March 13, 1913] 



NATURE 



45 



1 



RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENTIFIC 

 STEEL METALLURGY. 1 



~"0 render clear the exact nature of certain modern 

 scientific advances in steel metallurgy it is neces- 

 sary briefly to consider what is known of the past 

 history of steel, more particularly with reference 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 eyeballs hissed the plunging stake." 



As has been truly remarked by Roscoe and Schor- 

 lemmer, the above description can be applied only to 

 steel — that is to say, to iron containing a very con- 

 siderable percentage of carbon. 



So far as definite records are concerned, the story 

 of early British steel metallurgy is wrapped in pro- 

 found obscurity, and its history can be only indirectly 

 surmised from collateral historical evidence. About 

 A.D. 60 a great British army under the command of 

 Queen Boadicea stormed the Roman camp at Col- 

 chester and annihilated the Ninth Legion. She then 

 marched on St. Albans and London, and in both 

 places put the garrisons and the Roman colonists to 

 the sword, the stake, or the cross. Tacitus, the 

 Roman historian, records that the losses of the 

 Romans and their allies in these battles reached the 

 startling total, of 70,000 people. In the subsequent 

 campaign, which ended in the defeat and death of 

 the heroic British Queen, the same historian states 

 that the British lost 80,000 persons. 



It is evident, therefore, that Boadicea must have 

 commanded at least 100,000 British troops, or she 

 could never have undertaken such extensive and 

 formidable military operations. It is also clear that 

 these troops were armed with swords and spears, to 

 say nothing of the scythes attached to the axles of 

 their war chariots. There is no reason to suppose 

 that these weapons were not of native manufacture. 

 They would partly be made of bronze and partly of 

 steely-iron, since the country had been for a century 

 occupied by Roman soldiers and artisans. It is there- 

 fore almost certain that in the first century the manu- 

 facture of steely-iron weapons and implements would 

 be on a fairly large scale, and would doubtless mainly 

 be concentrated in iron ore and charcoal-producing 

 districts, such as Sussex and the Forest of Dean. 



In connection with Sheffield — now the greatest 

 British steel centre — the earliest written record refers 

 to the twelfth century, and states that in 1160 the 

 monks of Kirkstead Abbey had somewhat extensive 

 works at Kimberworth, near Sheffield, manufacturing 

 wrought-, and, no doubt, steely-irons. In 1386 

 Chaucer, in "The Reve's Tale," in describing a miller 

 of the time of Edward III., wrote, "A Shefeld 

 thywtel bare he in his hose." Since 1386 Sheffield 

 steel in the form of table knives has been in almost 

 everybody's mouth. In 1590 Peter Bales, "The Writ- 

 ing Schoolmaster," recommends Sheffield razors and 

 penknives for the cutting of quill pens. It is obvious 

 that for this purpose fine steel carrying a perfect 

 cutting edge is necessary, and was being made at 

 Sheffield prior to 1590. Hunter states that in 1615 

 Sheffield workmen could make armour only fit for 

 the common man-at-arms. The armour for knights 

 was imported from Spain and Italv. Scott, in " Ivan- 



n on Friday, January 



no. 2263, VOL - 9 1 ] 



hoe," embodies this fact in his description of the 

 siege of " Torquilstone " : — 



"Thrice did Locksley bend his shaft against De 

 Bracy, and thrice did his arrow bound back from the 

 Knight's armour of proof. ' Curse on thy Spanish 

 steel coat,' said Locksley. ' Had English smith forged 

 it, these arrows had gone through an as if it had been 

 silk or sendal.' " 



The opening scene in " Ivanhoe " was near Wood- 

 house (five miles east of Sheffield), where, until quite 

 recently, wrought-iron was manufactured at the 

 Rotherwood Iron Works. 



In 1760 Horace Walpole, writing to George Mon- 

 tague, remarks : "I passed through Sheffield, which 

 is one of the foulest towns in England in the most 

 charming situation. There are two-and-twenty 

 thousand inhabitants making knives and scissors. 

 They remit eleven thousand pounds a week to Lon- 

 don. One man there has discovered the art of plating 

 copper with silver. I bought a pair of candlesticks 

 for two guineas, that are quite pretty." 



Antiquarians express the opinion that the remark- 

 able concentration of the cutting-steel industry round 

 Sheffield was due to the juxtaposition of coal and 

 iron ore in the district. This reason, however, is 

 quite unconvincing to metallurgists; first, because 

 charcoal and not coal was used, and, secondly, be- 

 cause the local ore produces an iron high in phos- 

 phorus, from which it is practically impossible to 

 make cutting implements of fine steel. There is little 

 doubt that the main factor which originally deter- 

 mined the location of the chief British steel industry 

 at Sheffield was the unique situation of the town in 

 a hollow near the confluence of four rivulets into the 

 Don. Along these streams, running down the valleys 

 of the Sheaf, the Porter, the Rivelin, and the Locks- 

 ley, the old Sheffield steel-workers could, by the 

 construction of numerous dams, get water-power for 

 their forging hammers and grinding wheels at a small 

 cost, and waterwheels worked by some of these dams 

 are still in operation along these valleys, that of 

 the Don itself actuating tilt-hammers and grind- 

 stones. 2 The latter are made from the carboniferous 

 sandstones of the district. There is proof positive 

 that the basis metal, consisting of nearly pure iron, 

 from which the best Sheffield cutting steels are still 

 made, was being imported into the town in the six- 

 teenth century from abroad. 



Among entries in the accounts of the Sheffield 

 Church burgesses for the year 1557 is the following : — 



" Paid to Robert More for one stone and quarter 

 of Danske Vron XXI Id. Paid to ye same Robt. for 

 X lib of Spanysche Yron XV." 



In modern monev the cost of this raw material 

 works out to at least 6oi*. per ton, or 3!. per cwt.» 

 The Danish (Danske) iron was probably Swedish, just 

 as at present much of the Danish butter imported 

 comes from Swedish dairies. 



In connection with the early importation of pure 

 Swedish or Spanish iron for a basis metal, it is sig- 

 nificant that in 1442 Sheffield obtained a Royal war- 

 rant to construct tow-paths to make the River Don 

 navigable. This river runs into the Humber at Goole, 

 and there is little doubt that so early as the fifteenth 

 century Sheffield steel-makers were endeavouring to 

 replace the costly packhorse transit of foreign raw 



- There is evidence in old rocuments that the name Sheffield may be a 

 corruption of " Escafeld," meaning "the field of waters." 



3 Prof. Thorold Rogers in his 0«ford lectures, 18S8-9, stated that about 

 1685, using a multiplier of 2, the value in modern money of English 

 wrought-iron was about 73/. per ton. The Sheffield record, however. 

 pro.es beyond doubt that in 1557, or more than a century and a 

 quarter earlier, the imported anil superior Spanish and Swedish irons 

 were commanding in Shefn-ld. retail, not more than 14/. per ton, which, 

 using a multiplier of 4.5, is equivalent in present money to 63/. per ton. 



