Why pay more? An archaeometallurgical investigation of 19th-century Swedish wrought iron and Sheffield blister steel
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
For their best quality steel, Sheffi eld cementation steelmakers preferred iron from a small number of finery forges in Sweden and were prepared to pay a premium price for it. This study aimed to determine whether there was a scientific explanation for the steelmakers’ preference. The abundance and composition of slag inclusions from 10 samples of premium and common grades of Swedish wrought iron and 10 samples of blister steel made from both grades of iron were compared. The samples were analysed using optical and electron microscopy, SEM-EDS, quantitative metallography and, where possible, bulk chemical analysis. Analysis found that premium brands of wrought iron had a lower volume of slag inclusions and a higher proportion of wüstite within the inclusions. These characteristics meant that the premium brands of wrought iron would give a ‘cleaner’ blister steel. The results suggest that Sheffield cementation steelmakers had a valid reason for paying more for premium brands.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Barraclough K C 1984, Steelmaking before Bessemer. Volume 1: Blister Steel (London).
Barraclough K C 1990, ‘Swedish iron and Sheffi eld steel’, in G Hollister-Short and A J L J Frank (eds), History of Technology 12, 1–39.
Barraclough K C 1991, ‘The Chemistry of Metal Extraction’, in J Day and R F Tylecote (eds), The Industrial Revolution in Metals (London), 261–311.
Barraclough K C and Kerr J A 1973, ‘The Metallographic Examination of Some Archive Samples of Steel’, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 211(7), 470–474.
Cranstone D 1997, Derwentcote Steel Furnace. An Industrial Monument in County Durham (Lancaster: Lancaster Imprints No 6).
Crookes W and Rohrig E 1870, A Practical Treatise on Metallurgy (London).
den Ouden A 1981 ‘The production of wrought iron in Finery Hearths. Part 1: The Finery process and its development’, Historical Metallurgy 15(2), 63–87.
Doncaster R 1967, ‘Blister Steel—Notes by the late Basil Doncaster’, Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society 9(3), 184–188.
Eriksson G A 1987, Finnish and Swedish iron export to England in the 18th and 19th centuries with an excursus (Åbo).
Giolitti F, Richards J W and Rouiller C A 1915, The Cementation of Iron and Steel (New York).
Gordon R B 1984, ‘The Quality of Wrought Iron evaluated by Microprobe Analysis’, in A D Romig Jr and J Goldstein (eds), Microbeam Analysis-1984 (San Francisco), 231–234.
Gordon R B 1988, ‘Strength and Structure of Wrought Iron’, Archaeomaterials 2, 109–137.
King P W 2003, ‘The cartels in Oregrounds Iron: trading relationships in the raw material for steel’, Journal of Industrial History 6(3), 25–48.
Le Play F 1843, ‘Memoire sur la Fabrication de l’Acier en Yorkshire’, trans. in Barraclough 1984, Steelmaking before Bessemer. Volume 1: Blister Steel (London).
Meyer A D and Sykes A M 1996, Statistics (London).
Morton G R and Wingrove J 1971, ‘The charcoal finery and chafery forge’, Historical Metallurgy 5(1), 24–28.
Percy J 1864, Metallurgy: Vol 2 Iron and Steel (London).
Rostoker W and Dvorak J 1988, ‘Blister Steel = Clean Steel’, Archaeomaterials 2, 175–186.
Rostoker W and Dvorak J 1990, ‘Wrought Irons: Distinguishing Between Processes’, Archaeomaterials 4, 153–166.
Rydén G and Evans C 1995, ‘Iron in Sweden and Britain 1600–1800: interdependence and difference’, in G Magnusson (ed), The importance of Ironmaking—Technical Innovation and Social Change (Stockholm), 407–414.
Tylecote R F 1991, ‘Iron in the Industrial Revolution’, in J Day, and R F Tylecote (eds), The Industrial Revolution in Metals (London), 200–260.
Vander Voort G F 1999, Metallography, Principles and Practice (Ohio).
