Mushet And Bessemer
That Mushet was "used" by Ebbw Vale against Bessemer is, perhaps, only
an assumption; but that he was badly treated by Ebbw Vale is subject to
no doubt. Mushet's business capacity was small but it is difficult to
believe that he could have been so foolish as to assign an interest in
his patents to Ebbw Vale without in some way insuring his right of
consultation about their disposition. He claims that even in the
drafti
Ebbw Vale, which firm, believing, "on the advice of Mr. Hindmarsh, the
most eminent patent counsel of the day,"[49] that Martien's patent
outranked Bessemer's, insisted that Mushet link his process to
Martien's. This, as late as 1861, Mushet believed to be in effective
operation.[50] His later repudiation of the process as an absurd and
impracticable patent process "possessing neither value nor utility"[51]
may more truly represent his opinion, especially as, when he wrote his
1861 comment, he still did not know of the disappearance of his
patents.
[49] The Engineer, 1861, vol. 12, p. 189.
[50] Ibid., p. 78.
[51] Mushet, op. cit. (footnote 46), p. 9.
Mushet's boast[52] that he had never been into an ironworks other than
his own in Coleford is a clue to the interpretation of his behavior in
general and also of his frequent presumptuous claims. When, for
instance, the development of the Uchatius process was publicized, he
gave his opinion[53] that the process was a useless one and had been
patented before Uchatius "understood its nature"; yet later[54] he
could claim that the process was "in fact, my own invention and I had
made and sold the steel thus produced for some years previously to the
date of Captain Uchatius' patent". Moreover, he claims to have
instructed Uchatius' agents in its operation! He may, at this later
date, have recalled his challenge (the first of many such) in which he
offered Uchatius' agent in England to pay a monetary penalty if he
could not show a superior method of producing "sound serviceable cast
steel from British coke pig-iron, on the stomic plan and without any
mixture of clay, oxide of manganese or any of these pot destroying
ingredients."[55]
[52] Ibid., p. 25.
[53] Mining Journal, 1857, vol. 27, p. 755.
[54] Mushet, op. cit. (footnote 46), p. 28. The Uchatius
process became the "You-cheat-us" process to Mushet (Mining
Journal, 1858, vol. 28, p. 34).
[55] Mining Journal, 1857, vol. 27, p. 755 (italics supplied).
It was David Mushet (or Robert, using his brother's name)[56] who
accused Bessemer, or rather his patent agent, Carpmael, of sharp
practice in connection with Martien's specification, an allegation
later supported by Martien's first patent agent, Avery.[57] The story
was that for the drafting of his final specification, Martien,
presumably with the advice of the Ebbw Vale Iron Works, consulted the
same Carpmael, as "the leading man" in the field. The latter advised
that the provisional specification restricted Martien to the
application of his method to iron flowing in a channel or gutter from
the blast furnace, and so prevented him from applying his aeration
principle in any kind of receptacle. In effect, Carpmael was acting
unprofessionally by giving Bessemer the prior claim to the use of a
receptacle. According to Mushet, Martien had in fact "actually and
publicly proved" his process in a receptacle and not in a gutter, so
that his claim to priority could be maintained on the basis of the
provisional specification.
[56] See footnote 22.
[57] Mining Journal, 1856, vol. 26, pp. 583, 631.
This, like other Mushet allegations, was ignored by Bessemer, and
probably with good reason. At any rate, Martien's American patent is in
terms similar to those of the British specification; he or his advisers
seem to have attached no significance to the distinction between a
gutter and a receptacle.
Mushet's claim to have afforded Bessemer the means of making his own
process useful is still subject to debate. Unfortunately, documentation
of the case is almost wholly one sided, since his biggest publicizer
was Mushet himself. An occasional editorial in the technical press and
a few replies to Mushet's "lucubrations" are all the material which
exists, apart from Bessemer's own story.
