon this subject should consist of 

 long tables of remarkable physical tests elastic limits 

 above 100 tons, coupled with the elongation of molasses 

 taffy or illustrated with photographs of steel tied into bow- 

 knots and large forgings distorted in shapes that would 

 make the ''human snake" turn green with envy. Too 

 often in the past such data have raised bright hopes in the 

 mind of a steel consuming public, and too often results in 

 practice have fallen short of published data. 



A few generalizations in connection with these recent 

 fascinating developments in the steel industry may serve 

 a more useful purpose and help the user to obtain in prac- 

 tice results equal to those claimed by the maker. Let us 

 then begin with the definition that "steel is a malleable 

 alloy of iron and carbon which has been produced by cast- 

 ing from a fluid mass." Since by this definition all steel 

 is an alloy, what is meant by "alloy" or "special" steels? 

 AYhile these terms are in general well understood, they are 

 difficult to define, though they may be described. 



Two elements, iron and carbon, are all that are necessary 

 to produce steel. Four other elements are always present 

 silicon and manganese, which are useful and essential, 

 and sulphur and phosphorus, impurities whose effects even 



Abstracted from a paper published in Iron Age, 1908. 

 5 65 



