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101 Hadfield, Sir Robert Abbott
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 28 November 1858 Attercliffe, Sheffield, Yorkshire, Englandd. 30 September 1940 Kingston Hill, Surrey, England[br]English metallurgist and pioneer in alloy steels.[br]Hadfield's father, Robert, set up a steelworks in Sheffield in 1872, one of the earliest to specialize in steel castings. After his education in Sheffield, during which he showed an interest in chemistry, Hadfield entered his father's works. His first act was to set up a laboratory, where he began systematically experimenting with alloy steels in order to improve the quality of the products of the family firm. In 1883 Hadfield found that by increasing the manganese content to 12.5 per cent, with a carbon content of 1.4 per cent, the resulting alloy showed extraordinary resistance to abrasive wear even though it was quite soft. It was soon applied in railway points and crossings, crushing and grinding machinery, and wherever great resistance to wear is required. Its lack of brittleness led to its use in steel helmets during the First World War. Hadfield's manganese steel was also non-magnetic, which was later of importance in the electrical industry. Hadfield's other great invention was that of silicon steel. Again after careful and systematic laboratory work, Hadfield found that a steel containing 3–4 per cent silicon and as little as possible of other elements was highly magnetic, which was to prove important in the electrical industry (e.g. reducing the weight and bulk of electrical transformers). Hadfield took over the firm on the death of his father in 1888, but he continued to lay great stress on the need for laboratory research to improve the quality and range of products. The steel-casting side of the business led to a flourishing armaments industry, and this, together with their expertise in alloy steels, made Hadfield's one of the great names in Sheffield and British steel until, sadly, it succumbed along with so many other illustrious names during the British economic recession of 1983. Hadfield had a keen interest in metallurgical history, particularly in his characteristically thorough examination of the alloys of iron prepared by Faraday at the Royal Institution. Hadfield was an enlightened employer and was one of the first to introduce the eight-hour day.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1908. Baronet 1917. FRS 1909.BibliographyA list of Hadfield's published papers and other works is published with a biographical account in Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society (1940) 10.LRDBiographical history of technology > Hadfield, Sir Robert Abbott
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102 Winsor, Frederick Albert
SUBJECT AREA: Public utilities[br]b. 1763 Brunswick, Germanyd. 11 May 1830 Paris, France[br]German pioneer of gas lighting,[br]He was born Frederic Albrecht Winzer but anglicized his name after settling in England. His interest in gas lighting was aroused by the experiments of Philippe Lebon in Paris in 1802. Winsor had little scientific knowledge or engineering ability, but was well endowed with confidence and enterprise. He alone among the early practitioners of gas-making envisaged a central plant supplying a number of users through gas mains. He managed to discover the essentials of Lebon's process and tried without success to exploit it on the European continent. So he moved to England in 1803 and settled first in Grosvenor Square and then in Pall Mall. He gave public demonstrations of gas lighting at the Lyceum Theatre in London and in 1804 took out his first patent. In December he lit Pall Mall, the first street to be illuminated by gas. Winsor then began to promote a grandiose scheme for the formation of a National Light and Heat Company. He struggled against bitter opposition both in and out of Parliament to obtain sanction for his company, and it was only after the third attempt that the Gas Light \& Coke Company received its charter in 1812. However, Winsor lacked the knowledge to devise successful gas-producing plant, even with the help of the German immigrant chemist F.C.Accum. Winsor was dismissed in 1812 and returned to Paris the following year, while the company recovered with the appointment of an able engineer, Samuel Clegg. Winsor formed a company in Paris to install gas lighting, but that failed in 1819.[br]Further ReadingW.Matthew, 1827, An Historical Sketch of the Origin, Progress and Present State of Gaslighting, London.E.G.Stewart, 1958, Town Gas, Its Manufacture and Distribution, London: Science Museum.LRDBiographical history of technology > Winsor, Frederick Albert
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