Press Officer Rick Purnell writes ….

Who was Harry Brearley? Ian Handford of the Torbay Civic Society told the tale to Teignmouth Probus Club’s June meeting of the Society’s Blue Plaque placed in his honour at his home of some 20 years in Torquay. The stimulation for this honour came from a special conference in Sheffield in 2013 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of discovery of stainless steel created by their local hero inventor, metallurgist Harry Brearley.

Speaker Ian, claimed that Harry Brierley’s creation of what we know as ‘stainless steel’ or ‘Sheffield steel’ was as important to engineering history as the more well-known engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Harry was born in 1871 into a poor family in the suburbs of Sheffield, starting work as a cellar boy in Firth’s Crucible. In 1901 he moved to work in Riga in Russia in the steel industry, returning to Sheffield in 1908 as chief metallurgist of the newly amalgamated business of Brown-Firth Laboratories. In 1912 a small arms company engaged Brown-Firths researchers to come up with a new metal for their gun barrels to reduce the corrosion stemming from the heat and gasses exposed in use. Brierley experimented with many combinations of steel, chromium and reduced carbon. Resilience to corrosion the steel was tested for the reaction with nitric acid. Many claim the 1913 ‘perfect formula’ came by accident when discarded samples from the rubbish tip found one sample hardly affected by the extended exposure to the elements. The contents of that steel alloy was 12.8% chromium and 0.24 carbon and ‘rustless’ steel was born. Brierley immediately saw potential in the local cutlery business but carbon steel traditional methods were hard to change. Firth’s claimed that it produced ‘knives that don’t cut’ and the ‘stainless’ element was taken up by another Cutler who perfected a hardening process. Brierley not having patented his discovery, his employer claimed all rights leading to his resignation in 1915. Brierley was not financially rewarded for his invention. The industry began to take notice when Krups of Germany was developing the alloy in their armaments programme. Brierley later was recognised as his stainless steel became ‘an everyday’ material and he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal for his invention. His earliest examples are on exhibition in Cutlers Hall Sheffield. He retired in 1928 retiring to Torbay in anonymity and died in 1948 aged 77.

It took the Torbay Civic Society 5 years to make the case and erect the Blue Plaque in his memory.

The vote of thanks was given my Past Chairman Keith Underhill who owed his livelihood working for Sheffield Steel.

If any retired/semi-retired male readers in Teignmouth would like to know more about us, please visit our website:  www.teignmouth-probus-club.org.uk

R ick Purnell

Photo L-R Terry Jackson - Speaker Finder, David Kirk – Chairman and Ian Handford – Torbay Civic Society