Jump to content

Chrome Steel in the 1870s ?


miked

Recommended Posts

Looking at the life of Arthur Dyson, murdered by Charles Peace. He was the resident engineer during the construction of Eads Bridge up to 1873. There is a reference to a British metalurgist  making "Chrome Steel" and I wondered if we had any metallurgists who might comment please?

HISTORIC MACHANICAL ENGINEERING RECORD  1984http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/mo/mo0300/mo0361/data/mo0361data.pdf

The Eads Bridge Spanning the Mississippi River St. Louis St. Louis Co. Missouri

Crucible steel was specified for the 6,216 staves to be placed within the hollow steel arch tubes, but crucible steel had never been fabricated in such large pieces and the Butcher steel works could not produce it satisfactorily. After six months of testing some 6,000 staves using the testing machine designed by Eads assistant engineers, which Eads had installed at the Butcher facility in Pittsburgh, none met the test of 60,000 pounds per square inch.101 Chrome steel was then experimented with in place of the crucible steel for the staves, which consumed another six months.102 Finally, a British metallurgist was brought in to supervise mixing and melting the chrome steel, and work progressed slowly but satisfactorily. The first stave was rolled on May 1, 1871 and the first batch of staves was accepted on March 1, 1872.103

103. Ibid. Neither Smith, nor Woodward (see p. 88), nor any of the other sources given in these footnotes identifies, by name, the British metallurgist who successfully mixed the chrome steel from which the staves were fabricated.

 

Eads_Bridge_construction.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In 1872 two Englishmen, Woods and Clark, filed for patent of an acid and weather resistant iron alloy containing 30-35% chromium and 2% tungsten, effectively the first ever patent on what would now be considered a stainless steel. However, the real development came in 1875 when a Frenchman named Brustlein detailed the importance of low carbon content in successfully making stainless steel. Brustlein pointed out that in order to create an alloy with a high percentage of chromium, the carbon content must remain below around 0.15%.

So take your pick!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Any advance on 1865?

From a US Magazine: advanced materials and processes July 2014

The first alloy steel contained chromium and  was patented in 1865 by american metallurgist  Julius Baur and manufactured by the Chrome Steel Co. of Brooklyn, N.Y.This alloy steel was  never successful, but the publicity prompted an interest in chromium  alloy steels by French  metallurgist Henri-Ami  Brustlein. He soon  learned that to alloy  chromium with steel,  the chromium ore  needed to be refined to  produce a master alloy  of iron-chromium-carbon. This master alloy  would readily dissolve  into the melt of the crucible process, otherwise the recovery of  chromium would be too erratic to control the  alloy content. Brustlein produced and sold  chromium alloy steels for tools, cannon shells,  and armor plate over a period of about 15 to 20 years before anyone else entered the field.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is all rather fascinating...especially as I had always been led to believe that... "what  goes in the crucible comes out of the crucible" and that apart from an amount of molten slag on the top of the crucible, the method was incapable of refining. You learn something new every day.;-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...