DE DIVERSIS ARTIBUS COLLECTION DE TRAVAUX ee COLLECTION OF STUDIES FROM )E LACADEMIE INTERNATIONALE See THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY D°HISTOIRE DES SCIENCES Ss OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE PROCEEDINGS OF THE XX‘ INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ~ OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE (Liége, 20-26 July 1997) ‘VOLUME XV MATERIALS: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS Edited by Hans-Joachim BRAUN and Alexandre HERLEA BREPOLShe theme of materials in the history of technology has never been as well researched as other more popular areas like energy, production technology or transport and communication. The present collection of papers originating from the symposium on “Materials: Science, Technology and Early Applications” in conjunction with the xx"" International History of Science Congress in Liége, 1997, make a contribution to remedying this unsatisfactory situation. They concentrate on the 19" and 20" centuries and range from research on the metallurgy of zinc in the late 18"" and early 19" century to the prospects of ceramic materials to ameliorate contemporary environmental problems.DE DIVERSIS ARTIBUS COLLECTION DE TRAVAUX, COLLECTION OF STUDIES DEL’ACADEMIE INTERNATIONALE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY D'HISTOIRE DES SCIENCES OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE Dimscri0y ‘Epr7oRs EMMANUEL. ROBERT. POULLE HALLEUX TOME 58 (N.S, 21) s BREPOLSThe XX" International Congress of History of Science was organized by the Belgian National Committee for Logic, History and Philosophy of Science with the support of : IcsU_ Ministére de Ia Politique scientifique Académie Royale de Belgique Koninklijke Academie van Belgié FNRS FWO Communauté frangaise de Belgique Région Wallonne Service des Affaires culturelles de la Ville de Lidge Service de Enseignement de la Ville de Litge Université de Lidge Comité Sluse asbl Fédération du Tourisme de Ia Province de Lidge Collage Saint-Louis Tastinut d’Enseignement supérieur “Les Rivageois”” Academic Press ‘Agora-Béranger ‘APRIL Banque Nationale de Belgique Carlson Wagonlit Travel - Incentive Travel House Chambre de Commerce et d"Industrie de la Ville de Litge Club liggeois des Exportateurs Cockerill Sambre Group Crédit Communal Derouaux Ordina sprl Disteel Cold s.a, Etilux s.a, Fabrimétal Lidge - Luxembourg Generale Bank nv. - Générale de Banque s.a, Interbrew LEspérance Commercial Maison de la Métalargie et de Industrie de Lidge Office des Produits wallons Pesters Peket dé Houyen Petrofina Rescolié Sabena SNCB Société chimique Prayon Rupel SPE Zone Sud TEC Lidge - Verviers Vulcain Industries © 2002 Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, ‘without the prior permission of the publisher, 1D/2002/0095/22 ISBN 2-503-31367-0 Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paperTABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. Hans-Joachim BRAUN and Alexandre HERLEA Un (demi) métal, quatre procédés, deux filigres (Europe et le zinc, XVI°-XIX* siécles).. Anne-Frangoise GARGON Le réle des Laboratoires industriels dans l’émergence dune métallurgie scientifique & I’ orée du xx° siécle (1860-1914) Nicole CHEZEAU High speed steel, one of the most important contributions of the steel industry to machine building in the last 100 years .. Friedrich TOUSSAINT La métallurgie du soudage en France dans les années trente, vers une approche théorique et scientifique... FE Anne-Catherine ROBERT-HLAUGLUSTAINE Saint-Gobain et te “ béton armé translucide ”, 1931-1937 : la mise au point de la trempe des pavés de verre.. Anne-Laure CARRE. Research on materials in France : the Institut Polytechnique de l’Ouest in Nantes (1919-1939). Gérard EMPTOZ and Virginie CHAMPEAU De la science a la technique, naissance de |’ industrie de Valuminium en France... Muriel Le Roux Aluminium between Science and Practice : Some Aspects of the Role of Techno-Sciences for the Introduction of a “ Scientific Metal ” Helmut MAIER Early Plastics : Influences and Connections ... Susan MossMAN The origins of the Plastic Industry in Portugal. Maria Elvira CALAPES Fox Hunt : Materials Selection and Production Problems of the Edison Battery (1900-1910)... Gijs Mom Die “ Delta-Glocke ”. Fin Hochspannungs-Freileitungs-Isolator und die Entwicklung des Werkstoffs Elektroporzellan. Friedmar KERBE old 656 MATERIALS : RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS Advanced