My first job, in 1973. Was working in a local Machine Shop. I learned to turn Aluminum and Steel, on Lathes. Make Aluminum Parts on a Big Screw Machine. This was, kind of a Big Automated Lathe. And I drilled thousands of holes. With a manual Drill Press, in Military Gear Shift Handles for Trucks. At, first the work was interesting to me. When, I was learning. But, soon it became very monotonous to me. I found my self Day Dreaming. Thinking of my Girl friend. And sometimes forgetting to, take the Chuck out to the Lathe. Before turning it back on!:O After changing the Stock Materiel. To make another Part... My second job, was in another Machine Shop. That, also had a Foundry. I worked in the Foundry. I pored Aluminum and Brass. We used metal Castings, for the Aluminum. And Sand Castings, for the Brass. No Automation there. We Hand Pored the Molten Metal into the Castings. With Ladles, on long Poles. This was very hot and somewhat hard work. In the Texas Summer Heat. With no Air Conditioning. And you were lucky to have a Fan, near your work area. But, I found the Processes Fascinating. And dreamed of the things, that I could make for my self. I did get to take home. One of the Aluminum, three tiered Lawn Tables. That I pored. I Painted it Candy Apple Red (red being my favorite color). I gave it to my Mom, as a present. The paint was too nice, to put it outdoors. And it floated around the house and Garage for many years. I wonder, what happened to that thing??? I didn't work there very long. When I was asked. If I wanted to go back to work at the original, Machine Shop. Where I started out. I liked it better, there. So, I did. I always liked learning new things. Over the years. I learned to be a Maintenance Mechanic. For Gasoline Stations, Convenience Stores, Car Washes and did General Building Maintenance. I Fixed things, built things. Did Electrical work. And dug ditches and Pored Concrete. When needed, to repair leaking Gas Lines. Then I became a Cabinet Maker. Building Cabinets for Homes. I liked working with Wood. But, it sure was hard on my Allergies. After that. I worked in Air Craft Manufacturing. I was a Hand Finisher, on Machined Parts. And later, a Tool Maker, for the same Company. I liked that work allot. It took allot thought and planning to make and repair those Form Blocks (tools for forming sheet metal parts) and Templates (for making and checking parts). This is beginning to sound like my Resume... But, these Videos, below. Really got me to thinking about. All of the Industry. That make America. The Great and Prosperous Nation. That is has been. I later learned, to Mix Sound for Bands and really loved doing that. Then I got into Computers. Something, that I never thought I could catch on to. Since, seeing my first DOS Based PC, in 1975. But, when Window 3.1 came out. I was in. I learned by doing. Just like I had learned everything else, over the years. With some help and instruction, from those with Experience, of Coarse... I'm quite good with Computers and Software now. And I like reading and learning about Linux OS's and Embedded Electronics, these days. Oh, and I also did allot of Video Work, in years past too. I love all things AV. Anyway... Check out these Videos on How Steel was Made. Back in the Olden Days. This is something, that we will most likely not see again in the USA... The videos, that I have watched so fare Are... Bessemer Steel Making at Workington Cumbria, in England. And How Steel Is Made circa 1943 Bethlehem Steel. The process of manufacturing steel is shown. Part One of a series, "Steel for the Armed Forces." And then there's The Henry Ford Steel Production Plant. The River Rouge Plant, in Dearborn MI. Check out the Related links too...

Don

Bessemer Steel Making at Workington Cumbria

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Video link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ3aTpKMmfQ

Published on Aug 20, 2013

Sir Henry Bessemer created a new process for making steel and his earliest Bessemser Converters were sited at Workington Cumbria UK.

How Steel Is Made circa 1943 Bethlehem Steel

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Video link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKBMRL2Pnf8

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Published on Jan 29, 2014

more at http://scitech.quickfound.net

The process of manufacturing steel is shown. Part One of a series: "Steel for the Armed Forces."

Public domain film from the Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel

Steel is an alloy of iron. Carbon is the primary alloying element, and its content in the steel is between 0.002% and 2.1% by weight. Too little carbon content leaves (pure) iron quite soft, ductile, and weak. Carbon contents higher than those of steel make an alloy commonly called pig iron that is brittle and not malleable.

Additional elements may be present in steel: manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, and traces of oxygen, nitrogen and aluminium.

Alloy steel is steel to which additional alloying elements have been intentionally added to modify the characteristics of steel. Common alloying elements include: manganese, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, boron, titanium, vanadium and niobium...

Overview

Carbon, other elements, and inclusions within iron act as hardening agents that prevent the movement of dislocations that naturally exist in the iron atom crystal lattices. Varying the amount of alloying elements, their form in the steel either as solute elements, or a precipitated phases, retards the movement of those dislocations that make iron so ductile and so weak, and so it controls qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel...

Alloys with a higher than 2.1% carbon content, depending on other element content and possibly on processing, are known as cast iron. Cast iron is not malleable even when hot, but it can be formed by casting as it has a lower melting point than steel and good castability properties. Steel is also distinguishable from wrought iron (now largely obsolete), which may contain a small amount of carbon but large amounts of slag...

...steel's use expanded extensively after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century... With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, a new era of mass-produced steel began. This was followed by Siemens-Martin process and then Gilchrist-Thomas process that refined the quality of steel...

Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), further lowered the cost of production, while increasing the quality of the metal and largely replaced earlier methods. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world, with more than 1.3 billion tons produced annually...

When iron is smelted from its ore by commercial processes, it contains more carbon than is desirable. To become steel, it must be melted and reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point other elements can be added. This liquid is then continuously cast into long slabs or cast into ingots. Approximately 96% of steel is continuously cast, while only 4% is produced as ingots.

The ingots are then heated in a soaking pit and hot rolled into slabs, blooms, or billets. Slabs are hot or cold rolled into sheet metal or plates. Billets are hot or cold rolled into bars, rods, and wire. Blooms are hot or cold rolled into structural steel, such as I-beams and rails. In modern steel mills these processes often occur in one assembly line, with ore coming in and finished steel coming out. Sometimes after a steel's final rolling it is heat treated for strength, however this is relatively rare...

Since the 17th century the first step in European steel production has been the smelting of iron ore into pig iron in a blast furnace. Originally using charcoal, modern methods use coke, which has proven more economical...

The modern era in steelmaking began with the introduction of Henry Bessemer's Bessemer process in 1855, the raw material for which was pig iron. His method let him produce steel in large quantities cheaply, thus mild steel came to be used for most purposes for which wrought iron was formerly used. The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic Bessemer process) was an improvement to the Bessemer process, made by lining the converter with a basic material to remove phosphorus...

These methods of steel production were rendered obsolete by the Linz-Donawitz process of basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), developed in the 1950s, and other oxygen steel making methods. Basic oxygen steelmaking is superior to previous steelmaking methods because the oxygen pumped into the furnace limits impurities that previously had entered from the air used. Today, electric arc furnaces (EAF) are a common method of reprocessing scrap metal to create new steel...