You’ve used stainless steel, haven’t you? An alloy of iron with a minimum of 10.5 % chromium, it also contains varying amounts of carbon, silicon and manganese. With a wide range of applications, domestically you should have surely seen it in sinks and in the cutlery that you use. While it might be defined in such a simple manner, the story of stainless steel begins as early as the 1820s. And it took nearly a century for it to be perfected and put into prominent use.
In the 1820s, researchers from England and France began to understand that iron-chromium alloys resisted some acids. In the hundred years of research that followed, many created, described and explained what we now call as stainless steel. But it is Harry Brearley who is widely acknowledged as the person who discovered it.
Was it a sign?
Born in 1871, Brearley came from a poor family of meagre means. Call it fate, or call it destiny, Brearley was born into such a family that was based out of Sheffield. With the city accounting for over half the steel produced in Europe and more than 90 per cent of that in England, Sheffield was undoubtedly the steel capital of the world.
Brearley, though, had no inkling of what he would go on to become. He dropped from school at the age of 11 and started working. He jumped a number of jobs, either because he didn’t like them, or because of labour regulations.
Finds a mentor
And then, he was hired as a bottle washer by James Taylor, the chief chemist in a laboratory. Noticing the curiosity in Brearley, Taylor first taught him arithmetic and algebra and later went on to teach anything and everything he knew – from painting and soldering, to binding books and working with metals. Brearley hero-worshipped Taylor and idolised him.
After Taylor moved to Australia, Brearley was promoted as lab assistant and continued to enjoy his work. He read about everything he could get his hands on about metallurgy, and when he wasn’t reading or working, he was experimenting.
Steals his heart
He worked a lot with steel and he went where his steel took him. That made him move to Russia in 1903 and he returned to England only in 1907. He then went on to work with a project for an arms manufacturer and started studying erosion of rifle barrels.
He spent the next year making crucible steels with varying amounts of chromium to tackle the issue. And on August 13, 1913, he took to the electrical furnace. While his first cast was no good, the second one with 12.8% chromium, 0.24% carbon, 0.44% manganese and 0.2% silicon turned out to be better.
Interesting properties
While it didn’t solve the problem at hand, Brearley couldn’t help but notice that this sample metal had interesting properties. It etched very very slowly and fared way better than carbon steel with regard to rusting. It resisted nitric acid and behaved the same way with vinegar and lemon juice. He showed it to a cutlery manager Ernest Stuart, who was the first to call it stainless steel.
The months that followed the discovery, however, weren’t easy. Brearley’s stainless steel wasn’t appreciated right away and when it was finally seen for what it was, there were others who wanted to take credit away from Brearley. But then again, it is Brearley, who realised the potential of what he had cast, that we still discuss after over a hundred years and not those others who tried to steal the fame steel brought him.
