Crucible steel
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Crucible steel is
In Europe, crucible steel was developed by
Methods of crucible steel production
Iron
Various methods were used to produce crucible steel. According to Islamic texts such as al-Tarsusi and
Variations of co-fusion process have been found primarily in
Early history
Crucible steel is generally attributed to production centres in
While crucible steel is more attributed to the Middle East in early times,
In the first centuries of the Islamic period, some scientific studies on swords and steel appeared. The best known of these are by Jabir ibn Hayyan 8th century, al-Kindi 9th century, Al-Biruni in the early 11th century, al-Tarsusi in the late 12th century, and Fakhr-i-Mudabbir 13th century. Any of these contains far more information about Indian and damascene steels than appears in the entire surviving literature of classical Greece and Rome.[14]
South India and Sri Lanka
There are many ethnographic accounts of Indian crucible steel production; however, scientific investigations of the remains of crucible steel production have only been published for four regions: three in India and one in Sri Lanka.
European accounts from the 17th century onwards have referred to the repute and manufacture of "wootz", a traditional crucible steel made specially in parts of southern India in the former provinces of Golconda, Mysore and Salem. As yet the scale of excavations and surface surveys is too limited to link the literary accounts to archaeometallurgical evidence.[18]
The proven sites of crucible steel production in south India, e.g. at Konasamudram and Gatihosahalli, date from at least the late medieval period, 16th century.[19] One of the earliest known potential sites, which shows some promising preliminary evidence that may be linked to ferrous crucible processes in Kodumanal, near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.[20] The site is dated between the third century BCE and the third century CE.[21] By the seventeenth century the main centre of crucible steel production seems to have been in Hyderabad. The process was apparently quite different from that recorded elsewhere.[22] Wootz from Hyderabad or the Decanni process for making watered blades involved a co-fusion of two different kinds of iron: one was low in carbon and the other was a high-carbon steel or cast iron.[23] Wootz steel was widely exported and traded throughout ancient Europe, China, the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East, where it became known as Damascus steel.[24][25]
Recent archaeological investigations have suggested that Sri Lanka also supported innovative technologies for iron and steel production in antiquity.[26] The Sri Lankan system of crucible steel making was partially independent of the various Indian and Middle Eastern systems.[27] Their method was something similar to the method of carburization of wrought iron.[26] The earliest confirmed crucible steel site is located in the Knuckles range in the northern area of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka dated to 6th–10th centuries CE.[28] In the twelfth century the land of Serendib (Sri Lanka) seems to have been the main supplier of crucible steel, but over the centuries production slipped back, and by the nineteenth century just a small industry survived in the Balangoda district of the central southern highlands.[29]
A series of excavations at
Central Asia
Central Asia has a rich history of crucible steel production, beginning during the late 1st millennium CE.
The two most prominent crucible steel sites in eastern Uzbekistan carrying the Ferghana Process are Akhsiket and Pap in the
Evidence of the production of crucible steel have been found in Merv, Turkmenistan, a major city on the 'Silk Road'. The Islamic scholar al-Kindi (801–866 CE) mentions that during the ninth century CE the region of Khorasan, the area to which the cities Nishapur, Merv, Herat and Balkh belong, was a steel manufacturing centre.[41] Evidence from a metallurgical workshop at Merv, dated to the ninth- early tenth century CE, provides an illustration of the co-fusion method of steel production in crucibles, about 1000 years earlier than the distinctly different wootz process.[42] The crucible steel process at Merv might be seen as technologically related to what Bronson (1986, 43) calls Hyderabad process, a variation of the wootz process, after the location of the process documented by Voysey in the 1820s.[43]
China
The production of crucible steel in China began around the first century BC, or possibly earlier. The Chinese developed a method of producing pig iron around 1200 BC, which they used to make
In 1064, Shen Kuo, in his book Dream Pool Essays, gave the earliest written description of the patterns in the steel, the methods of sword production, and some of the reasoning behind it:
Ancient people use chi kang, (combined steel), for the edge, and jou thieh (soft iron) for the back, otherwise it would often break. Too strong a weapon will cut and destroy its own edge; that is why it is advisable to use nothing but combined steel. As for the yu-chhang (fish intestines) effect, it is what is now called the 'snake-coiling' steel sword, or alternatively, the 'pine tree design'. If you cook a fish fully and remove its bones, the shape of its guts will be seen to be like the lines on a 'snake-coiling sword'.[46]
Modern history
Early modern accounts
The first European references to crucible steel seem to be no earlier than the
From the mid-17th century onwards, European travellers to the Indian subcontinent wrote numerous vivid eyewitness accounts of the production of steel there. These include accounts by
Another investigator, David Mushet, was able to infer that wootz was made by fusion.[53] David Mushet patented his process in 1800.[54] He made his report in 1805.[52] As it happens, however, the first successful European process had been developed by Benjamin Huntsman some 50 years previously in the 1740s.[55]
History of production in England
Before the introduction of Huntsman's technique, Sheffield produced about 200 tonnes of steel per year from Swedish wrought iron (see Oregrounds iron). The introduction of Huntsman's technique changed this radically: one hundred years later the amount had risen to over 80,000 tonnes per year, or almost half of Europe's total production. Sheffield developed from a small township into one of Europe's leading industrial cities.
