When was stainless steel introduced?
While the precise origins of steel remain a mystery, with credit given to blacksmiths in various cultures throughout history, including China, India, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Britain during the Industrial Revolution, the accidental invention of stainless steel is a captivating narrative.
The invention of stainless steel in a fascinating story – the product of years of trial and error and one complete fluke.
Steel may be incredibly tough – not to mention ductile and tensile – but that doesn’t mean it is invincible. Steel is essentially made by adding carbon to iron, and iron inevitably will rust. For many, many years, metallurgists around the world attempted to overcome this frustrating obstacle.
Experimentation with adding other elements to iron was fairly common, with moderate success. However, it wasn’t until 1912 that a reliable method of mass-producing rust-proof steel was discovered. And it was entirely by accident.
Of course, ‘inventor’ is an ambiguous term, especially with something as ubiquitous and elementary as steel. Corrosion-resistant steel – an alloy of iron and chromium – was first recognised in 1821 by Pierre Berthier, a French metallurgist.
Despite this discovery, metallurgists of the time were unable to find the balance of high chromium and low carbon that makes modern stainless steel so effective. The products they were producing were too brittle for practical use.
In 1872, two Englishmen named Clark and Woods patented an alloy is very close to the modern equivalent of stainless steel – a combination of chromium (30-35%) and tungsten (2%).
For the next 40 years, more developments were made around the world, each noting the relationship between chromium and steel and the rust-proof result of a marriage between the two. However, these efforts were tedious and despite many patents being registered, no alloys were mass-produced or marketed to the general public.
Then Harry Brearly came along.
Harry Brearly worked out of the Brown-Firth research factory in the industrial town of Sheffield, England. It was here that he spent countless hours seeking a strong alloy suitable for gun barrels, which were then known to wear down easily. This was not a simple task.
His efforts lasted months, and while the pile of scrap metal next to his work bench rusted, he noticed something strange – a barrel gleaming amongst them.
He pulled the shining barrel from the rusted heap and studied it. This particular sample contained roughly 12.8% chromium and 0.24% carbon. At that time, to properly inspect the microstructure of alloys they had to be polished and etched. This could be achieved by exposing it to a dilute solution of nitric acid in alcohol. However, this sample, he saw, was very resistant to chemical attack.
Within three weeks he perfected a hardening process for the alloy. He named the invention “rustless steel”.
At the time, Sheffield was known for its production of quality cutlery, and in this market, Brearly quickly saw a place for his invention. Back then, cutlery was usually made from steel or silver. Steel would rust easily and had to be cleaned constantly to avoid contamination. Silver, on the other hand, was far too expensive for most people.
Brearly approached an old friend, Ernest Stuart, with his invention. Stuart was manager at R.F Mosley’s at Portland Works, a cutlery works in Sheffield. He tested Brearly’s alloy in a vinegar solution and when it remained unmolested he dubbed it “stainless steel.”
The discovery was announced two years later in a January 1915 newspaper article in The New York Times which described the metal as “non-rusting, unstainable and untarnishable”. In the same year, Brearly applied for a patent in the US, only to find there was already one registered by metallurgist Elwood Haynes.
Haynes and Brearly pulled together their funding and took their invention to prospective investors. They soon formed the American Stainless Steel Corporation. By 1929, over 25,000 tons of stainless steel were manufactured and sold in the US alone.
If you’re as interested in steel as we are, you can also have a read of our article on how steel is made.
If you have a project in need of steel, whether it’s supply, fabrication, drafting, or installation, talk to the experts at Steel Fabrication Services. Our dedicated team of professionals will ensure that your project goes according to plan right down to the smallest detail. Give us a call today!
Unlike iron, which has been in use for over a thousand years, stainless steel is a relative newcomer to the materials science world, having first been produced only 100 years ago. This may seem hard to believe at first, given the ubiquity of the metal in almost every facet of modern life, but this is simply a testament to what an important breakthrough stainless steel was. The metal has revolutionized the modern world and has found applications in almost every manufacturing sector, from healthcare and catering equipment, to the automotive and construction industries. Furthermore, it has out-performed more traditional competing materials such as copper, aluminium, and carbon steel.
The secret to the success of stainless steel lies in its incredible physical and chemical properties. Stainless steel has high corrosion resistance, heat resistance (of up to 1200°C [2192°F]), formability and weldability, durability, and does not rust. On top of this, the metal does not readily react to many substances, and is inexpensive compared to specialist, non-corrosive alloys. Over the past century, metallurgists have invented and improved methods to make stainless steels, control their properties, and mass-produce them with consistent quality.
