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PERGAMONM ATERIALSSE RIES SERIES EDITOR: R.W. CAHN THEC OMING OF MATERIALSSC IENCE ROWCo AHN Pergamon PERGAMON MATERIALS SERIES VOLUME 5 The Coming of Materials Science PERGAMON MATERIALS SERIES Series Editor: Robert W. Cahn FRS Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK VOl. 1 CALPHAD by N. Saunders and A. P. Miodownik VOl. 2 Non-Equilibrium Processing of Materials edited by C. Suryanarayana VOl. 3 Wettability at High Temperatures by N. Eustathopoulos, M. G. Nicholas and B. Drevet VOl. 4 Structural Biological Materials edited by M. Elices VOl. 5 The Coming of Materials Science by R. W. Cahn Vol. 6 Multinuclear Solid State NMR of Inorganic Materials by K. J. D. Mackenzie and M. E. Smith Vol. 7 Underneath the Bragg Peaks: Structural Analysis of Complex Materials by T. Egami and S. L. J. Billinge Vol. 8 Thermally Activated Mechanisms in Crystal Plasticity by D. Caillard and J.-L. Martin A selection of forthcoming titles in this series: Phase Transformations in Titanium- and Zirconium-Based Alloys by S. Banerjee and P. Mukhopadhyay Nucleation by A. L. Greer and K. F. Kelton Non-Equilibrium Solidification of Metastable Materials from Undercooled Melts by D. M. Herlach and B. Wei The Local Chemical Analysis of Materials by J.-W. Martin Synthesis of Metal Extractants by C. K. Gupta PERGAMON MATERIALS SERIES The Coming of Materials Science Robert W. Cahn, FRS Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK PERGAMON An Imprint of Elsevier Science Amsterdam - London - New York - Oxford - Paris - Shannon - Tokyo ELSEVIER SCIENCE Ltd The Boulevard, Langford Lane Kidlington, Oxford OX5 IGB, UK 0 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright by Elsevier Science, and the following terms and conditions apply to its use: Photocopying Single photocopies of single chapters may be made for personal use as allowed by national copyright laws. Permission of the Publisher and payment of a fee is required for all other photocopying, including multiple or systematic copying, copying for advertising or promotional purposes, resale, and all forms of document delivery. Special rates are available for educational institutions that wish to make photocopies for non-profit educational classroom use. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier Science Global Rights Department, PO Box 800, Oxford OX5 InX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333. e-mail: [email protected]. You may also contact Global Rights directly through Elsevier’s home page (http://www.elsevier.nl), by selecting ‘Obtaining Permissions’. 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Except as outlined above, no part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of thc Publisher. Address permissions requests to: Elsevier Science Global Rights Department, at the mail. fax and e-mail addresses noted above. Notice No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter or products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made. First edition 2001 Second impression 2003 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record from the Library of Congress has been applied for. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record from the British Library has been applied for. ISBN: 0-08-042679-4 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO 239.48-1992 (Permanence of ?i Paper). Printed in The Netherlands. This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor DANIEL HANSON (1892-1953) of Birmingham University who played a major role in modernising the teaching of Metallurgy and thereby helped clear the ground for the emergence of Materials Science My objective in writing this book, which has been many years in preparation, has been twofold. The discipline of materials science and engineering emerged from small beginnings during my professional life, and I became closely involved with its development; accordingly, I wanted to place on record the historical stages of that development, as well as premonitory things that happened long ago. My second objective, inseparable from the first, was to draw an impressionistic map of the present state of the subject, for readers coming new to it as well as for those well ensconced in research on materials. My subject-matter is the science, not the craft that preceded it, which has been well treated in a number of major texts. My book is meant primarily for working scientists and engineers, and also for students with an interest in the origins of their subject; but if some professional historians of science also find the contents to be of interest, I shall be particularly pleased. The first chapter examines the emergence of the materials science concept, in both academe and industry, while the second and third chapters delve back into the prehistory of materials science (examining the growth of such concepts as atoms, crystals and thermodynamics) and also examine the evolution of a number of neighbouring disciplines, to see what helpful parallels might emerge. Thereafter, 1 pursue different aspects of the subject in varying depth. The book is in no sense a textbook of materials science; it should rather be regarded as a pointilliste portrait of the discipline, to be viewed from a slight distance. The space devoted to a particular topic is not to be regarded as a measure of the importance I attach to it, neither is the omission of a theme meant to express any kind of value judgment. I sought merely to achieve a reasonable balance between many kinds of themes within an acceptable overall length, and to focus on a few of the multitude of men and women who together have constructed materials science and engineering. The numerous literature references are directed to two distinct ends: many refer to the earliest key papers and books, while others are to sources, often books, that paint a picture of the present state of a topic. In the early parts of the book, most references are to the distant past, but later on, as I treat the more modern parts of my subject, I refer to more recent sources. There has been some dispute among professional historians of science as to who should be entitled to write a history such as this. Those trained as historians are understandably apt to resent the presumption of working scientists, in the evening of their days, in trying to take the bread from the historians’ mouths. We, the superannuated scientists, are decried by some historians as ’Whigs’, mere uncritical vii