Ceramic Oxides and Glass Cerainics : Progress, Prospects and Future Trends... ASITESH BHATTACHARYA histoire de la métallurgie des poudres en Roumanie - son développement scientifique et industriel . Horia COLAN Building the Ceramic Gas Turbine : Government - Corporate R&D Programs in the United States, Germany and Japan in the 1970s.... Hans-Joachim BRAUN The development of the iron and steel technology on the territory of Poland in ancient and mediaeval times... Jerzy PIASKOWSKI Verres et céramiques glagurées archéologiques : complémentarité entre les textes et les résultats d’ analyses... Isabelle SOULIER, M. BLET, Bernard GRATUZE % Recettés anciennes de mortiers et leur place dans l’étude historique des fagades enduites en Flandre au XVM et au début du X1x° siécle.... Dirk VAN DE ViVER and Koenraad VAN BALEN Apsheron Oil. Facts and Events. Eldar M. MovSUMZADE Contributors.INTRODUCTION Hans-Joachim BRAUN and Alexandre HERLEA Compared to other fields in the history of technology which have been favourites of research for some time, the theme of materials has been compar- atively neglected. Although it is generally recognised that materials have played a main role in technical development, our knowledge in that ficld is still quite scanty. A congress on the general theme “Science, Technology and Industry ” provided a welcome opportunity to partly remedy this unsatisfactory situation. Most of the contributions in this volume concentrate on the 19% and 20" centuries have been presented in the frame of a symposium organised by ICOHTEC and dedicated to materials. They range from research on the metal- _ lurgy of zinc in the late 18" and early 19 century to prospect of ceramic mate- rials to ameliorate contemporary environmental problems. A few other contributions concerning more ancient periods, presented in other symposia, are also included in the volume. One of the main sub-themes of the symposium “ materials” was iron, steel and light metals. In her contribution Anne-Francoise Gargon points out that in the metallurgy of zine continental Europe had, in the period from 1790 to the 1820s, fallen behind work in Britain. She puts emphasis on three different pro- duction processes of zinc of which the processes developed in Silesia and in the Ligge region were of importance for the future. Nicole Chezeau concen- trates on the role of industrial laboratories in the early stages of scientific met- allurgy in the late 19” and early 20" centuries. Their main objective was to establish a relationship between the mechanical properties of materials and their chemical composition. Those research findings were particularly relevant in the development of high speed steel which Friedrich Toussaint investigates. He points out that new subgrades of high speed steel were often developed in order to save alloy materials, particularly tungsten. A related field is welding, Anne-Catherine Robert-Hauglustaine analyses the development of welding in the 1930s and emphasises the transition from8g HANS-JOACHIM BRAUN and ALEXANDRE HERLEA. empirical know how to scientific knowledge based on metallurgical and metal- lographical research. In a different field, construction technology, the firm of Saint Gobain developed a new combination of glass and reinforced steel which was, as Anne-Laure Carré shows, successfully applied in the pavilion which Saint Gobain built for the Arts and Technology Exhibition in Paris in 1937. In several of the papers the relationship between research at technical schools and institutes of technology on the one hand and corporate research | institutes and industrial firms on the other is dealt with. At the centre of Gérard Emptoz’ and Virginie Champeau’s paper is the Polytechnical Institute of East- em France in Nantes, founded in 1919 which, from the beginning, had a strong research department, particularly in materials, financed by organisations like railway companies or aeronautical and defence agencies. It is no surprise that several of the papers ae devoted to aluminium. From the start, aluminium bailed as a “ scientific metal”, had great promises and is often presented as a model case of successful co-operation between science and practice. Muriel Le Roux emphasises the important role of scientific’ research in the early stages of aluminium in France and the various links between research at universities and corporate research laboratories. Helmut Maier, however, bas reservations about concentrating exclusively on the effects