Mushet and at least five other men patented the use of manganese in
steel making in 1856; his own provisional specification was filed
within a month of the publication of Bessemer's British Association
address in August 1856. So it is strange that Robert Mushet did not
until more than a year later join in the controversy which followed
that address.[58] In one of his early letters he claims to have made of
"his" steel a bridge rail of 750 pounds weight; although his brother
insists that he saw the same rail in the Ebbw Vale offices in London in
the spring of 1857, when it was presented as a specimen of Uchatius
steel![59] Robert Mushet's indignant "advertisement" of January 5,
1858,[60] reiterating his parentage of this sample, also claimed a
double-headed steel rail "made by me under another of my patent
processes," and sent to Derby to be laid down there to be "subjected to
intense vertricular triturations." Mushet's description of the
preparation of this ingot[61] shows that it was derived from "Bessemer
scrap" made by Ebbw Vale in the first unsuccessful attempts of that
firm to simulate the Bessemer process. This scrap Mushet had remelted
in pots with spiegel in the proportions of 44 pounds of scrap to 3 of
melted spiegel. It was his claim that the rail was rolled direct from
the ingot, something Bessemer himself could not do at that time.
[58] October 17, 1857, writing as "Sideros" (Mining Journal,
1857, vol. 27, p. 723).
[59] Mining Journal, 1857, vol. 27, p. 871, and 1858, vol. 28,
p. 12.
[60] Ibid. (1858), p. 34.
[61] Mushet, op. cit. (footnote 46), p. 12. The phrase quoted
is typical of Mushet's style.
This was the beginning of a series of claims by Mushet as to his
essential contributions to Bessemer's invention. The silence of the
latter during this period is impressive, for according to Bessemer's
own account[62] his British Association address was premature, and
although the sale of licenses actually provided him with working funds,
the impatience of those experimenting with the process and the flood of
competing "inventions" all embarrassed him at the most critical stage
of this development of the process: "It was, however, no use for me to
argue the matter in the press. All that I could say would be mere talk
and I felt that action was necessary, and not words."[63]
[62] Bessemer, op. cit. (footnote 7), pp. 161 ff. and 256 ff.
[63] Ibid., p. 171.
Action took the form of continued experiments and, by the end of 1857,
a decision to build his own plant at Sheffield.[64] An important
collateral development resulted from the visit to London in May 1857 of
G. F. Goransson of Gefle, Sweden. Using Bessemer equipment, Goransson
began trials of the process in November 1857 and by October 1858 was
able to report: "Our firm has now entirely given up the manufacture of
bar iron, and our blast furnaces and tilt mills are now wholly employed
in making steel by the Bessemer process, which may, therefore, be now
considered an accomplished commercial fact."[65]
[64] This enterprise, started in conjunction with Galloway's of
Manchester, one of the firms licensed by Bessemer to make his
equipment, was under way by April 1858 (see Mining Journal,
1858, vol. 28, p. 259).
[65] Mining Journal, 1858, vol. 28, p. 696. Mushet commented
(p. 713) that he had done the same thing "eighteen months ago."
Goransson was later to claim considerable improvements on the method of
introducing the blast, and, in consequence, the first effective
demonstration of the Bessemer method[66]--this at a time when Bessemer
was still remelting the product of his converter in crucibles, after
granulating the steel in water. If Mushet is to be believed, this
success of Goransson's was wholly due to his ore being "totally free
from phosphorous and sulphur."[67] However, Bessemer's own progress was
substantial, for his Sheffield works were reported as being in active
operation in April 1859, and a price for his engineers' tool and
spindle steel was included in the Mining Journal "Mining Market"
weekly quotations for the first time[68] on June 4, 1859.
[66] Swank, op. cit. (footnote 42), p. 405.
[67] The Engineer, 1859, vol. 7, p. 350.
[68] Mining Journal, 1859, vol. 29, pp. 396 and 401. The price
quotation was continued until April 1865.
In May 1859 Bessemer gave a paper, his first public pronouncement since
August 1856, before the Institution of Civil Engineers.[69] The early
process, he admitted, had led to failure because the process had not
reduced the quantity of sulphur and phosphorous, but his account is
vague as to the manner in which he dealt with this problem:
Steam and pure hydrogen gas were tried, with more or less success
in the removal of sulphur, and various flues, composed chiefly of
silicates of the oxide of iron and manganese were brought in
contact with the fluid metal, during the process and the quantity
of phosphorous was thereby reduced.
[69] The Engineer, 1859, vol. 7, p. 437.
But the clear implication is that the commercial operation at Sheffield
was based on the use of the best Swedish pig iron and the hematite pig
from Workington. The use of manganese as standard practice at this time
is not referred to,[70] but the rotary converter and the use of
ganister linings are mentioned for the first time.