The steel was produced in specialised workshops called 'crucible furnaces', which consisted of a workshop at ground level and a subterranean cellar. The furnace buildings varied in size and architectural style, growing in size towards the latter part of the 19th century as technological developments enabled multiple pots to be "fired" at once, using gas as a heating fuel. Each workshop had a series of standard features, such as rows of melting holes, teaming pits,[clarification needed] roof vents, rows of shelving for the crucible pots and annealing furnaces to prepare each pot before firing. Ancillary rooms for weighing each charge and for the manufacture of the clay crucibles were either attached to the workshop, or located within the cellar complex. The steel, originally intended for making clock springs, was later used in other applications such as scissors, axes and swords.
Sheffield's Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet operates for the public a scythe-making works, which dates from Huntsman's times and is powered by a water wheel, using crucible steel made at the site.
Material properties
Previous to Huntsman, the most common method of producing steel was the manufacture of
Huntsman's process was the first to produce a fully homogeneous steel. Unlike previous methods of steel production, the Huntsman process was the first to fully melt the steel, allowing the full diffusion of carbon throughout the liquid. With the use of fluxes it also allowed the removal of most impurities, producing the first steel of modern quality. Due to carbon's high melting point (nearly triple that of steel) and its tendency to oxidize (burn) at high temperatures, it cannot usually be added directly to molten steel. However, by adding wrought iron or pig iron, allowing it to dissolve into the liquid, the carbon content could be carefully regulated (in a way similar to Asian crucible-steels but without the stark inhomogeneities indicative of those steels). Another benefit was that it allowed other elements to be alloyed with the steel. Huntsman was one of the first to begin experimenting with the addition of alloying agents like manganese to help remove impurities such as oxygen from the steel. His process was later used by many others, such as Robert Hadfield and Robert Forester Mushet, to produce the first alloy steels like mangalloy, high-speed steel, and stainless steel.
Due to variations in the carbon content of the blister steel, the carbon steel produced could vary in carbon content between crucibles by as much as 0.18%, but on average produced a
19th and 20th century production
In another method, developed in the United States in the 1880s, iron and carbon were melted together directly to produce crucible steel.[60] Throughout the 19th century and into the 1920s a large amount of crucible steel was directed into the production of cutting tools, where it was called tool steel.
The crucible process continued to be used for specialty steels, but is today obsolete. Similar quality steels are now made with an electric arc furnace. Some uses of tool steel were displaced, first by high-speed steel[60] and later by materials such as tungsten carbide.
Crucible steel elsewhere
Another form of crucible steel was developed in 1837 by the Russian engineer Pavel Anosov. His technique relied less on the heating and cooling, and more on the quenching process of rapidly cooling the molten steel when the right crystal structure had formed within. He called his steel bulat; its secret died with him. In the United States crucible steel was pioneered by William Metcalf.
See also
Notes
- ^ A History of Metallography by Cyril Stanley Smith. MIT Press 1960. pp. 16–24 [ISBN missing]
- ISBN 978-0901462886.
