Steel

BY WILLIAM METCALF.
FIRST EDITION. FIRST THOUSAND.
NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY & SONS. London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited. 1896.
Copyright, 1896, BY WILLIAM METCALF.
ROBERT DRUMMOND, ELECTROTYPER AND PRINTER, NEW YORK.
Twenty-seven years of active practice in the manufacture of steel brought the author in daily contact with questions involving the manipulation of steel, its properties, and the results of any operations to which it was subjected.
Blacksmiths, edge-tool makers, die-makers, machine-builders, and engineers were continually asking questions whose answers involved study and experiment.
During these years the Bessemer and the open-hearth processes were developed from infancy to their present enormous stature; and the shadows of these young giants, ever menacing to the expensive and fragile crucible, kept one in a constant state of watching, anxiety, and more study.
The literature of steel has grown with the art; its books are no longer to be counted on the fingers, they are to be weighed in tons.
Then why write another?
Because there seems to be one little gap. Metallurgists and scientists have worked and are still working; they have given to the world much information for which the world should be thankful.
Engineers have experimented and tested, as they never did before, and thousands of tables and results are recorded, providing coming engineers with a mine of invaluable wealth. Steel-workers and temperers have written much that is of great practical value.