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Steel is an alloy composed of between 0.2 and 2.0 percent carbon, with the balance being iron. From prehistory through the creation of the blast furnace, iron was produced from iron ore as wrought iron, 99.82–100 percent Fe, and the process of making steel involved adding carbon to iron, usually in a serendipitous manner, in the forge, or via the cementation process.
Cast iron is not a good structural material for handling tension or bending moments because of its brittleness and relatively low tensile strength compared to steel and wrought iron. However, cast iron does have good compressive strength and was successfully used for structural components that were largely in compression in well-designed ...
He gained patents for the process in 1855 and 1856 and successfully completed the conversion of cast iron into cast steel in 1858. [21] Eventually mild steel would replace both wrought iron and cast iron as the preferred metal for construction.
In 1945, the US produced 67% of the world's pig iron, and 72% of the steel. By comparison, 2014 percentages were 2.4% of the pig iron, and 5.3% of the steel production. Although US iron and steel output continued to grow overall through the 1950s and 1960s, the world steel industry grew much faster, and the US share of world production shrank.
A roll of steel wool. Iron and steel are used widely in the construction of roads, railways, other infrastructure, appliances, and buildings. Most large modern structures, such as stadiums and skyscrapers, bridges, and airports, are supported by a steel skeleton. Even those with a concrete structure employ steel for reinforcing.
The Iron Age began around 1200 BC and ended at around 500 BC. Humans may have smelted iron sporadically throughout the Bronze Age but was thought to be an inferior metal because iron tools and weapons weren't as hard or durable as bronze counterparts. [19] It was not until the creation of steel, combining iron and carbon, that iron became ...
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Cast iron development lagged in Europe because wrought iron was the desired product and the intermediate step of producing cast iron involved an expensive blast furnace and further refining of pig iron to cast iron, which then required a labor and capital intensive conversion to wrought iron.