- ^ Feuerbach et al. 1997, 105
- ^ a b c Feuerbach et al. 1998, 38
- ^ a b Feuerbach et al. 1995, 12
- ^ a b Srinivasan 1994, 56
- ^ Feuerbach et al. 1998, 39
- ^ a b Rehren and Papakhristu 2000
- ^ Feuerbach 2002, 13
- ^ Ranganathan and Srinivasan 2004, 126
- ^ Williams 2012, p. 75.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ^ See:
- Williams, Alan (2009) "A metallurgical study of some Viking swords," Archived 7 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine Gladius, 29 : 124–189 ; see p. 143.
- National Physical Laboratory (U.K.) uncovers Viking trade routes (2009 January 12) Archived 4 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bronson 1986, 19
- ^ Feuerbach 2002, 164
- ^ Feuerbach 2002, 163
- ISBN 978-1983850738.
- ^ Griffiths and Srinivasan 1997, 111
- ^ Srinivasan 1994, 52
- ^ Ranganathan and Srinivasan 2004, 117
- ^ Craddock 2003, 245
- ^ Craddock 1995, 281
- ^ Moshtagh Khorasani 2006, 108
- ^ Srinivasan 1994
- ^ Srinivasan & Griffiths
- ^ a b c Ranganathan and Srinivasan 2004, 125
- ^ Bronson 1986, 43
- ^ Feuerbach 2002, 168
- ^ Craddock 1995, 279
- ^ Juleff 1998, 51
- ^ Juleff 1998, 222
- ^ a b Juleff 1998, 80
- ^ Juleff 1998, 221
- ^ Juleff 1998, 220
- S2CID 247355036.
- ^ a b Papakhristu and Rehren 2002, 69
- ^ a b Rehren and Papakhristu 2000, 55
- ^ Rehren and Papachristou 2003, 396
- ^ Rehren and Papakhristu 2000, 58
- ^ Rehren and Papakhristu 2000, 67
- ^ Feuerbach 2003, 258
- ^ Feuerbach 1997, 109
- ^ Feuerbach 2003, 264
- ^ The Traditional Chinese Iron Industry and its Modern Fate by Donald B Wagner
- ^ Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5 by Joseph Needham. p. 345[ISBN missing]
- ^ A History of Metallography by Cyril Smith (1960) p. 45 [ISBN missing]
- ^ Craddock 2003, 251
- ^ Needham 1958, 128
- ^ Ranganathan and Srinivasan 2004, 60
- ^ Ranganathan and Srinivasan 2004, 78
- ^ Ranganathan and Srinivasan 2004, 79
- ^ a b Bronson 1986, 30
- ^ Bronson 1986, 31
- ^ Needham 1958, 132
- ^ Craddock 1995, 283
- ISBN 0-415-14792-1.
- ^ Juleff 1998, 11
- ^ Sheffield Steel and America: A Century of Commercial and Technological Independence By Geoffrey Tweedale. Cambridge University Press 1987[ISBN missing][page needed]
- ^ Tool Steels, 5th Edition By George Adam Roberts, Richard Kennedy, G. Krauss. ASM International, 1998, p. 4[ISBN missing]
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8018-6052-2.
References
- Bronson, B., 1986. "The Making and Selling of Wootz, a Crucible Steel of India". Archeomaterials 1.1, 13–51.
- Craddock, P.T., 1995. Early Metal Mining and Production. Cambridge: Edinburgh University Press.[ISBN missing]
- Craddock, P.T, 2003. "Cast Iron, Fined Iron, Crucible Steel: Liquid Iron in the Ancient World". In: P.T., Craddock, and J., Lang. (eds) Mining and Metal Production through the ages. London: The British Museum Press, 231–257.[ISBN missing]
- Feuerbach, A.M., 2002. "Crucible Steel in Central Asia: Production, Use, and Origins": a dissertation presented to the University of London.
- Feuerbach, A., Griffiths, D. R. and Merkel, J.F., 1997. "Production of crucible steel by co-fusion: Archaeometallurgical evidence from the ninth- early tenth century at the site of Merv, Turkmenistan". In: J.R., Druzik, J.F., Merkel, J., Stewart and P.B., Vandiver (eds) Materials issues in art and archaeology V: symposium held 3–5 December 1996, Boston, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh, Pa: Materials Research Society, 105–109.