[70] Jeans, op. cit. (footnote 5), p. 349 refers to the
hematite ores of Lancashire and Cumberland as "the ores hitherto
almost exclusively used in the Bessemer process."
A definitive account of the Swedish development of the Bessemer
process, leading to a well-documented claim that the first
practical realization of the process was achieved in Sweden in
July 1858, was recently published (Per Carlberg, "Early
Production of Bessemer Steel at Edsken," Journal of the Iron and
Steel Institute, Great Britain, July 1958, vol. 189, p. 201).
Mushet had, with some intuition, found opportunity to reassert his
contributions to Bessemer a few days before this address, describing
his process as perhaps lacking "the extraordinary merit of Mr.
Bessemer," being "merely a vigorous offshoot proceeding from that great
discovery; but, combined with Mr. Bessemer's process, it places within
the reach of every iron manufacturer to produce cast steel at the same
cost for which he can now make his best iron."[71]
[71] The Engineer, 1859, vol. 7, p. 314. Bessemer's intention
to present his paper had been announced in April.
One of Mushet's replies to the paper itself took the form of the
announcement of his provisional patent for the use of his triple
compound which, in the opinion of The Mining Journal appeared to be
"but a very slight modification of several of Mr. Bessemer's
inventions." Another half dozen patents appeared within two months, "so
that it is apparent that Mr. Mushet's failure to make the public
appreciate his theories has not injured his inventive faculties."[72]
These patents include, besides variations on his "triple compound"
theme, his important patent on the use of tungsten for cutting tools,
later to be known as Mushet steel.[73]
[72] Mining Journal, 1859, vol. 29, p. 539 and 640. Another
Mushet patent is described as so much like Uchatius' process that
it would seem to be almost unpatentable.
[73] See Jeans, op. cit. (footnote 5), p. 532.
Mushet's formal pronouncement on Bessemer's paper, dated June 28, 1859,
is perhaps his most intelligible communication on the subject. He alone
"from the first consistently advocated the merits and pointed out the
defects of the Bessemer process," and within a few days of the British
Association address he had shown Ebbw Vale "where the defect would be
found and what would remedy" it. It was not, in fact, the presence of
one-tenth of a percent of sulphur or phosphorous which affected the
result if the Bessemer process were combined with his process by adding
a triple compound of iron, carbon, and manganese to the pig. "There
never was a bar of first-rate cast steel made by the Bessemer process
alone"; (and that included Goransson's product) "and there never can
be, but a cheap kind of steel applicable to several purposes may be
thus produced." After emphasizing the uniqueness of his attempt to make
Bessemer's process successful, he asserts:[74]
In short, I merely availed myself of a great metallurgical fact,
which has been for years before the eyes of the metallurgical
world, namely that the presence of metallic manganese in iron and
steel conferred upon both an amount of toughness either when cold
or when heated, which the presence at the same time of a notable
amount of sulphur and phosphorous could not overcome.
[74] The Engineer, 1859, vol. 8, p. 13 (italics supplied). It
is noted that Mushet's American patent (17389, of May 26, 1857)
prefers the use of iron "as free as possible from Sulphur and
Phosphorous."
The succeeding years were enlivened, one by one, by some controversy in
which Mushet invoked the shadow of his late father as support for some
pronouncement, or "edict," as some said, on the subject of making iron
and steel. In 1860, on the question of suitable metal for artillery,
later to be the subject of high controversy among the leading experts
of the day, Mushet found a ready solution in his own gun metal. This he
had developed fifteen years before. It was of a tensile strength better
even than that of Krupp of Essen who was then specializing in the
making of large blocks of cast steel for heavy forgings, and
particularly for guns. Indeed, he was able publicly to challenge Krupp
to produce a cast gun metal or cast steel to stand test against
his.[75] A year later his attack on the distinguished French
metallurgist Fremy, whom he describes as an "ass" for his interest in
the so-called cyanogen process of steel making, did little to enhance
his reputation, whatever the scientific justification for his attack.
His attitude toward the use of New Zealand (Taranaki) metalliferous
sand, which he had previously favored and then condemned in such a way
as to "injure a project he can no longer control,"[76] was another
example of a public behavior evidently resented.
[75] The Engineer, 1860, vol. 9, pp. 366, 416, and passim.
[76] The Engineer, 1861, vol. 11, pp. 189, 202, 290, 304.