The year 2013 marks the centenary of the invention of this remarkable metal, and in this article we take a brief look at the history of one of the most important breakthroughs in materials science.
Invention of Stainless Steel
In 1913, Harry Brearley of Sheffield, UK discovered ‘rustless’ steel. Although there had been many prior attempts, Brearley has been credited with inventing the first true stainless steel, which had a 12.8% chromium content. He had added chromium to molten iron to produce a metal that did not rust. Chromium is a key ingredient, as it provides the resistance to corrosion. After this discovery, Sheffield itself became synonymous with steel and metallurgy.
Brearley stumbled upon this discovery while trying to solve the problem of erosion of the internal surfaces of gun barrels for the British army during the onset of the First World War.
After the initial discovery, further improvements to stainless steel occurred at a fairly rapid pace. In 1919, Elwood Haynes obtained a patent on martensitic stainless steel, in 1929 William J. Kroll of Luxembourg was the first to discover precipitation-hardening stainless steel, and in 1930 duplex stainless steel was first produced in Sweden at the Avesta Ironworks.
Milestones in the History of Stainless Steel
The outstanding properties of stainless steel were gradually realized over the years, and below is a short timeline outlining some of the key moments in the history of stainless steel.
- Between the years 1919 and 1923, the use of stainless steel was adapted to the manufacturing of surgical scalpels, tools, and cutlery in Sheffield.
- In the early 1920s, a variety of chromium and nickel combinations were tested. Stainless steel was referred to as “18/8” to indicate the percentage of chromium and nickel in the steel.
- In 1925, a stainless steel tank was used to store nitric acid, thereby establishing the fact of this unique metal's resistance to corrosion.
- In 1926, the first surgical implants made of stainless steel were performed.
- The hygienic aspect of the stainless steel was demonstrated in 1928 when the first stainless steel fermenting vessel was used to brew beer. Since then the food and beverage industry have widely used this metal.
- In the 1930s, the first stainless steel train was built in the USA.
- The year 1931 witnessed the creation of the first stainless steel aircraft.
- By 1935, stainless steel kitchen sinks were widely used.
- Type 430 stainless steel (ferritic chromium alloy) was used to make a wire 0.1mm in diameter for a voice-recording machine.
- In 1954, the first stainless steel underwater TV camera was manufactured.
- In 1966, the first tidal power station with stainless steel turbine blades was completed in France.
- In the 1980s, stainless steel was used to build the longest movable flood barrier in the world on the river Thames.
- Global production of stainless steel reached 31 million Mt in 2010.
- About 11 million washing machines with stainless steel drums were produced in China in 2010.
Over the last 100 years, about 100 grades of stainless steel have been discovered and made commercially available. These grades fall under four main family groups, namely, martenistic, ferritic, austentic, and duplex. Ferritic and martensitic stainless steels are magnetic while austenitic stainless steels are non-magnetic. These have varying quantities of other alloying metals like nickel, titanium, and copper, added to them. Carbon and nitrogen are also added to enhance the overall characteristics of stainless steel.
Stainless Steel Today
Today, China is the largest producer of stainless steel in the world. One of the leading stainless steel producers and distributors is Outokumpu, a group of companies headquartered in Espoo, Finland.
Stainless steel has found a myriad of applications from the tiniest structural parts in artificial heart valves to the largest architectural structures. Several world famous monuments, such as the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago, have been constructed using stainless steel.
With the growing awareness about the importance of reducing carbon emissions, many countries are keen on promoting stainless steel which is resistant to corrosion and has prolonged service life, therefore not requiring frequent replacements and repairs. Additionally, stainless steel is also 100% recyclable and does not degrade when reprocessed, thus allowing for multiple life cycles. The sustainability of stainless steel is unmatched compared to other metals.
STEEL: From Start to Finish
The Future of Stainless Steel
The growth of stainless steel is likely to increase as the sustainability benefits of stainless steel become more widely known. Researchers have even found that coating stainless steel with certain bio-inspired adhesives makes it anti-bacterial, thus adding to the long list of benefits of stainless steel.
This innovative material is therefore a material that is very likely to extend its use well into the next century and beyond.
Sources and Further Reading
When was stainless steel introduced?
The History of Stainless Steel – Celebrating 100 Years
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