This week we were given an illuminating and informative talk around the question of “Who Invented Stainless Steel”? This is often claimed to have been Sheffield’s own metallurgist Harry Brearley. However the story as outlined in Peter’s talk gave a wider view of developments across a number of years within the broader steel industry, prior to and during Brearley’s own time and life.
The development of stainless steel goes back beyond 1820, but it was indisputably Harry Brearley who put stainless steel cutlery on to the tables of the general population. Peter explained that the composition of stainless steel and its properties were significantly affected by the addition of elements including nickel, carbon and chromium, and there was much experimentation around the ratios of these to give us today a wide variety of what are now termed special steels used in the nuclear and aerospace industries to name but two.
In the period spanning 1800 to 1905, around the world there were many experiments attempting to improve the strength of anti-corrosive qualities of steel, with early experiments including those by Faraday in 1819 adding silver and palladium which resulted in a shiny surface, but no appreciable improvement in strength. The Frenchman Berthier, in 1822, added chromium, which had been discovered in 1797, but too much carbon also resulted in no improvement in strength.
Sheffield’s Thomas Firth was making low chromium steel by the crucible method, but only in small 20 to 50 kilogram batches and given the nature of the process this prevented large scale production. It was not until the advent of electrically powered arc and induction furnaces from 1900 onwards that mass production was possible.
Cammels of Sheffield,in 1902, were early adopters of the analysis of steel and its properties, and were at this time significant arms producers.
It was in 1903 that T Middleton produced the first stainless steel cutlery. However this was not taken up to any degree, and some years passed before Firths in 1914 began secret trials for cutlery use. The first volume producers in Sheffield, however, were E Stuart and R F Mosley operating from Portland Works.
Over the period of WW1 there were advances in steel production largely for armaments, the first patent for stainless steel being granted to the German firm Krupps in 1913, however this was not all encompassing. In 1915 Brearley left Firths to join Brown Baileys, whom he considered a more forward-thinking company, and over the next few years established patents in conjunction with US, Canadian and other companies.
There was, as it developed, a pent up demand for “rustless” i.e. stainless steel, and many firms, especially in Sheffield, jumped on the bandwagon. In order to protect the rights of manufacturers, The Cutlers Company stepped in to prevent the hi-ijacking of producers’ names by what now would be called rogue traders.
From this early period there has been considerable growth in the steel industry to include stainless steel across many spheres – aerospace, medical and nuclear power.
So it is clear that it was more the just Harry Brealley who contributed to the “discovery” of stainless steel. Despite this, we can be proud that Sheffield remains – in many eyes across the world – the home of not only stainless steel but steel manufacture across the board, with the city continuing to play a big part in special steels particularly.
Peter concluded with an overview of the current market, followed by many questions reflecting the level of interest in this talk.