Steel has become a fundamental part of almost every aspect of our daily lives, and has played an essential role in the development of the modern urbanised world. Steel is a unique and versatile material. It touches almost every part of modern life. From infrastructure and transport, to energy delivery, from canned food and electronics to machinery and the simplest of everyday objects, such as needles, spoons, nuts and bolts. Almost everything around us, most of which we rarely, if ever notice, is either made from or manufactured using steel.
The production of steel is a relatively new process even though the origins of steelmaking can be traced back thousands of years. The 19th century however has seen the industrialisation of steel-making/production, which has ultimately assisted in building our modern world.
People in Egypt and Mesopotamia, first discovered iron, or more specifically meteoric iron, over 4000 years ago, and used what they believed was a ‘gift of the gods’ as a material of decoration. However it would still be a further 2000 years before the production of iron from mined iron ore would begin.
Some of the earliest findings of smelted iron can be traced back to 1800BCE in India. “The Hittites of Anatolia began smelting iron around 1500 BCE” (World Steel Association, 2012). However in around 12000BCE, the collapse of their empire forced the various tribes to relocate, taking with them all of the knowledge that they had accumulated on iron making, spreading it around must of Europe and Asia and unconsciously they began the start of the Iron Age. “For the next 3000 years, until replaced by steel, iron formed the material basis of human civilisation in Europe, Asia and Africa.” (Spoerl, J)
Nonetheless, iron is no...
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...g waste material to such an extent that it regarded virgin material as a 'substitute' would have been regarded as very advanced. Certainty the steel industry has played this card, with environmental information constantly stressing the high rates of steel recycling compared to other materials life plastic.” (Fry & Willis)
Though we may not know where the future is leading us, we know from the thousands of years of technological research that our ancestors have left to us that steel has not only been a major part in the development of the modern world but steel will also continue to play a crucial part in helping our modern world encounter and overcome the challenges that we will inevitably face in the future. Our standard of living today relies majorly on the invisible use of steel and we continue to benefit from the technology and advancements that steel provides.
Steel Corporations Forge Tyranny The 1960s marked a time of great change, turmoil, and innovation in American history. President John F. Kennedy worked hard to ensure the best for the citizens of the United States and that is why, when steel corporations raised their prices 3.5 percent in a time of economic distress, Kennedy responded with outrage. In his speech to the American people on April 11, 1962, President John F. Kennedy used a plethora of rhetorical strategies to persuade the American public to join his crusade against the greed of large steel companies. President Kennedy begins his address by immediately stating his opinion on the issue; that the actions of steel corporations “constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of public interest.”
The first built and launched ironclad was in 1855 and it was named the Merrimac. Europe just starting building ironclads and sent her to Norfolk. The Merrimac was still there when Virginia seceded from the Union in April of 1861. The Union then sank the Merrimac and set her afire but the hull of the shop and the engines settled in the bottom of the river. The Confederates found it and raised the parts out. It took 1,500 men to work on the Merrimac. It was a very slow process because there was not many supplies or tools. The Merrimac needed needed on thousand tons of iron. It was difficult to get some because there was very few iron manufacturers anywhere in the South and there was just one able to supply enough. The Merrimac got a small share of iron and then went to work. It took over a year to get this ship finished. The captain was Franklin Buchnan and he had 300 men for a crew.
