Introduction

By StellaInForest January 29, 2026

The Project Gutenberg eBook of A few secrets of the metallurgist simply told

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Title: A few secrets of the metallurgist simply told

Author: Gerald Watson Hinkley

Release date: February 9, 2025 [eBook #75326]

Language: English

Original publication: Dunkirk: Atlas Crucible Steel Co, 1918

Credits: deaurider, Richard Scheibel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Some minor misspellings in the text are silently corrected.
Enclosed small caps in ≈double tilde≈,
enclosed italics font in _underscores_,
bold text in =equal sign=.
The numbering of the drawings does not correspond to their marked
number. However, they have been left as they are, as the author has
entered them by hand in the drawings.
In the table on the color of the oxide layer of tempered steel in the
tempering section, the first column has been set without trailing
commas, as the author has handled this inconsistently.
The new original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
public domain.

A FEW SECRETS OF THE METALLURGIST SIMPLY TOLD

ATLAS CRUCIBLE STEEL CO. PUBLISHERS DUNKIRK, N. Y.

A FEW SECRETS OF THE METALLURGIST SIMPLY TOLD

BY

GERALD W. HINKLEY, M. E.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY ORDNANCE ENGINEER AND ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT ATLAS CRUCIBLE STEEL CO. DUNKIRK, N. Y.

FIRST EDITION

COPYRIGHTED 1918 BY PRESS OF DUNKIRK PRINTING COMPANY

PREFACE.

This is not and is not intended to be a thoroughly complete explanation or discussion of the allotropic theory of iron and steel, but rather a brief outline of a few of the great principles of metallurgy written primarily for the layman. If without leading him astray from the real scientific understanding of the subject we have succeeded in briefly but satisfactorily answering the old familiar question, “Why do steels harden?”, we will in a large measure, have accomplished our purpose.

Besides the personal observations which the writer has made from time to time in the metallurgical laboratory, he has availed himself freely of the works of many and eminent authors dealing with this subject and where disputable conditions have arisen in regard to certain theories, uses, etc., has attempted to adopt the most logical consensus of opinion.

  1. W. H.

CONTENTS.

A FEW SECRETS OF THE METALLURGIST SIMPLY TOLD.

Page
INTRODUCTION                            17
CHAPTER I.
≈A Slight Test of the Imagination≈      19
CHAPTER II.
≈Comparison Between Conditions
Which Exist in the Iron and
Steel Family to Those Which
Exist with More Familiar Elements≈      22
CHAPTER III.
≈An Experiment Performed with
a Piece of Pearlitic Steel≈             29
CHAPTER IV.
≈High Speed Steel≈                      51
CHAPTER V.
≈The General Effect of the More
Important Elements in Tool
Steels≈                                 61
≈Carbon Steels≈                         61
≈Alloy Steels≈                          63
≈High Speed Steels≈                     64
≈Elements Which Occur in all
Steels≈                                 66
≈Iron≈                                  66
≈Carbon≈                                67
≈Manganese≈                             67
≈Silicon≈                               68
≈Phosphorus≈                            69
≈Sulphur≈                               70
≈Elements Which Have Become
Especially Associated with
Special Alloy Steels≈                   70
≈Chromium≈                              70
≈Tungsten≈                              72
≈Molybdenum≈                            73
≈Vanadium≈                              73
≈Cobalt≈                                74
≈Uranium, Titanium and Aluminum≈        75
≈Impurities≈                            75
≈Heat Treatment≈                        76
≈Hardening≈                             77
≈Annealing≈                             79
≈Tempering≈                             81
≈Conclusion≈                            84
CHAPTER VI.
≈What Tool Steel Is Doing Towards
Winning the War≈                        85
APPENDIX.
≈Analysis, Uses and Heat Treatment
of Various Grades of
Tool Steels≈                            92
≈High Speed Steels≈                     93
≈Die Steel for Hot Work≈                94
≈Special Alloy Steel≈                   95
≈Semi-High Speed Steel≈                 96
≈Simple Carbon Tool Steel≈              97
≈Non-Shrinking Oil Hardening
Steel≈                                  98
≈Special Hot Work Alloy Steel≈          99

A FEW SECRETS OF THE METALLURGIST SIMPLY TOLD

INTRODUCTION.

When as a student at a Technical College of one of our great Universities, I came to the study of Differential and Integral Calculus, I remember that I was seized with a kind of mental paralysis at the thought of the great unknown that lay before me. Fortunately, however, a little book was brought to my attention, under the encouraging title “Calculus Made Easy”. As a matter of fact the little volume did not attempt to take its readers through all the intricacies of the entire subject, but it did succeed in giving a certain start on the long journey which has to be undergone by a student of the Calculus. Its opening sentence was encouraging, which I have always remembered, and which read something as follows:

“What one fool can accomplish, another fool can do, therefore take courage”. This same thought applies to the subject which is now before us.

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