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GIFT OF 
 Professor E. Fritz 
 
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 VANADIUM 
 
 Its Services in 
 Automobile Matin 
 
VANADIUM 
 
 ITS SERVICES 
 IN AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURE 
 
 BY J. KENT SMITH 
 
 BEING A REPORT OF AN ADDRESS AND DISCUSSION 
 
 BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF LICENSED AUTOMOBILE 
 
 MANUFACTURERS, IN NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 7, 1907, 
 
 WITH FIVE TABLES OF TESTS APPENDED 
 
 AMERICAN VANADIUM Co. 
 
 FRICK BUILDING, 
 
 PITTSBURGH, PA. 
 
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VANADIUM STEELS 
 
 By J. KENT SMITH 
 
 STEEL is a very complex body ; to para- 
 phrase a satirical remark of an eminent 
 scientist, it is so complex that even the young- 
 est may not form a fixed opinion regarding it. 
 
 Everybody will agree that during the past 
 two decades the demands on steel applied to 
 special purposes have changed greatly, and 
 steels which satisfactorily met the engineering 
 requirements of twenty years ago are unsuit- 
 able to-day. Then if a steel stretched nicely 
 had good elongation it was supposed to be all 
 right, provided it showed the required tensile 
 strength. But although steel may have good 
 static qualities, that is, it may have a high 
 tensile strength, elongate greatly and bend well 
 under a steady load, when it is subjected to 
 repeated work, undergoing vibration accom- 
 panied by shocks, big or little, and strains 
 which may perhaps be in the nature of alter- 
 nating bends, it must possess other qualities 
 to enable it to meet such entirely different 
 conditions. 
 
 If we take a steel the elastic limiv ojf ^iiich 
 is represented by the figure 10 Qtite any unit' 
 desired), and this is subjected ta - $ -senes? .of 
 strains at regular intervals, fairly rapidly 
 repeated, each equivalent in strength to, say, 
 the figure 5, in due time that steel will break. 
 Nicola Tesla puts forward an extreme in 
 asserting that if a brick were to be placed 
 on the roof of a high building and could be 
 
 5 
 
 890542 
 
vibrated sufficiently rapidly, the building would 
 fall to pieces and topple into the street. On 
 the other hand, if the steel be subjected to 
 strains to the same number and at the same 
 intervals, the strength of each of which is repre- 
 sented only by the number 2j^, it also will 
 break, but in much more than double the 
 time. 
 
 In effect, as these strains approach more 
 nearly to the elastic limit, the deterioration 
 of the steel is enormously hastened. This 
 fact assumes supreme practical importance 
 when it is noted that this deterioration does 
 not take place at the same rate in all steels, 
 those which best resist such deterioration 
 being said to withstand " fatigue " best. 
 
 Vanadium has been proved to be an alloy 
 so preeminent in conferring to steel resistance 
 to fatigue that it practically stands alone among 
 alloys. 
 
 It is true in the average mild steel, 
 
 though not in all mild steels, that with a good 
 
 static ductility, there is generally corresponding 
 
 good behavior under dynamic strains, but this 
 
 ', relati4rr is by no means invariable, and it is in 
 
 'such' cases <&s r the latter that we have the so- 
 
 f ; : ; : '//;;''/og:Hed r : 'fn\y3t'erious failures." 
 
 In the course of about fifteen years, the 
 author has seldom found a "mysterious ' ' failure 
 where the cause was not found to be dynamic 
 (in the few cases where the cause was static 
 the "dynamics" were, of course, bad). In 
 many cases static tests showed good tensile 
 
figures, the chemical analysis was good, and yet 
 the steel would not " stand " at all. 
 
 By way of illustration, an extreme case 
 may be cited : Two bars of the same steel 
 were taken ; one was pulled in the tensile ma- 
 chine, the test figures obtained being very 
 satisfactory ; the other (and similar) piece was 
 dropped on the floor and broke in two. In 
 one case, the load was so applied that the 
 material had time to adjust itself to the condi- 
 tions ; in the other case, a shock stress was 
 applied and the material did not have time to 
 adjust itself to conditions. 
 
 Let us take an every-day case somewhat 
 analogous : In many stores may be noticed an 
 advertisement of a cement, this advertisement 
 taking the form of a tripod, hanging from 
 which is a dinner plate broken across the 
 middle, and held together with cement, a 
 weight being suspended from the plate. If 
 you should lift up the weight (even first having 
 replaced it by a lesser one) for an inch or so 
 and let it fall, the plate will break in two. 
 Here we have a strain applied (1) steadily or 
 (2) suddenly. 
 