output of steel exceeded that of the UK, and Carnegie owned a large part of it. Carnegie's empire grew to include the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works,, Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill, the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri . This project was an important proof-of-concept for steel technology, which marked the opening of a new steel
For decades, the steel industry has been one of the toughest markets on a global scale with most steel corporations ending up in bankruptcy. Foreign and domestic competitors, management issues, environmental issues, political agenda’s and technology have had much to do with the demise and more so of the success of the steel industry. The issues that this case focus on Nucor Corporation was of:
“The Industrial Revolution was another of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization” (Stephen Gardiner). One of the major parts of the industrial process has to do with metal production. Welding has been incorporated into the framework of metalworking. Welding dates back to the middle ages where forge welding processes were used to make tools and weapons, commonly known as blacksmiths. It is known that the Egyptians used forms of welding to make gold tools, jewelry, and decoration. During the 1800’s a new process was formed by using carbon electrodes to form an arc. This was done by Sir Humphrey Davy, which carried on to become Carbon Arc Welding and the most used process during the late 1800’s. As time evolved so did the
Hoerr, J. P. (1988). And the wolf finally came : the decline of the American steel industry. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
-Developed and implemented strip casting overseas to eliminate a step in the steel making process
The extraordinary power of the steel industry to shape the life of its communities and the people in them remain...
The earliest evidence of welding dates back to the Bronze Age. The earliest examples of welding that have been found to date are welded gold boxes belonging to civilizations that thrived during the bronze age. There is evidence supporting the fact that even the Egyptians developed a form of welding. Several of their iron tools were made by welding. During the Middle Ages, a set of blacksmiths came to the forefront, crafting tools, weapons and other necessities. Blacksmiths of the Middle Ages welded various types of iron tools by hammering. The welding methods remained more or less unchanged until the 19th century. Where welding methods began to resemble conventional welding processes through innovations made through
Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Because it is so common, iron has been used by human society for thousands of years. Iron was known and used for weapons in prehistoric ages, the earliest example still in existence; a group of rusty iron beads found in Egypt, dates from about 4000BC. This period in history was given the name Iron Age because it was the time when people found ways to get iron and to use it for building tools and weapons.
In the 1870s Carnegie's new company built the first steel plants in the United States to use the new Bessemer steel-making process, borrowed from Britain.
By adding up to 2%,of carbon it makes the steel tough and strong. Although it’s tough and strong, it is able to bend. To make sure that the metal doesn’t rust, it has a zinc coating on it. Iron is 26 on the periodic table,and considered an “transition metal,” meaning that it is ductile and malleable, and conduct electricity and heat. ... “Some other elements that are similar to iron are cobalt and nickel. They are the only elements known to produce a magnetic field.” Zinc is 30 on the periodic table and it is also a transition metal like iron. “The first iron used by humans is likely to have come from meteorites.” A meteorite is a meteor that survives its passage through the earth's atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground. More than 90 percent of meteorites are of rock, while the remainder consist wholly or partly of iron and nickel. Meteors are believed to have been from the asteroid belt of Mars and
Is it a big change to support what's going to happen to steel industry in the future?
The industrial revolution began in Europe in the 18th century. The revolution prompted significant changes, such as technological improvements in global trade, which led to a sustained increase in development between the 18th and 19th century. These improvements included mastering the art of harnessing energy from abundant carbon-based natural resources such as coal. The revolution was economically motivated and gave rise to innovations in the manufacturing industry that permanently transformed human life. It altered perceptions of productivity and understandings of mass production which allowed specialization and provided industries with economies of scale. The iron industry in particular became a major source of economic growth for the United States during this period, providing much needed employment, which allowed an abundant population of white people as well as minorities to contribute and benefit from the flourishing economy. Steel production boomed in the U.S. in the mid 1900s. The U.S. became a global economic giant due to the size of its steel industry, taking advantage of earlier innovations such as the steam engine and the locomotive railroad. The U.S. was responsible for 65 percent of steel production worldwide by the end of the 2nd World War (Reutter 1). In Sparrows Point: Making Steel: the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might, Mark Reutter reports that “Four out of every five manufacturing items contained steel and 40 percent of all wage earners owed their livelihood directly or indirectly to the industry.” This steel industry was the central employer during this era.
The first time we know about magnets was in 1269, when a soldier named Peter Peregrinus, wrote a letter about everything that was known at that time about a stone called magnetite. It is reported that he was writing this when he was guarding the walls of Lucera, a small town in Italy. It is also reported that, “While people insi...