[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The book dates

• the smelting of copper, thus the end of the Stone Age, to about 4000 BC.

• the alloying of copper with tin - the start of the Bronze Age - to about 3000 BC.

• discovery of iron in heated iron ore, albeit not in useful form, to about 2500 BC.

• manufacture of useful iron objects to about 1800 BC.

• manufacture of two-pound cakes of steel in India to about 400 BC.

• the use of coke instead of charcoal, first in England, to 1709.

• the casting of steel in small quantity in England to 1740

By 1870 the Germans using steel cannon easily defeated the French who were still using brass cannon. After 1850 the production of steel increased geometrically, and the US came to dominate that production.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

This started life as a FReepmail addressed to you, but it grew and I thought others could find it interesting as well.

[Steely Tom]

The Drama Of Steel, 1946. Narrated by Paul Harvey.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

The impact of steel on civilization is indeed quite profound. And it’s a fascinating story, at least for me. Sure, there was iron that was produced in various forms, eg; I-beams and channel and the like, but iron is a crappy metal compared to steel. And I don’t think the difference is much appreciated. We would have some of the things that machines have produced but not all, and I suspect the quality of goods available would be rather inferior.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for the recommendation. I’m adding it to my list right away.

I’m reading a book you will really enjoy: “The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention.”

It was impossible to invent steam power without significant advances in iron and steel metallurgy. This book does a great job of tracing their development which enabled man to harness fire and ultimately create the modern world. It weaves together technological research and advancement, IP and patent law evolution, basic research at universities with brilliant inventors, growing market demands, entrepreneurship, and the structure of societies into a great story. It helps answer why the Industrial Revolution arose in Christian Europe, particularly England, and not in Africa, the Middle East, or the Orient.

From Amazon:
The Industrial Revolution inspires more academic theories than absorbing narratives. Rosen, however, crafts one from subplots that connect with primitive industrialism’s premier symbol: the steam engine. Ardent about historical technology, Rosen modulates his mechanical zeal with contexts underscoring that Thomas Newcomen and James Watt did not operate in a social vacuum. Fixing on patents as one prerequisite to their inventions, Rosen describes intellectual property’s English legal and philosophical origins as he segues to Newcomen’s and Watt’s backgrounds. A degree of social mobility in eighteenth-century Britain enabled their rise, but it was the specific economic situations in mining and textiles to which they responded that ensured it. These business matters provide Rosen with storytelling opportunities that feature capital investors, scientists studying heat, and over time, innovators who improved the steam engine from a stationary to a mobile power source: Rocket, the famous railroad engine built in 1829. — Gilbert Taylor

[Rodamala]

You might enjoy a book published 20 years ago that I have in my personal library. It was written by Thomas J. Misa and is titled A Nation of Steel.

Here... I found this webpage that has a Table of Contents and digitized first chapter:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~tmisa/NOS/index.html

It might just suck you in to buy the book or at least check your local lending library. I really enjoyed the book... and I am not a big "reader".

[PGalt]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. (I worked my way through college on the midnight shift at Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse, Michigan.)

[Last Dakotan]

For my business, Chinese steel is so subsidized that they can take Chilean and Australian ores, convert them to steel and ship it over an ocean and halfway across America cheaper than an American nonunion mill can remelt scrap two states away.

At some point they will have destroyed this American industry.

[The_Media_never_lie]

What a cool thread! Thanks for posting.

[fella]

How many operating steel mills are left in the US of A? Back in the 70s when I worked in Non-Destructive Testing steel mills and foundries were all over the place.

[raybbr]

Bfl

[wally_bert]

1982 - Remington Steele’s first season.

1987 - Remington Steele cancelled.

I couldn’t resist some Monday morning humor. Crazy and stressful weekend.