By mid-1861, on the other hand, Bessemer was beginning to meet with
increasing respect from the trade. The Society of Engineers received a
dispassionate account of the achievement at the Sheffield Works from E.
Riley, whose firm (Dowlais) was among the earlier and disappointed
licensees of the process.[77] In August 1861, five years after the
ill-fated address before the British Association, the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, meeting in Sheffield, the center of the British
steel trade, heard papers from Bessemer and from John Brown, a famous
ironmaster. The latter described the making of Bessemer rails, the
product which above all was to absorb the Bessemer plants in America
after 1865. After the meeting, the engineers visited Bessemer's works;
and later it was reported,[78] "at Messrs. John Brown and Company's
works, the Bessemer process was repeated on a still larger scale and a
heavy armor plate rolled in the presence of some 250 visitors...."
[77] The Engineer, 1861, vol. 12, p. 10.
[78] Ibid., p. 63.
These proceedings invited Robert Mushet's intervention. Still under the
impression that his patent was still alive and, with Martien's, in the
"able hands" of the Ebbw Vale Iron Company, he condemned Bessemer for
his "lack of grace" to do him justice, and took the occasion to indict
the patent system which denied him and Martien the fruits of their
labors.[79]
[79] Ibid., pp. 78 and 177.
The Engineer found Mushet's position untenable on the very grounds he
was pleading--that patents should not be issued to different men at
different times for the same thing; and showed that Bessemer in his
patents of January 4, 1856, and later, had clearly anticipated Mushet.
In a subsequent article, The Engineer disposed of Martien's and
Mushet's claims with a certain finality. The Ebbw Vale Iron Works had
spent L7,000 trying to carry out the Martien process and it was
unlikely that they would have allowed Bessemer to infringe upon that
patent if they had any grounds for a case. Bessemer was not imitating
Mushet. The latter's "triple compound" required manganese pig-iron
(with a content of 2 to 5 percent of manganese) at L13 per ton while
Bessemer used an oxide of manganese (at a 50 percent concentration): at
L7 per ton.
The alloy of manganese and other materials now used in the
atmospheric process contains 50 percent of manganese a proportion
which could never be obtained from the blast furnace, owing to the
highly oxidisable nature of that metal. And it is absolutely
necessary, in order to apply any useful alloy of iron, carbon and
manganese, in the manufacture of malleable iron and very soft steel
that the manganese should be largely in excess of the carbon
present.[80]
[80] Ibid., p. 208. There is an intriguing reference in this
editorial to an interference on behalf of Martien against a
Bessemer application for a U.S. patent. No dates are given and
the case has not been located in the record of U.S. Patent
Commissioner's decision.
Sufficient answer to Mushet was at any rate available in the fact that
many hundreds of tons of excellent "Bessemer metal" made without any
mixture of manganese or spiegeleisen in any form were in successful
use. And, moreover, spiegeleisen was not a discovery of Robert Mushet
or an exclusive product of Germany since it had been made for twenty
years at least from Tow Law (Durham) ores. If Bessemer had refused
Mushet a license (and this was an admitted fact), Bessemer's refusal
must have been made in self-defense:
Mr. Mushet having set up a number of claims for "improvements" upon
which claims, we have a right to suppose, he was preparing to take
toll from Mr. Bessemer, but which claims, the latter gentleman
discovered, in time, were worthless and accordingly declined any
negotiations with the individual making them.[81]
[81] Ibid., p. 254.
Mushet's claims were by this time rarely supported in the periodicals.
One interesting article in his favor came in 1864 from a source of
special interest to the American situation. Mushet's American
patent[82] had been bought by an American group interested in the Kelly
process at about this time,[83] and Bessemer's American rights had also
been sold to an American group that included Alexander Lyman
Holley,[84] who had long been associated with Zerah Colburn, another
American engineer. Colburn, who subsequently (1866) established the
London periodical Engineering and is regarded as one of the founders
of engineering journalism, was from 1862 onward a frequent contributor
to other trade papers in London. Colburn's article of 1864[85] seems to
have been of some importance to Mushet, who, in the prospectus of the
Titanic Steel and Iron Company, Ltd., issued soon after, brazenly
asserted[86] that, "by the process of Mr. Mushet especially when in
combination with the Bessemer process, steel as good as Swedish steel"
would be produced at L6 per ton. Mushet may have intended to invite a
patent action, but evidently Bessemer could now more than ever afford
to ignore the "sage of Coleford."
