INTRODUCTION.

Twenty-seven years of active practice in the manufacture of steel brought the author in daily contact with questions involving the manipulation of steel, its properties, and the results of any operations to which it was subjected.

Blacksmiths, edge-tool makers, die-makers, machine-builders, and engineers were continually asking questions whose answers involved study and experiment.

During these years the Bessemer and the open-hearth processes were developed from infancy to their present enormous stature; and the shadows of these young giants, ever menacing to the expensive and fragile crucible, kept one in a constant state of watching, anxiety, and more study.

The literature of steel has grown with the art; its books are no longer to be counted on the fingers, they are to be weighed in tons.

Then why write another?

Because there seems to be one little gap. Metallurgists and scientists have worked and are still working; they have given to the world much information for which the world should be thankful.

Engineers have experimented and tested, as they never did before, and thousands of tables and results are recorded, providing coming engineers with a mine of invaluable wealth. Steel-workers and temperers have written much that is of great practical value.

Still the questions come, and they are almost always those involving an intimate acquaintance with the properties of steel, which is only to be gained by contact with both manufacturers and users. In this little manual the effort is made to fill this gap and to give to all steel-users a systematic, condensed statement of facts that could not be obtained otherwise, except by travelling through miles of literature, and possibly not then. There are no tables, and no exact data; such would be merely a re-compilation of work already done by abler minds.

It is a record of experiences, and so it may seem to be dogmatic; the author believes its statements to be true—they are true as far as his knowledge goes; others can verify them by trial.

If the statements made prove to be of value to others, then the author will feel that he has done well to record them; if not, there is probably nothing said that is likely to result in any harm.

CONTENTS.

Page.

CHAPTER I.

General Description of Steel, and Methods of Manufacture.—Cemented or Converted Steel. Blister, German, Shear, Double-shear. Crucible-steel, Bessemer, Open-hearth 1

CHAPTER II.

Applications and Uses of the Different Kinds of Steel.—Crucible, Open-hearth, Bessemer 14

CHAPTER III..

Alloy Steels and Their Uses.—Self-hardening, Manganese, Nickel, Silicon, Aluminum 27

CHAPTER IV..

Carbon.—General Properties and Uses. Modes of Introducing It in Steel. Carbon Tempers, How Determined. The Carbon-line. Effects of Carbon, in Low Steel, in High Steel. Importance of Attention to Composition 37

CHAPTER V..

General Properties of Steel.—Four Conditions: Solid, Plastic, Granular, Liquid. Effects of Heat. Size of Grain. Recalescence, Magnetism. Effects of Cooling, Hardening, Softening, Checking. Effects of Forging or Rolling, Hot or Cold. Condensing, Hammer-refining, Bursting. Ranges of Tenacity, etc. Natural Bar, Annealed Bar, Hardened Bar, etc. 52

CHAPTER VI..

Heating.—For Forging; Hardening; Overheating; Burning; Restoring; Welding 77

CHAPTER VII..

Annealing 84

CHAPTER VIII..

Hardening and Tempering.—Size of Grain; Refining at Recalescence; Specific-gravity Tests; Temper Colors; How to Break Work; a Word for the Workman 96

CHAPTER IX..

Effects of Grinding.—Glaze, Skin, Decarbonized Skin, Cracked Surfaces, Pickling 128

CHAPTER X..

Impurities and Their Effects.—Cold-short. Red-short, Hot-short, Irregularities, Segregation, Oxides, etc., Wild Heats, Porosity. Removing Last Fractions of Hurtful Elements. Andrews Broken Rail and Propeller-shaft 129

CHAPTER XI..

Theories of Hardening.—Combined, Graphitic, Dissolved, Cement, Hardening and Non-hardening Carbon. Carbides. Allotropic Forms of Iron α, β, etc. Iron as an Igneous Rock or as a Liquid 146

CHAPTER XII..

Inspection.—Ingots, Bars, Finished Work. Tempers and Soundness of Ingots. Seams, Pipes, Laps, Burns, Stars 151

CHAPTER XIII..

Specifications.—Physical, Chemical, and of Soundness and Freedom from Scratches, Sharp Re-entrant Angles, etc. 154

CHAPTER XIV..

Humbugs 161

CHAPTER XV..

Conclusions 164

GLOSSARY.

Definitions of Shop Terms Used 167

STEEL: A MANUAL FOR STEEL USERS.