 It is said, and advisedly, that automobile 
 construction has to a much greater degree than 
 any other industry forced the steel manufacturer 
 to make a better product. It has done more 
 for special steel than anything else in the world 
 because its demands are so drastic that the only 
 material suitable is the best; if a steel will 
 make an automobile spring it will make very 
 
nearly any spring, likewise if a steel will make 
 an automobile axle it should be excellent ma- 
 terial for any kind of axle. 
 
 When automobiles were first made steel 
 was not what it is to-day, but neither were auto- 
 mobiles what they are to-day, and if the steels 
 which were available then were the only steels 
 available now, there would certainly be dire 
 trouble for all concerned. The manufacturers 
 were put "on their mettle" when compelled 
 to meet the severe requirements of modern 
 engineering, and, in passing, it may be noted 
 that the great majority lost themselves in taking 
 it for granted that if they could improve the 
 strength of steel and retain its ductility there 
 would be a corresponding improvement in serv- 
 ice. They were right only partially. In the 
 high-speed steam engines of to-day, 85 to 90 
 per cent, of the strains and stresses put on the 
 metal are dynamically applied, while only per- 
 haps 10 or 15 per cent, are applied statically. 
 It is not a common-sense view to confine atten- 
 tion to that 10 or 15 per cent, and to let the 85 
 per cent, take care of itself and "trust to luck." 
 More attention should have been given to a 
 study of the dynamic conditions in the past ; 
 however, everybody is now beginning to pay 
 more heed to "dynamics." 
 
 Some steel makers might say that "the 
 ordinary tests are quite good enough ; there is 
 enough work in them without introducing addi- 
 tional work. ' ' Now, it is not proposed to intro- 
 duce any more work ; what is desired is that 
 
materials should be subjected to tests having 
 some relation to the life conditions which they 
 are going to endure. It is not a logical pro- 
 posal to test a steel that will make a crank-shaft 
 for a gasoline engine running 1,000 or 1,200 
 revolutions a minute, receiving perhaps two 
 impacts every revolution, and where also the 
 question of journal wear has to be considered, 
 by exactly the same formula as a steel for 
 I-beams or bridge construction, where a large 
 percentage of the work is static in the lat- 
 ter case it is largely devoted to holding the 
 structure's own weight. 
 
 The author's attention was first directed, 
 many years ago, to vanadium through the 
 investigation of a specimen of Swedish iron that 
 had done marvels in work and had succeeded 
 where everything else had been tried and 
 failed. It gave excellent results on the 
 static machine, though nothing wonderful ; it 
 also gave a pure analysis. Micro-analysis in 
 those days was not what it is to-day, but the 
 microscope revealed a normal appearance. 
 That steel contained a considerable amount 
 of vanadium. Most Swedish irons contain a 
 little; one or two varieties contain quite an 
 amount, but they are small in quantity. In 
 one instance such an iron was in the hands of a 
 comparatively few men who really did not know 
 where the great benefit lay in this material ; 
 they knew it gave a good pure analysis, but that 
 was all 'they knew about it chemically. It was 
 observed by one or two makers in Sheffield who 
 
used it that they could get their best results 
 only when they employed it. The point was 
 investigated by the speaker, who determined, 
 then and there, to make an exhaustive study of 
 the application of vanadium to the steel in- 
 dustry, believing that it was all going to be done 
 in a very short time. In this he was mistaken. 
 He began by reading up what work had 
 been done, for several persons had spasmodi- 
 cally made various trials, but the reports were 
 vague and contradictory. There may be many 
 explanations of this outside of the personal 
 equation. Here are two : first, vanadium is a 
 very "elusive" element and it does not follow 
 that if a certain quantity of vanadium is put into 
 a batch of steel that that vanadium really goes 
 into the steel. Vanadium can be added con- 
 sistently and commercially, but it is by no 
 means certain that if one throws a few pieces 
 of vanadium haphazard into an open -hearth 
 cast that the steel contains vanadium. The 
 majority of the published steel tests alluded to 
 above showed the effect of certain vanadium 
 additions. The speaker was lucky enough to 
 secure one which purported to show the effect of 
 the addition of .5% of vanadium ; as a matter 
 of fact, the sample contained .17% ; although 
 .5% had been added, it had not been added 
 properly. Secondly, there is enormous rear- 
 rangement in the static and dynamic properties 
 of vanadium steels at the point of recalescence, 
 in what is called in metallurgy ' < subsaturated ' ' 
 steel, that is, a steel which contains free ferrite. 
 10 
 
