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Robert Hadfield
Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield, 1st Baronet FRS (28 November 1858 in Sheffield – 30 September 1940 in Surrey) was an English metallurgist, noted for his 1882 discovery of manganese steel, one of the first steel alloys. He also invented silicon steel, initially for mechanical properties (patents in 1886) which have made the alloy a material of choice for springs and some fine blades, though it has also become important in electrical applications for its magnetic behaviour.
Hadfield was born 28 November 1858 in Attercliffe, then still a village near Sheffield. Hadfield's father, also named Robert Hadfield, owned Hadfield's Steel Foundry in Sheffield and in 1872 was the first manufacturer of steel castings in Britain. He declined to use patented technology from France and developed his own, thus laying the foundations for what was to become one of Britain's leading armament firms.
Robert the younger decided against Oxford and Cambridge, and entered work as an apprentice in 1875. He was successful and by the age of 24 had taken over the management due to his father's ill health.
Hadfield took out two patents on manganese steel in 1883--the British precursors to U.S. patent 303,150 and U.S. patent 303,151--and exhibited the material before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers the next year. In February 1888 he presented a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers about his further research on manganese in steel, which included the discovery that an alloy containing between 12 and 14 per cent manganese had special utility. Amongst other properties: in a tensile test it drew out uniformly whilst in most metals local elongation or ‘necking’ occurs, and magnetism is absent in it. In Brinell units the surface hardness increased on deformation from 200 to 550 or 580 (approaching that which will scratch glass) according to measurements by Floris Osmond. Its hardness and non-magnetic properties gave advantage in the arms industry, especially for British helmets.
The younger Hadfield took over the business in 1888 on his father's death. The firm was then made into a limited company, and he became chairman and managing director. The younger man was then 30 years of age.
In 1889 Hadfield published with the Iron and Steel Institute the results of his investigations into iron alloyed with silicon. Studies of iron with aluminium, chromium, nickel and tungsten followed in 1890, 1892, 1899, and 1903, respectively.
In 1891 he adopted both the eight-hour workday at his company, and the thermoelectric pyrometer, which had been developed by the Frenchman Henry Louis Le Chatelier.
In 1899 a paper in the Royal Dublin Society was published by Barrett, Brown and Hadfield of seminal importance to magnetism, in a hundred alloys of iron.
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Robert Hadfield
Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield, 1st Baronet FRS (28 November 1858 in Sheffield – 30 September 1940 in Surrey) was an English metallurgist, noted for his 1882 discovery of manganese steel, one of the first steel alloys. He also invented silicon steel, initially for mechanical properties (patents in 1886) which have made the alloy a material of choice for springs and some fine blades, though it has also become important in electrical applications for its magnetic behaviour.
Hadfield was born 28 November 1858 in Attercliffe, then still a village near Sheffield. Hadfield's father, also named Robert Hadfield, owned Hadfield's Steel Foundry in Sheffield and in 1872 was the first manufacturer of steel castings in Britain. He declined to use patented technology from France and developed his own, thus laying the foundations for what was to become one of Britain's leading armament firms.
Robert the younger decided against Oxford and Cambridge, and entered work as an apprentice in 1875. He was successful and by the age of 24 had taken over the management due to his father's ill health.
Hadfield took out two patents on manganese steel in 1883--the British precursors to U.S. patent 303,150 and U.S. patent 303,151--and exhibited the material before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers the next year. In February 1888 he presented a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers about his further research on manganese in steel, which included the discovery that an alloy containing between 12 and 14 per cent manganese had special utility. Amongst other properties: in a tensile test it drew out uniformly whilst in most metals local elongation or ‘necking’ occurs, and magnetism is absent in it. In Brinell units the surface hardness increased on deformation from 200 to 550 or 580 (approaching that which will scratch glass) according to measurements by Floris Osmond. Its hardness and non-magnetic properties gave advantage in the arms industry, especially for British helmets.
The younger Hadfield took over the business in 1888 on his father's death. The firm was then made into a limited company, and he became chairman and managing director. The younger man was then 30 years of age.
In 1889 Hadfield published with the Iron and Steel Institute the results of his investigations into iron alloyed with silicon. Studies of iron with aluminium, chromium, nickel and tungsten followed in 1890, 1892, 1899, and 1903, respectively.
In 1891 he adopted both the eight-hour workday at his company, and the thermoelectric pyrometer, which had been developed by the Frenchman Henry Louis Le Chatelier.
In 1899 a paper in the Royal Dublin Society was published by Barrett, Brown and Hadfield of seminal importance to magnetism, in a hundred alloys of iron.