Sir Robert Hadfield, Bt | |
|---|---|
 Bust in the Sir Robert Hadfield Building,University of Sheffield | |
| Born | Robert Abbott Hadfield (1858-11-28)28 November 1858 |
| Died | 30 September 1940(1940-09-30) (aged 81) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | |
| Awards | |
Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield, 1st BaronetFRS[1] (28 November 1858 inSheffield – 30 September 1940 inSurrey) was anEnglishmetallurgist, noted for his 1882 discovery ofmanganese steel, one of the first steelalloys. He also inventedsilicon steel, initially for mechanical properties (patents in 1886) which have made the alloy a material of choice forsprings and some fine blades, though it has also become important in electrical applications for its magnetic behaviour.[2]
Hadfield was born 28 November 1858 inAttercliffe, then still a village near Sheffield.[1] Hadfield's father, also named Robert Hadfield, owned Hadfield's Steel Foundry inSheffield and in 1872 was the first manufacturer of steelcastings in Britain. He declined to use patented technology from France and developed his own, thus laying the foundations for what was to become one of Britain's leading armament firms.[1]
Robert the younger decided against Oxford and Cambridge, and entered work as an apprentice in 1875.[1] He was successful and by the age of 24 had taken over the management due to his father's ill health.[1]
Hadfield took out two patents on manganese steel in 1883--the British precursors toU.S. patent 303,150 andU.S. patent 303,151--and exhibited the material before theInstitution of Mechanical Engineers the next year.[1] In February 1888 he presented a paper to theInstitution of Civil Engineers about his further research on manganese in steel, which included the discovery that an alloy containing between 12 and 14 per cent manganese had special utility. Amongst other properties: in atensile test it drew out uniformly whilst in most metals local elongation or ‘necking’ occurs, andmagnetism is absent in it.[1] InBrinell units the surface hardness increased on deformation from 200 to 550 or 580 (approaching that which will scratch glass) according to measurements byFloris Osmond.[1] Its hardness and non-magnetic properties gave advantage in the arms industry, especially for British helmets.[1]
The younger Hadfield took over the business in 1888 on his father's death. The firm was then made into a limited company, and he became chairman and managing director. The younger man was then 30 years of age.[1]
In 1889 Hadfield published with theIron and Steel Institute the results of his investigations intoiron alloyed withsilicon. Studies of iron withaluminum,chromium,nickel andtungsten followed in 1890, 1892, 1899, and 1903, respectively.[1]
In 1891 he adopted both the eight-hour workday at his company, and thethermoelectricpyrometer, which had been developed by the FrenchmanHenry Louis Le Chatelier.[1]
In 1899 a paper in theRoyal Dublin Society was published by Barrett, Brown and Hadfield of seminal importance to magnetism, in a hundred alloys of iron.[1]
Hadfield collaborated withJames Dewar in the study of very low temperatures on the properties of metals, and withHeike Kamerlingh Onnes at theUniversity of Leyden Cryogenic Laboratory after his appointment there in 1905.[1] They discovered that a characteristic offace-centred cubiclattice structure metals would actually become more ductile at extremely low temperatures, whilst those with abody-centred cubic lattice became brittle.[1]
From 1913 until 1920 Hadfield was president of theFaraday Society, and as a farewell he organized there a seminar onmicroscopy and thephoto-micrograph.[1]
In 1925 under his name appeared the bookMetallurgy and its Influence on Modern Progress;Faraday and his metallurgical researches appeared in 1931; 1935 sawEmpire development and proposals for the establishment of an Empire Development Board.
In 1936 Hadfield presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers a paper in which he detailed thecorrosive effect ofsea-water on 980 metals.[1]
Between 1898 and 1939 he lived atParkhead House inWhirlow, Sheffield.
In the 1930s he employed record breaking motorcyclistFlorence Blenkiron as a secretary[3] and office manager.[4]
He died 30 September 1940 inSurrey with over 200 papers to his name on metallurgical research.[2]
In 1899, Hadfield was madeMaster Cutler.[5] He wasknighted on 21 July 1908[6] and created abaronet, ofSheffield in theWest Riding of the County of York on 26 June 1917.[7] In the same year he was made a freeman of theCity of London.[1] He was elected as aFellow of the Royal Society in 1909,[1] a member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1912 and an honorary member of theAcademy of Sciences of the USSR in 1933.[8] He was also a corresponding member of theAcadémie Française.[1] In 1939 he was awarded theFreedom of the City of Sheffield.[5] He was an active Freemason and a member of Ivanhoe Lodge meeting atTapton Hall in Sheffield.[9]
He was awarded aTelford Medal by theInstitution of Civil Engineers in 1888, theJohn Scott Medal ofThe Franklin Institute in 1891 and theBessemer Gold Medal in 1904.[10] He received theJohn Fritz Medal in 1921 and theAlbert Medal (RSA) in 1935, both for his contributions tometallurgy.
Hadfield was awarded honorary degrees from theUniversity of Oxford, the University of Sheffield and theUniversity of Leeds.[1]
He is commemorated in the Sir Robert Hadfield Building at theUniversity of Sheffield, which contains the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering. There is also a wing at Sheffield'sNorthern General Hospital named after him.
He wasnominated for the Nobel Prize inphysics in 1912.[11]
Hadfield married in 1894 Miss Frances Belt Wickersham, of Philadelphia, who earned aCBE in 1918 for her services inWorld War I as the founder of a hospital atWimereux.[1] At the beginning of theSecond World War she founded theHadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit, again in that country.[1]
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Baronet (of Sheffield) 1917–1940 | Extinct |