of scientific research. He makes it clear that until the 1920s aluminium workers were little impressed by scientific research, neglected it to a large extent and continued with “ business as usual ”. Only in the 1920s a successful amalgam- ation of techno-science and “ shop culture” started. Aluminium was a new “scientific metal” which was enthusiastically received in some quarters in the late 19 and early 20" centuries, but different sorts of plastics were equally successful from the late 19 century onwards. ‘Susan Mossman deals with the origins of celluloid and particularly with the role of Alexander Parkes, whom she considers as the key figure in the inven- tion process. Maria Elvira Calapes, in her case study on the origins of the plas- tics industry in Portugal in the 1930s, concentrates on the industrial policy of the Salazar régime, on the demand of the electrical industry and on the “ barefoot campaign ”. Forbidding Portuguese citizens to walk on the streets of towns and cities barefooted, thus promoting the production of cheap plastic sandals. Materials selection for automobile batteries was one of the many issues the indefatigable inventor Thomas Alva Edison dealt with, Although the alkali bat- tery developed by him did not meet Edison's ambitious expectations it did prove an ideal solution for fleet application. Edison and the alkali battery were in competition with the acid battery and its manufacturers. In his article Gijs Mom regards the case of the alkali battery as a fitting example of the “ pluto effect ”, a case, when an alternative technology pushes the mainstream technol- ogy to its utmost limits without being able to replace it.INTRODUCTION 9 One of the main subjects of the symposium on materials was ceramics. Friedmar Kerbe investigates.the origins of high voltage insulators and particu- Jarly of the “ Delta Bell” (1897) which was developed by R.M. Friese in co- operation with the porcelain factory in Hermsdorf/Thuringia. Kerbe shows that the scientists working on high voltage insulators faced complex materials prob- Jems which could partly be solved by materials for high performance applica- tions like aluminium oxide. This important material is also mentioned by ‘Asitesh Bhattacharya in his paper on advanced ceramic oxides and_ glass ceramics. He concentrates on the case of India where the potentials of ceramics have been used to a significant degree. Horia Colan gives a survey of the devel- opment of powder metallurgy in Romania with special reference to the Univer- sity of Cluj-Napoca and the close links of that university with various industrial branches, while Hans-Joachim Braun offers a case study on high per- formance ceramic materials, especially silicon nitride and silicon carbide, in an atternpt to build a ceramic gas turbine in the 1970s, Japanese researchers and industry were particularly active in this field. Although it has not been possible to build a ceramic gas turbine there have been important spin offs into automo- tive engine technology. ‘Three other papers included in this volume (not delivered in the ICOHTEC symposium) have in common the use of modern physico-chemical analysis methods in the study of archaeological materials. They ate concerning mostly "periods of time before the 19* century. The study of the development of the iron and steel technology in Poland in ancient and medieval times presented by Prof. Piaskowski is based on the met- allography examination of iron. These methods were developed by the Foundary Research Institut Krakow and the Institute of the History of Science and Technology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. I. Soulier, M. Blet and B. Gratuze are emphasing in their study, concerning glace and ceramics in France between the 12° and 18" century, the comple- mentarity between historical sources (texts) and modem physico-chemical analysis. Dirk Van de Vijver and Koen Van Balen are also emphasing the importance of two methods used in the study of archeological materials — historical sources and modern physico-chemical analysis. They are referring to an old recipe of mortar. A last paper by E.M. Movsumzade is dealing with the history of the oil industry in Azerbaijan, namely in the Baku area. ‘The present volume offers a wide variety of research findings in the history of materials with special emphasis on research and development issues. It is to be hoped that this volume will stimulate further scholarly investigation into this exciting field.