Journal of the Association of Engineers, India

N. G. Chakrabarti ¹

Affiliations
1 Bhartia Electric Steel Co., Ltd., IN

Abstract

The manufacture of steel is an extremely old Industry; so old that it is difficult to trace when this important metal was first discovered. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Iron when alloyed with other metals like Nickel, Chrome, Molybdenum, Tungsten are called Nickel Steel. Chrome Steel, Molybdenum Steel Tungsten Steel, etc., which are known as Special Steels. The subject steel is so vast that this word in a general term has never been used to denote a definite term. Its manufacture is equally full of complexities. Tracing the history of its manufacture of the past 5 centuries we find it was first manufactured by cementation process in Belgium in 1600 A.D. and then in the crucible by an English Clock Maker, Benjamin Huntsman by name, sometime in 1742. Then Henry Bessemer in 1856 came out with his wonderful invention of blowing air through molten pig iron burning out its impurities like Carbon, Silicon, Manganese, Sulphur, Phosphorus etc. producing masses of steel in a few minutes' time. This was followed a few years later by the discovery of open hearth process by Siemens and Martin. About 1900 A.D. Heroult in France and Kjellin in Sweden designed and built Electric Furnaces of Arc type for Steel Making. In 1927 the first high frequency Electric Crucible Furnace (Coreless Induction Type) was installed for the first time in the world to be commercially used for the manufacture of Tool Steels at the Works of Messrs. Edgar Allen & Co., Ltd., in Sheffield.

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N. G. Chakrabarti

Abstract

Iron is the world's most important and oldest metal on which the whole structure of modern science and civilisation has been built up. No other metal is found to play such an extensive role commencing from domestic use to industrial applications. It is the only metal which is highly magnetic in character and the whole of Electrical Engineering is based entirely on the property of magnetism. No other metal has the hardening capacity as iron and its alloys. Ships, Aeroplanes, Motor Cars, Railways, Locomotives and Carriages and Wagons, Power plants, Bridges, massive building structures etc. are all made essentially of iron and its alloys. In other words, there is hardly any article required for our daily use which has not been produced either from iron or by means of iron. No country in the present day world can achieve a leading industrial and economic position without extensive resources and proper utilisation of iron. India's contribution to the production of this basic metal is only about 1% of the total world's output. This is enough to depict to what extent we are backward and poor compared to other countries of the West. But the position was not so bad when India was at the zenith of her prosperity from the Vedic Civilisation of the Aryans to Islamic rule. The late great Indian economist Mr. Justice V. R. Ranade in his "Essays on Indian Economics" (First edition pp. 159-160) wrote on Indian Iron & Steel Industry the following.

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N. G. Chakrabarti ¹

Affiliations
1 Bhartia Electric Steel Factory, IN

Abstract

The Company was formed early in 11)20 and was then known as the Pioneer Electric Steel Co. It was at that time a private Company promoted by the w^ell-known firm of Calcutta merchants, Sir Sarupchand Hukumchand & Co. The Company became a limited one in 1928, Sir Sarupchand Hukumchand & Co. being appointed Managing Agents. The name was then changed to ITukumchand Electric Steel Co., Ltd.

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