The Origins of Stainless Steel Date Back Almost 1,000 Years Earlier Than We Realised

ScienceAlert ^ | September 24, 2020 | David Nield

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists have found what they think is evidence of low-chromium crucible steel in the 11th century in what is now Chahak in Iran, a long time and a long way away from the European Industrial Revolution. The metal would have been used to manufacture armour and weapons, including swords and daggers.

"This research not only delivers the earliest known evidence for the production of chromium steel dating back as early as the 11th century CE, but also provides a chemical tracer that could aid the identification of crucible steel artefacts in museums or archaeological collections back to their origin in Chahak, or the Chahak tradition," says archaeologist Rahil Alipour from University College London.

This is the earliest we've ever seen the "intentional production of a low-chromium steel" the researchers explain in their paper, meaning stainless steel has had a much longer and more varied history than experts ever knew.

[SunkenCiv]

A nice valentine for the Iranian despotate.

[BipolarBob]

More evidence of time travelers going back and meddling in our affairs.

[SunkenCiv]

...by the 13th century the Europeans had all the technology the lateen sail the old square sail the stern post rudder to go they wanted to they didn’t need to use it until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Turks and after that it was if you wanted something from the Far East it was either pay that price the Turks wanted for letting it come through their territory oh go get it yourself which is just what the Europeans did in the great 16th century voyages of discovery and it was now that the Mariners began to use those star charts prepared in such detail by Claudius Ptolemy fourteen centuries before.

James Burke Connections, Ep. 2 "Death in the Morning"

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

I see what you did there.

[Red Badger]

Forget the movie, all they used was the name..................

[BipolarBob]

I’ve read it. MC was a great author.

[Rocky]

Interesting find. Not sure what the Iranian despots will do with it.

[Red Badger]

I read it when it first came out and anxiously awaited the movie.

I was so disappointed, they didn’t even bother to follow any part of the novel....................

[ckilmer]

there was a post at one time at freerepublic that discussed stainless steel as being what made the famous saracen swords at once so flexible and strong.

That likely they were able to get the ingredients for it from the meteorites that fleck the deserts of saudi arabia.

that that is the reason that the worship stone at the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca— is a meteorite. The extra terrestrial metals smelted into iron was the secret of their success!

Interesting idea. Not much proof.

The context of the story I believe is that moslems use American stainless steel to hold up meteorite stone at the Kaaba.

I think the way the ancient moslem swords were made was lost.

This story today does start to push back the history of stainless steel

[polymuser]

“...swords and daggers.”

Religion of peace, way back then.

[the_Watchman]

Thank you for the Connections link. I found more of the episodes and forwarded it to my kids for the benefit of the grandchildren.

It was a great series back in the 1980’s on PBS.

[BipolarBob]

Same here.

[Rockingham]

There is reason to think that the quality of classic Muslim Damascus swords was due to both the Damascus process and the secret use of vanadium alloyed steel imported from India. The supply of such steel though was lost due to the disruption caused by the Muslim conquest of India.

[Red Badger]

Just like Heinlein’s ‘Starship Troopers’. The movie was okay, but had nothing to do with the book................

[ckilmer]

sounds like you were in on that discussion.

Yes I also heard that india was the source of vanadium and the damascus process.

Sounds like the muslims killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

[T.B. Yoits]

...as early as the 11th century CE

Must really be a real time-shifting capability to come to the present and reset to the alternate CE timeline before going back to the 11th century A.D.

(Regardless of what they want to call it, it's Anno Domini, not the "Common Era").

[Rockingham]

Much was lost in the conquest and destruction of the ancient world by Islam, including India’s remarkable civilization. Unfairly, as the fable warns, one can kill many a Golden Goose and dig through their guts without learning how they produce gold.

[SunkenCiv]

Tough luck for you then.

[CJ Wolf]

Did it rust like Chinese stainless steel?