His father was a steel melter at Firth's crucible steel furnaces and this strongly influenced his life. At twelve years of age Harry left school to became a cellar boy for at his father's crucible steel workshop. After some time they relocated him to the chemical laboratory where he became a general assistant and then later an apprenticed laboratory assistant. At this time he also studied at home and then took formal evening classes where he studied steel production techniques and associated chemical analysis methods. In 1901 Brearley left his job at Firth's to begin a new laboratory at Kayser Ellison's steel works. However, in 1903 he returned to Firth's to become a works manager of a steel plant they started in Riga, Russia. Brearly returned to Sheffield, England in 1907 where he oversaw the Brown-Firth Research Laboratory. This laboratory was jointly created by two steel companies for to promote steel inventions.
After WWI arms manufacturing increased dramatically in England, but there were many practical problems from erosion of the internal surfaces of gun barrels due to wear and tear. Because this errotion was caused by high temperatures Brearley began to add chromium to steel. Chromium was already known to raise steel's melting point much higher than the standard carbon steels. It was through this process that he created a chrome alloy steel that was more rust resistant than any steel previously known. Brearley was also well aware of all the different types of food applications (pans, canning, etc.) that this new high heat resistant steel could be used for. Much of his experiments were centered around this.
His invention caused much conflict at Firth's company. Firth's believed they were entitled to the rights of the invention because he worked at their firm. Bearly believed he should have rights to at least half of the ownership. This argument lead to his resignation from the firm in 1915. After this he took at job as the works manager at Brown Bayley's Steel Works in Sheffield. There he continued his work developing and producing stainless steel. He received the Iron and Steel Institute's Bessemer Gold Metal in 1920 for his outstanding contributions. In 1925 he became the director at Brown Bayley.
Brearley's chrome steel has stood the test of time is still the basis for all the different types of widely used stainless and specialty steel today. He died in Torquay in 1948 and the Brown-Firth Laboratory later made a monument in his honor.
http://www.tilthammer.com/bio/brear.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Brearley
1 comments:
SamA did Harry Brearly 47 minutes before you did.
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