[82] U.S. patent 17389, dated May 26, 1857. The patent was not
renewed when application was made in 1870, on the grounds that
the original patent had been made co-terminal with the British
patent. The latter had been abandoned "by Mushet's own fault" so
that no right existed to an American renewal (U.S. Patent Office,
Decision of Commissioner of Patents, dated September 19, 1870).
[83] See below, p. 45. The exact date of the purchase of Mushet's
patent is not known.
[84] Engineering, 1882, vol. 33, p. 114. The deal was completed
in 1863.
[85] The Engineer, 1864, vol. 18, pp. 405, 406.
[86] Mining Journal, 1864, vol. 34, pp. 77 and 94 (italics
supplied). It has not yet been possible to ascertain if this
company was successful. Mushet writes from this time on from
Cheltenham, where the company had its offices. Research continues
in this interesting aspect of his career.
The year 1865 saw Mushet less provocative and more appealing; as for
instance: "It was no fault of Mr. Bessemer's that my patent was lost,
but he ought to acknowledge his obligations to me in a manly,
straightforward manner and this would stamp him as a great man as well
as a great inventor."[87]
[87] Mining Engineer, 1865, vol. 35, p. 86.
But Bessemer evidently remained convinced of the security of his own
patent position. In an address before the British Association at
Birmingham in September 1865 he made his first public reply to
Mushet.[88] In his long series of patents Mushet had attempted to
secure--
almost every conceivable mode of introducing manganese into the
metal.... Manganese and its compounds were so claimed under all
imaginable conditions that if this series of patents could have
been sustained in law, it would have been utterly impossible for
[me] to have employed manganese with steel made by his process,
although it was considered by the trade to be impossible to make
steel from coke-made iron without it.
[88] The Engineer, 1865, vol. 20, p. 174.
The failure of those who controlled Mushet's batch of patents to renew
them at the end of three years, Bessemer ascribed to the low public
estimation to which Mushet's process had sunk in 1859, and he had
therefore, "used without scruple any of these numerous patents for
manganese without feeling an overwhelming sense of obligation to the
patentee." He was now using ferromanganese made in Glasgow. Another
alloy, consisting of 60 to 80 percent of metallic manganese was also
available to him from Germany.
This renewed publicity brought forth no immediate reply from Mushet,
but a year later he was invited to read a paper before the British
Association. A report on the meeting stated that in his paper he
repeated his oft-told story, and that "he still thought that the
accident (of the non-payment of the patent stamp duties) ought not to
debar him from receiving the reward to which he was justly entitled."
Bessemer, who was present, reiterated his constant willingness to
submit the matter to the courts of law, but pointed out that Mushet had
not accepted the challenge.[89]
[89] Mechanics' Magazine, 1866, vol. 16, p. 147.
Three months later, in December 1866, Mushet's daughter called on
Bessemer and asked his help to prevent the loss of their home: "They
tell me you use my father's inventions and are indebted to him for your
success." Bessemer replied characteristically:
I use what your father has no right to claim; and if he had the
legal position you seem to suppose, he could stop my business by an
injunction tomorrow and get many thousands of pounds compensation
for my infringement of his rights. The only result which followed
from your father taking out his patents was that they pointed out
to me some rights which I already possessed, but of which I was not
availing myself. Thus he did me some service and even for this
unintentional service, I cannot live in a state of indebtedness....
With that he gave Miss Mushet money to cover a debt for which distraint
was threatened.[90] Soon after this action, Bessemer made Mushet a
"small allowance" of L300 a year. Bessemer's reasons for making this
payment, he describes as follows: "There was a strong desire on my part
to make him (Mushet) my debtor rather than the reverse, and the payment
had other advantages: the press at that time was violently attacking my
patent and there was the chance that if any of my licensees were thus
induced to resist my claims, all the rest might follow the
example."[91]
[90] Bessemer, op. cit. (footnote 7), p. 294.
[91] Ibid.