- Feuerbach, A., Griffiths, D., and Merkel, J.F., 1995. Analytical Investigation of Crucible Steel Production at Merv, Turkmenistan. IAMS 19, 12–14.[ISBN missing]
- Feuerbach, A.M., Griffiths, D.R. and Merkel, J.F., 1998. "An examination of crucible steel in the manufacture of Damascus steel, including evidence from Merv", Turkmenistan. Metallurgica Antiqua 8, 37–44.
- Feuerbach, A.M., Griffiths, D.R., and Merkel, J.F., 2003. "Early Islamic Crucible Steel Production at Merv, Turkmenistan", In: P.T., Craddock, J., Lang (eds). Mining and Metal Production through the ages. London: The British Museum Press, 258–266.[ISBN missing]
- Freestone, I.C. and Tite, M. S. (eds) 1986. "Refractories in the Ancient and Preindustrial World", In: W.D., Kingery (ed.) and E., Lense (associated editor) High technology ceramics : past, present, and future ; the nature of innovation and change in ceramic technology. Westerville, OH: American Ceramic Society, 35–63.[ISBN missing]
- Juleff, G., 1998. Early Iron and Steel in Sri Lanka: a study of the Samanalawewa area. Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern.[ISBN missing]
- Moshtagh Khorasani, M., 2006. Arms and Armor from Iran, the Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period. Tübingen: Legat.[ISBN missing]
- Needham, J. 1958. "The development of iron and steel technology in China": second biennial Dickinson Memorial Lecture to the Newcomen Society, 1900–1995. Newcomen Society.
- Papakhristu, O.A., and Rehren, Th., 2002. "Techniques and Technology of Ceramic Vessel Manufacture Crucibles for Wootz Smelting in Centural Asia". In: V., Kilikoglou, A., Hein, and Y., Maniatis (eds) Modern Trends in Scientific Studies on Ancient Ceramics, papers presented at the 5th European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics, Athens 1999/ Oxford : Archaeopress, 69–74.
- Ranganathan, S. and Srinivasan, Sh., 2004. India's Legendary Wootz steel, and advanced material of the ancient world. Bangalore: National Institute of Advanced Studies: Indian Institute of Science.[ISBN missing]
- Rehren, Th. and Papachristou, O., 2003. "Similar like White and Black: a Comparison of Steel-making Crucibles from Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent". In: Th., Stöllner et al. (eds) Man and mining : Mensch und Bergbau : studies in honour of Gerd Weisgerber on occasion of his 65th birthday. Bochum : Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, 393–404.[ISBN missing]
- Rehren, Th. and Papakhristu, O. 2000. "Cutting Edge Technology – the Ferghana Process of medieval crucible steel smelting". Metalla 7.2, 55–69 Srinivasan, Sh., 1994. "woots crucible steel: a newly discovered production site in south India". Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 5, 49–61.
- Srinivasan, Sh., and Griffiths, D., 1997. Crucible Steel in South India-Preliminary Investigations on Crucibles from some newly identified sites. In: J.R., Druzik, J.F., Merkel, J., Stewart and P.B., Vandiver (eds) Materials issues in art and archaeology V: symposium held 3–5 December 1996, Boston, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh, Pa: Materials Research Society, 111–125.
- Srinivasan, S. and Griffiths, D. South Indian wootz: evidence for high-carbon steel from crucibles from a newly identified site and preliminary comparisons with related finds. Material Issues in Art and Archaeology-V, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings Series Vol. 462.
- Srinivasan, S. & Ranganathan, S. Wootz Steel: An Advanced Material of the Ancient World. Bangalore: Indian Institute of Science.
- Wayman Michael L. The Ferrous Metallurgy of Early Clocks and Watches. The British Museum 2000 [ISBN missing]
- Williams, Alan (3 May 2012). The Sword and the Crucible: A History of the Metallurgy of European Swords Up to the 16th Century. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-22783-5.
External links
- Merv, Turkmenistan Archived 4 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- CFD in the 1st Millennium AD
- Wootz Steel: An advanced material of the ancient world
- Making Steel by Hand: A 1949 British Pathe newsreel showing the production of crucible steel in Sheffield