432 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G. 
it is evident that Faraday’s work constituted an important and valuable research, 
specially considering the state of metallurgical knowledge and practice at the time. 
In fact, it was not only his first research but also the first systematic research in the 
field of steel alloys on a comprehensive scale. 
Faraday made and examined alloys of steel with at least sixteen different elements 
as well as four special compounds, and though the specimens examined by the author 
represent only a portion of the total number made by Faraday, it is clear that these 
prove his work by no means ended in failure, as has been stated by some who were 
not metallurgists and were only able to inspect the specimens, if, indeed, they saw 
them at all. Some of the most interesting alloys made by Faraday, including those 
containing very high percentages of platinum and rhodium, were not to be found in 
the small deal box, labelled ‘ Steel and Alloys’ in his own handwriting, which lay in 
the storeroom of the Royal Institution for more than a century. Arecent most careful 
search there failed to reveal any trace of these high platinum and rhodium alloys 
which Faraday described. Neither have the most painstaking enquiries in Sheffield 
and London brought to light any of the comparatively heavy ingots of Faraday’s 
alloys, weighing 10 to 20 lbs. each, which were made to his instructions by the firm 
of Sandersons, in Sheffield. 
All that has survived is the deal box, containing seventy-nine specimens, of which 
only thirteen weighed 100 grams (34 ozs.) or over, the heaviest 140-10 grams (5 ozs.) 
and the other sixty-six averaged only 31 grams (1-1 ozs.) each. The total weight of 
the seventy-nine specimens was 7 lbs. 14 0zs. Information given in Stodart and 
Faraday’s papers of 1820 and 1822 provided some useful clues of a general nature, 
but there was nothing to indicate the actual composition of the individual specimens. 
Nevertheless, with so small a total weight of material, with so many alloys of different 
and quite unknown composition, and with the further handicap of having to work 
with a small portion of each specimen, so that none of these valuable relics might be 
completely destroyed, the author has succeeded in determining the composition, 
nature and properties of the greater portion of them, and from them he has discovered 
much information useful to-day. J, 
In the paper the author not only describes his own research on Faraday’s specimens 
and presents the results obtained, but he also relates the circumstances which led up 
to Faraday’s research, and describes the methods employed by that great experimental 
philosopher in this, the first of his important researches. To understand the situation, 
the historical part of the paper is in its way as necessary as the account of the modern 
restarch on the specimens themselves, for it represents the results of a careful study 
of a large number of contemporary writings and other sources of information, and it 
enables the conditions of Faraday’s time to be appreciated. It is only by these means 
that a true judgment can be formed of the value of his work and the genius which 
inspired it. 
The author explains the important influence of wootz or Indian steel in the early 
years of last century, and makes clear the relation between James Stodart, the maker 
of surgical instruments and cutlery, and Michael Faraday, who at that time regarded 
himself primarily as a chemist. The primitive state of scientific and metallurgical 
knowledge in those days is indicated, and the hand-blown ‘ blast-furnace ’ and crucibles 
in which Faraday prepared his alloys are described. With these resources Faraday 
was able to melt pure iron, and to make alloys of platinum and steel. He could, in — 
7 
fact, reach such temperatures as often caused his best crucibles to soften and break 
down. The author relates how the long series of small-scale experiments conducted 
by Faraday himself in the Royal Institution were followed by the manufacture of 
alloys on a comparatively large scale at Sheffield. Some of the alloys were used to 
make cutlery, razors, fenders and other commercial articles. Faraday continued — 
his researches for nearly a year after Stodart’s death, but then, influenced no doubt 
by the difficulties attending metallurgical operations and want of precise chemical 
knowledge in those days, the absence of any urgent demand for alloy steels in industry, 
and the pressing claims of other researches, he did not further pursue metallurgical 
work, although he was always talking about his researches, and turned to the electrical 
investigations which led ultimately to the electrical industry as we know it to-day. 
Although Faraday is, and will always, remain, most famous for his electrical and _ 
chemical researches, the facts disclosed, it is believed for the first time by the present 
research, entitle him to be regarded as a metallurgical investigator of the highest 
ability and the pioneer of alloy steels. 
ate ee eee 
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