Mushet's Titanic Steel and Iron Company was liquidated in 1871 and its
principal asset, "R. Mushet's special steel," that is, his tungsten
alloy tool metal, was taken over by the Sheffield firm of Samuel Osborn
and Company. The royalties from this, with Bessemer's pension seem to
have left Mushet in a reasonably comfortable condition until his death
in 1891;[92] but even the award of the Bessemer medal by the Iron and
Steel Institute in 1876 failed to remove the conviction that he had
been badly treated. One would like to know more about the politics
which preceded the award of the trade's highest honor. Bessemer at any
rate was persuaded to approve of the presentation and attended the
meeting. Mushet himself did not accept the invitation, "as I may
probably not be then alive."[93] The President of the Institute
emphasized the present good relations between Mushet and Bessemer and
the latter recorded that the hatchet had "long since" been buried. Yet
Mushet continued to brood over the injustice done to him and eventually
recorded his story of the rise and progress of the "Bessemer-Mushet"
process in a pamphlet[94] written apparently without reference to his
earlier statements and so committing himself to many inconsistencies.
[92] See Fred M. Osborn, The story of the Mushets, London,
1852.
[93] Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1876, p. 3.
[94] Robert Mushet, The Bessemer-Mushet process, Cheltenham,
1883.
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High-chromium, or what is called stainless steel containing from 11 to 14 per cent chromium, was originally developed for cutlery purposes, but has in the past few years been used to a considerable extent for exhaust valves in airplane engines becau... Highly Stressed Parts
The highly stressed parts on the Liberty engine consisted of the connecting-rod bolt, the main-bearing bolt, the propeller-hub key, etc. The material used for parts of this type was selected at the option of the manufacturer from standard S. A. E. s... Hints For Tool Steel Users
Do not hesitate to ask for information from the maker as to the best steel to use for a given purpose, mentioning in as much detail as possible the use for which it is intended. Do not heat the steel to a higher degree than that fixed in the desc... Impact Tests
Impact tests are of considerable importance as an indication of how a metal will perform under shock. Some engineers think that the tensile test, which is one made under slow loading, should therefore be supplemented by another showing what will hap... Instructions For Working High-speed Steel
Owing to the wide variations in the composition of high-speed steels by various makers, it is always advisable to follow the directions of each when using his brand of steel. In the absence of specific directions the following general suggestions fr... Introduction Of Carbon
The matter to which these notes are primarily directed is the introduction of carbon into the case of the article to be hardened. In the first place the chances of success are increased by selecting as few brands of steel as practicable to cover the... Judging The Heat Of Steel
While the use of a pyrometer is of course the only way to have accurate knowledge as to the heat being used in either forging or hardening steels, a color chart will be of considerable assistance if carefully studied. These have been prepared by sev... Knowing What Takes Place
How are we to know if we have given a piece of steel the very best possible treatment? The best method is by microscopic examination of polished and etched sections, but this requires a certain expense for laboratory equipment and upkeep, which m... Lathe And Planer Tools
FORGING.--Gently warm the steel to remove any chill, is particularly desirable in the winter, then heat slowly and carefully to a scaling heat, that is a lemon heat (1,800 to 2,000 deg.F.), and forge uniformly. Reheat the tool for further forging di... Lathe And Planer Tools
TO FORGE.--Gently warm the steel to remove any chill is particularly desirable in the winter. Then heat slowly and carefully to a scaling heat, that is a lemon heat (1,800 deg.-2,000 deg.F.), and forge uniformly. Reheat the tool for further forging ... Leeds And Northrup Optical Pyrometer
The principles of this very popular method of measuring temperature are sketched in Fig. 123. The instrument is light and portable, and can be sighted as easily as an opera glass. The telescope, which is held in the hand, weighs only 25 oz.;... Liberty Motor Connecting Rods
The requirements for materials for the Liberty motor connecting rods are so severe that the methods of securing the desired qualities will be of value in other lines. The original specifications called for chrome-nickel but the losses due to the dif... Machineability
Reheating for machine ability was done at 100 deg. less than the drawing temperature, but the time of soaking is more than double. After both drawing and reheating, the blanks were buried in lime where they remain, out of contact with the air, until... Making Steel Balls
Steel balls are made from rods or coils according to size, stock less than 9/16-in. comes in coils. Stock 5/8-in. and larger comes in rods. Ball stock is designated in thousandths so that 5/8-in. rods are known as 0.625-in. stock. Steel for makin... Manganese
