Harry Brearley (18 February 1871 – 14 July 1948) was an English metallurgist, credited with the invention of "rustless steel" (later to be called "

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

" in the anglophone world). Based in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, his invention brought affordable cutlery to the masses, and saw an expansion of the city's traditional cutlery trade.

Life

Brearley was born on 18 February 1871 in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, the son of John Brearley, a steelworker, and his wife, Jane Brearley née Senior.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 2 April 2013 He left Woodside school at the age of twelve to enter his first employment as a labourer in the steelworks where his father worked, later getting the post of general assistant in the company's chemical laboratory. He married Helen Theresa Crank (1874–1955) on 23 October 1895. For several years, in addition to his laboratory work, he studied at home and later in formal evening classes, to specialize in steel production techniques and associated chemical analysis methods. In his early thirties, Brearley had earned a reputation as an experienced professional and for being very astute in the resolution of practical, industrial, metallurgical problems. It was in 1908, when two of Sheffield's principal steelmaking companies innovatively agreed to jointly finance a common research laboratory ( Brown Firth Laboratories) that Harry Brearley was asked to lead the project. After leaving Brown Firth, Brearley joined Brown Bayley's Steel Works, also in Sheffield; he became a director of the firm in 1925. In 1941 Brearley created a charitable trust The Freshgate Trust Foundation, a grantmaking charity operating in Sheffield and South Yorkshire. His aim was to provide a "Fresh Gate" or new opportunity to people like him born into modest circumstances so that they may experience travel, education, the arts and music. The foundation is still operating as a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

awarding grants for charitable purposes in South Yorkshire. Brearley died on 14 July 1948, at Torquay. He was cremated at Efford Crematorium, Efford, near

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

on 16 July 1948 and his ashes were scattered in the Efford Crematorium Garden of Remembrance. In 2013, in the Sheffield University Varsity Brewing Challenge, Sheffield University named their beer, brewed by Thornbridge, Brearleys, to commemorate 100 years since Harry Brearley invented stainless steel.

Stainless steel

In the troubled years immediately before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, arms manufacturing increased significantly in the UK, but practical problems were encountered due to erosion (excessive wear) of the internal surfaces of gun barrels. Brearley began to research new steels which could better resist the erosion caused by high temperatures (rather than corrosion, as is often mentioned in this regard). He began to examine the addition of

chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

to steel, which was known to raise the material's melting point, as compared to the standard

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

steels. The research concentrated on quantifying the effects of varying the levels of

(C, at concentrations around 0.2 weight %) and

(Cr, in the range of 6 to 15 weight %).

The accidental discovery

In order to undertake metallography to study the microstructure of the experimental alloys (the main factor responsible for a steel's mechanical properties) it was necessary to polish and etch the metallic samples produced. For a carbon steel, a dilute solution of

nitric acid Nitric acid is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but samples tend to acquire a yellow cast over time due to decomposition into nitrogen oxide, oxides of nitrogen. Most com ...

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

is sufficient to produce the required etching, but Brearley found that the new chromium steels were highly resistant to chemical attack.

Development

It was probably Harry Brearley's upbringing in Sheffield, a city famous for the manufacture of cutlery since the 16th century, which led him to appreciate the potential of these new steels for applications not only in high-temperature service, as originally envisioned, but also in the mass-production of food-related applications such as cutlery, saucepans and processing equipment etc. Up to that time carbon-steel knives were prone to unhygienic

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

ing if they were not frequently polished and only expensive sterling silver or electroplated nickel silver (EPNS) cutlery was generally available to avoid such problems. With this in mind Brearley extended his examinations to include tests with food acids such as vinegar and lemon juice, with very promising results. Brearley initially called the new alloy "rustless steel"; the more euphonic "stainless steel" was suggested by Ernest Stuart of R.F. Mosley's, a local cutlery manufacturer at Portland Works, and eventually prevailed although Mosley's used the "Rusnorstain" trademark for many years. It is reported that the first true stainless steel, a 0.24 wt% C, 12.8 wt% Cr ferrous

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

, was produced by Brearley in an electric furnace on 13 August 1913. He was subsequently awarded the

Iron and Steel Institute The Iron and Steel Institute was a British association originally organized by the iron trade of the north of England. Its object was the discussion of practical and scientific questions connected with the manufacture of iron and steel. History The ...

's Bessemer Gold Medal in 1920.Tilt Hammer – Steel City Founders – Harry Brearley
The American Society for Metals gives the date for Brearley's creation of casting number 1008 (12.8% chromium, 0.44% manganese, 0.2% silicon, 0.24% carbon and 85.32% iron) as 20 August 1913.''The History of Stainless Steel''
by Harold M. Cobb, (ASM International, 2010) p41 Virtually all research projects into the further development of stainless steels were interrupted by the 1914–18 War, but efforts were renewed in the 1920s. Brearley had left the Brown Firth Laboratories in 1915, following disagreements regarding

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

rights, but the research continued under the direction of his successor, Dr. W. H. Hatfield. It is Hatfield who is credited with the development, in 1924, of a stainless steel which even today is probably the widest-used alloy of this type, the so-called " 18/8", which in addition to chromium, includes

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

(Ni) in its composition (18wt% Cr, 8wt% Ni).

Memorials

A mural of Brearley, marking the 100th anniversary of his invention of stainless steel, was commissioned for the side of a building on Howard Street, Sheffield, and was painted by the artist Sarah Yates (aka "Faunagraphic").

Books

* H. Brearley & F. Ibbotson (1902) ''The Analysis of Steel-works Materials'' * H. Brearley (1911) ''The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel'' * H. Brearley (1914) ''The Case-Hardening of Steel'' * H. Brearley (1918) ''The Heat Treatment of Steel'' * H. Brearley (1933) ''Steel Makers'' * H. Brearley (1941) ''Knotted String'' (autobiography)

References

External links

The development of stainless steel
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*Archive.org, list of books by creator
"Brearley, Harry, b. 1871
*https://freshgate.org.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Brearley, Harry 1871 births 1948 deaths People from Sheffield English metallurgists English inventors History of Sheffield Science and technology in South Yorkshire Stainless steel Engineers from Yorkshire Bessemer Gold Medal