Issues in the introduction of tonnage steel in the United States, 1867–1883
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
Examples of the early US production of puddled, pneumatic, and open hearth steel show variable and uncertain quality due to inadequate control of carbon, phosphorus, and non-metallic inclusions. An inhomogeneous product and difficulties with process control led to the early demise of puddled steel manufacture. Analyses for nitrogen and silicon distinguish between pneumatic and open hearth steel. Makers of open hearth steel had reduced phosphorus to acceptable levels by 1873 but needed longer to gain control of carbon content. Good quality pneumatic steel was made after 1880. John and Washington Roebling, engineers with experience of metallurgy, successfully managed the transition from wrought iron to steel while building the Brooklyn Bridge. The Springfield Armory, operating within a military-government complex, used various kinds of pneumatic and open hearth steels over a decade before reverting back to iron for its rifle barrels.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Anon 1882, Iron Age June 29 1882, 14.
Barnard H 1866, Armsmear: The home, the arm, and the armory of Samuel Colt (New York).
Barraclough K 1971a, ‘Puddled steel: a forgotten chapter in the history of steelmaking,’ Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 209, 785–789.
Barraclough K 1971b, ‘Puddled steel: the technology,’ Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 209, 952–956.
Barraclough K 1990, Steelmaking 1850–1900 (London).
Barraclough K and Kerr J 1973, ‘Metallographic examination of some archive samples of steel’, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 211, 470–474.
Benton J 1878, The fabrication of small arms for the United States Service, Ordnance Memoranda No 22 (Washington).
Bodsworth C ed 2000, British iron and steel AD 1800–2000 and beyond (London).
Camp J and Francis C 1919, The making, shaping and treating of steel (Pittsburgh).
Fitch C 1880, Report on the manufactures of interchangeable mechanism, Tenth Census of the US, 1880 (Washington).
Frasca A 1997, The .45-70 Springfield Book II 1865–1893 (Springfield).
Galer G, Gordon R, and Kemmish F 1998, Connecticut’s Ames Iron Works (New Haven).
Gordon R 1983, ‘English iron for American arms: laboratory evidence on the source of iron used at the Springfield Armory in 1860’, Historical Metallurgy 17, 91–98.
Gordon R 1992, ‘The ‘Kelly’ converter’, Technology and Culture 33, 769–779.
Gordon R and Raber M 1984, ‘An early American integrated steelworks’, IA, Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology 10, 17–34.
Gordon R and Tweedale G 1990, ‘Pioneering in steelmaking at the Collins Axe Company: 1826–1924’, Historical Metallurgy 24, 1–11.
Holley A 1875–76, ‘Some pressing needs of our iron and steel manufacturers’, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 4, 77–99.
Johnson C 2009, The Language of Work (Amityville).
Kiessling R 1978, Non-metallic inclusions in steel (London).
Kranakis E 1997, Constructing a bridge (Cambridge, Mass).
Leighly H, Bramfit B and Lawrence S 2001, ‘RMS Titanic: a metallurgical problem’, Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention 1, 10–13.
Lewis P and Reynolds K 2004, ‘Forensic engineering: a reappraisal of the Tay Bridge disaster’, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 27-4, 1–12.
McCullough D 1992, The Great Bridge (New York).
McHugh J 1980, Alexander Holley and the makers of steel (Baltimore).
Pearse J 1875–6, ‘Iron and carbon mechanically and chemically considered’, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 4, 157–178.
Raber M, Malone P, Cooper C and Gordon R 1989, ‘Conservative innovators and military small arms: an industrial history of the Springfield Armory, 1794–1968’, report to the National Park Service, 1989; reprinted as Forge of Innovation (Springfield) 2008.
Rosa J 1968, ‘Sam Colt opted for British steel’, The Gun Report, July, 8–14.
Rowe F 1938, History of the iron and steel industry in Scioto County, Ohio (Columbus).
Sauveur A 1935, Metallurgical reminiscences and dialogue (New York).
Steinman D 1945, The builders of the bridge (New York).
Tweedale G 1987, Sheffield steel in America (Cambridge).
Wellman, S 1902, ‘The early history of open-hearth steel manufacture in the United States’, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 23, 78–98.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.