MANGANESE is a metal much like iron. Its chemical symbol is Mn. It is somewhat more active than iron in many chemical changes--notably it has what is apparently a stronger attraction for oxygen and sulphur than has iron. Therefore the metal is used ... Manganese
Manganese adds considerably to the tensile strength of steel, but this is dependent on the carbon content. High carbon materially adds to the brittleness, whereas low-carbon, pearlitic-manganese steels are very tough and ductile and are not at all b... Molybdenum
Molybdenum steels have been made commercially for twenty-five years, but they have not been widely exploited until since the war. Very large resources of molybdenum have been developed in America, and the mining companies who are equipped to produce... Mushet And Bessemer
That Mushet was "used" by Ebbw Vale against Bessemer is, perhaps, only an assumption; but that he was badly treated by Ebbw Vale is subject to no doubt. Mushet's business capacity was small but it is difficult to believe that he could have been so f... Nickel
Nickel may be considered as the toughest among the non-rare alloys now used in steel manufacture. Originally nickel was added to give increased strength and toughness over that obtained with the ordinary rolled structural steel and little attempt wa... Nickel-chromium
A combination of the characteristics of nickel and the characteristics of chromium, as described, should obviously give a very excellent steel as the nickel particularly affects the ferrite of the steel and the chromium the carbon. From this combina... Non-shrinking Oil-hardening Steels
Certain steels have a very low rate of expansion and contraction in hardening and are very desirable for test plugs, gages, punches and dies, for milling cutters, taps, reamers, hard steel bushings and similar work. It is recommended that for for... Oil-hardening Steel
Heat slowly and uniformly to 1,450 deg.F. and forge thoroughly. Do not under any circumstances attempt to harden at the forging heat. After cooling from forging reheat to about 1,450 deg.F. and cool slowly so as to remove forging strains. ... Open Hearth Process
The open hearth furnace consists of a big brick room with a low arched roof. It is charged with pig iron and scrap through doors in the side walls. Through openings at one end of the furnace come hot air and gas, which burn in the furnace, prod... Optical System And Electrical Circuit Of The Leeds & Northrup Optical Pyrometer
For extremely high temperature, the optical pyrometer is largely used. This is a comparative method. By means of the rheostat the current through the lamp is adjusted until the brightness of the filament is just equal to the brightness of the image ... Phosphorus
PHOSPHORUS is an element (symbol P) which enters the metal from the ore. It remains in the steel when made by the so-called acid process, but it can be easily eliminated down to 0.06 per cent in the basic process. In fact the discovery of the basic ... Phosphorus
Phosphorus is one of the impurities in steel, and it has been the object of steel makers for years to eliminate it. On cheap grades of steel, not subject to any abnormal strain or stress, 0.1 per cent phosphorus is not objectionable. High phosphorus... Pickling The Forgings
The forgings were then pickled in a hot solution of either niter cake or sulphuric acid and water at a temperature of 170 deg.F., and using a solution of about 25 per cent. The solution was maintained at a constant point by taking hydrometer reading... Piston Pin
The piston pin on an aviation engine must possess maximum resistance to wear and to fatigue. For this reason, the piston pin is considered, from a metallurgical standpoint, the most important part on the engine to produce in quantities and still pos... Placing Of Pyrometers
When installing a pyrometer, care should be taken that it reaches directly to the point desired to be measured, that the cold junction is kept cold, and that the wires leading to the recording instrument are kept in good shape. The length of these ... Placing The Thermo-couples
The following illustrations from the Taylor Instrument Company show different applications of the thermo-couples to furnaces of various kinds. Figure 118 shows an oil-fired furnace with a simple vertical installation. Figure 119 shows a method of im... Plant For Forging Rifle Barrels
The forging of rifle barrels in large quantities and heat-treating them to meet the specifications demanded by some of the foreign governments led Wheelock, Lovejoy & Company to establish a complete plant for this purpose in connection with their wa... Preparing Parts For Local Case-hardening
At the works of the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, Dayton, Ohio, they have a large quantity of small shafts, Fig. 40, that are to be case-hardened at A while the ends B and C are to be left soft. Formerly, the part A was brush-coated with ... Preventing Carburizing By Copper-plating
Copper-plating has been found effective and must have a thickness of 0.0005 in. Less than this does not give a continuous coating. The plating bath used has a temperature of 170 deg.F. A voltage of 4.1 is to be maintained across the terminals. Regio... Preventing Cracks In Hardening
