IRON AND STEEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1942, Page 2

IRON AND STEEL

ADDRESS AT ROTARY CLUB,

WEEKLY LUNCHEON TODAY.

An address on iron and steel was given at today’s luncheon of the Masterton Rotary Club by Mr R. Lambert.

After stating that the origin of iron was obscured in antiquity, there were specimens of iron in the British Museum which were over 2000 years old— Mr Lambert said the first method of melting iron ore seemed to have been in furnaces erected on the summits, of hills, for the sake of securing a current of air. It was not until 1735 that-coke was used but after that progress was fairly rapid. The first metal bridge was built in 1775 over the River Severn. In 1740 the average output of each furnace was 294 tons .per year; in 1860 it was 600 tons pei' week. He went on to describe the construction of a modern blast furnace and to the various improvements made in methods of handling iron ore. In the last fifty years great strides had been made in steel alloys, so that now they had steel alloys for practically every purpose. The speaker referred in detail to various alloys. With the increased use of alloy steels of ever-increasing tensile strength, tool steel makers had had a constant struggle to keep pace with tool steel that would machine the new allays. Tungsten had the peculiar Quality of making steel hard when it was red hot. The Tungsten carbide cutting tool had revolutionised the machining of steels. It cut at least five times as fast as high speed steel and thus increased production fivefold. Besides cutting at that tremendous speed it maintained its edge for longer periods than anything previously known. As steel was such an important commodity, the control of its manufacture had always been greatly sought after. In Europe the cartel system had been most in vogue, whereby production was limited to boost or maintain prices. This had mostly been against England's welfare. In the United States different tactics were employed to achieve the same purpose and with the same total disregard for national interests.