Materials science and engineering PDF

ABSTRACT

The origin of man's use of metals through mineralogical associations, and the subsequent development of metallurgical technology through history, are briefly reviewed. The rate of change in the understanding and application of metals greatly increased from straightforward observation and deduction, through alchemical experimentation and then particularly rapidly after the new atomistic philosophy and the pursuit of science for its own sake in the seventeenth century, as reflected in the foundation of the Royal Society. The development of a scientific basis for understanding during the eighteenth and particularly the nineteenth century was to result in an explosion of metallurgical technology, as for example in steelmaking, and as evidenced by the Great Exhibition and the Government's creation of the School of Mines, both in 1851, the latter to become the RSM in 1863. The initial emphasis in the School was mineralogical, chemical and analytical, an understandable bias at the time that was, however, to persist for many years. The early history of the School and the role of John Percy, the 'father' of English metallurgy as an applied science, are considered.

Edited by: Malcolm McLean