The blacksmith in the small shop, where equipment is usually very limited, often consisting of a forge, a small open hard-coal furnace, a barrel of water and a can of oil must have skill and experience. With this equipment the smith is expected to, ... Preventing Decarbonization Of Tool Steel
It is especially important to prevent decarbonization in such tools as taps and form cutters, which must keep their shape after hardening and which cannot be ground away on the profile. For this reason it is well to put taps, reamers and the like in... Process Of Carburizing
Carburizing imparts a shell of high-carbon content to a low-carbon steel. This produces what might be termed a dual steel, allowing for an outer shell which when hardened would withstand wear, and a soft ductile core to produce ductility and withst... Properties Of Alloy Steels
The following table shows the percentages of carbon, manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium in typical steel alloys for engineering purposes. It also gives the elastic limit, tensile strength, elongation and reduction of area of the various alloys... Properties Of Steel
Steels are known by certain tests. Early tests were more or less crude, and depended upon the ability of the workman to judge the grain exhibited by a freshly broken piece of steel. The cold-bend test was also very useful--a small bar was bent flat ... Protective Screens For Furnaces
Workmen needlessly exposed to the flames, heat and glare from furnaces where high temperatures are maintained suffer in health as well as in bodily discomfort. This shows several types of shields designed for the maximum protection of the furnace wo... Protectors For Thermo-couples
Thermo-couples must be protected from the danger of mechanical injury. For this purpose tubes of various refractory materials are made to act as protectors. These in turn are usually protected by outside metal tubes. Pure wrought iron is largely use... Pyrometers
Armor plate makers sometimes use the copper ball or Siemens' water pyrometer because they can place a number of the balls or weights on the plate in locations where it is difficult to use other pyrometers. One of these pyrometers is shown in section... Pyrometers For Molten Metal
Pyrometers for molten metal are connected to portable thermocouples as in Fig. 132. Usually the pyrometer is portable, as shown in this case, which is a Brown. Other methods of mounting for this kind of work arc shown in Figs. 133 and 134. The bent ... Pyrometry And Pyrometers
A knowledge of the fundamental principles of pyrometry, or the measurement of temperatures, is quite necessary for one engaged in the heat treatment of steel. It is only by careful measurement and control of the heating of steel that the full benefi... Quality And Structure
The quality of high-speed steel is dependent to a very great extent upon its structure. The making of the structure begins under the hammer, and the beneficial effects produced in this stage persist through the subsequent operations, provided they a... Quenching
It is considered good practice to quench alloy steels from the pot, especially if the case is of any appreciable depth. The texture of carbon steel will be weakened by the prolonged high heat of carburizing, so that if we need a tough core, we must ... Quenching The Work
In some operations case-hardened work is quenched from the box by dumping the whole contents into the quenching tank. It is common practice to leave a sieve or wire basket to catch the work, allowing the carburizing material to fall to the bottom of... Quenching Tool Steel
To secure proper hardness, the cooling of quenching of steel is as important as its heating. Quenching baths vary in nature, there being a large number of ways to cool a piece of steel in contrast to the comparatively few ways of heating it. Plai... Rate Of Absorption
According to Guillet, the absorption of carbon is favored by those special elements which exist as double carbides in steel. For example, manganese exists as manganese carbide in combination with the iron carbide. The elements that favor the absorpt... Rate Of Cooling
At the option of the manufacturer, the above treatment of gear forgings could be substituted by normalizing the forgings at a temperature of from 1,550 to 1,600 deg.F. The most important criterion for proper normalizing, consisted in allowing the fo... Refining The Grain
This is remedied by reheating the piece to a temperature slightly above the critical temperature of the case, this temperature corresponding ordinarily to that of steel having a carbon content of 85 points, When this is again quenched, the temperatu... Restoring Overheated Steel
The effect of heat treatment on overheated steel is shown graphically in Fig. 65 to the series of illustrations on pages 137 to 144. This was prepared by Thos. Firth & Sons, Ltd., Sheffield, England. The center piece Fig. 65 represents a block ... Robert Mushet
Robert (Forester) Mushet (1811-1891), born in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, of a Scots father (David, 1772-1847) himself a noted contributor to the metallurgy of iron and steel, is, like the American William Kelly, considered by many to have ... S A E Heat Treatments
The Society of Automotive Engineers have adopted certain heat treatments to suit different steels and varying conditions. These have already been referred to on pages 39 to 41 in connection with the different steels used in automobile practice. Thes...