In such steel the carbon exists in combina- 
 tion with a certain amount of iron and this 
 compound of carbon and iron is alloyed with a 
 certain amount of soft iron and forms what is 
 called pearlite, this pearlite being distributed 
 through the main " back-grqund " of soft car- 
 bonless iron, called ferrite. If heat is applied 
 to a bar of steel, after awhile it will reach a 
 point where its pearlite is decomposed and the 
 carbide goes into solid solution in the ferrite. 
 While there is work done in changing the state 
 of the carbon, the bar does not get any hotter ; 
 when this work is finished the temperature once 
 more steadily rises. On cooling again, the 
 carbon or carbide is thrown out of solution at a 
 fixed temperature point and reforms pearlite, 
 sensible cooling being delayed during this trans- 
 formation. This is a very crude explanation 
 of the phenomena of calescence and reca- 
 lescence, which in subsaturated points take 
 place generally in the cherry red zone of 
 temperature. 
 
 As some of the bars of which results were 
 recorded had been finished cool, some had been 
 annealed at blood red heat, others annealed at 
 bright cherry heat, and so on, the static results, 
 which were the only ones noticed, were naturally 
 contradictory. 
 
 The speaker determined to go through the 
 whole investigation systematically and from the 
 very beginning. He had early recognized the 
 value of dynamics and found that while the 
 strength of steel might be increased by means 
 11 
 
of some alloys without impairment of its duc- 
 tility, still their introduction often caused a 
 great deal of dynamic deterioration, and as the 
 quantity of the alloy went up, the dynamic 
 properties, as a general rule, went away down, 
 so that what was given with one hand was 
 unconsciously in a great measure taken back 
 with the other. 
 
 A certain amount of information only is 
 obtained with usual rotary vibration tests, due 
 to variation in the elastic limit of the metals 
 tested, so that the alternating strains which are 
 put on by the simple vibration produce a fiber 
 strain that is not equally removed from those 
 elastic limits, the importance of which point in 
 regard to rate of deterioration has already 
 been noted ; on the other hand, if there is a 
 rapidly repeated alternating bend accompanied 
 by impact, then the "fundamental" quality 
 of the material to resist vibratory deterioration 
 is obtained. In the speaker's opinion, it is a 
 combination of these two tests the test of 
 simple vibration and the alternating vibratory 
 impact which is going to show a great deal. 
 Something must be known about the static 
 quality of the steel, what its strength is and 
 useful strength be it remembered is represented 
 by the elastic limit, therefore the static elastic 
 limit of the material must be ascertained. 
 
 The ordinary factor of safety based on the 
 tensile strength of the material is certainly mis- 
 leading, as the formula used in calculating it 
 does not take any account of the proportion of 
 12 
 
the elastic limit. If the elastic limit were 
 always exactly proportionate to the tensile 
 strength, that would be quite in order, but such 
 is not so; in some cases it is 50 per cent., in 
 others 60, in others 80, some specimens even 
 give 90 and yet show a big- ductility. Before 
 it is possible to deduce a true factor of safety, it 
 is necessary to know the elastic limit and the 
 fundamental property of the material to resist 
 what may be called molecular disintegration. 
 
 One steel may prove almost infinitely 
 better than another in service and at the same 
 time the inferior steel may show an equally 
 good factor of safety on the present accepted 
 formula where the true limit of static strength 
 is not considered and questions of fatigue 
 resistance are entirely neglected. 
 
 It was the speaker's desire to go into all 
 these points as fully as possible, and he worked 
 without intermission from the spring of 1901 
 until Christmas, 1904, when some of his results 
 were communicated to the Institution of Me- 
 chanical Engineers of England. These figures 
 were practical as well as academic, as he then 
 had the privilege of being in a works composed 
 of three divisions : a special steel, a hydraulic, 
 and a boiler department. 
 
 After making the original carbon crucible 
 steels, he worked steadily on the alloy steels 
 and many types of vanadium steel, after which 
 he made them by the open-hearth process on 
 a small scale, then on a larger scale, trying 
 them in the works referred to for the better 
 
 13 
 
part of a year (where there were several difficult 
 propositions in hydraulic work to contend 
 with); when the first figures were published, 
 he had learned enough to be convinced of the 
 absolute superiority of vanadium steels over all 
 other steels. 
 
 In the course of these experiments he 
 found that vanadium not only imparted extra 
 dynamic qualities to pure steel, but had a static 
 intensifying action on another alloy, such as 
 chrome or nickel. A great deal of the work 
 was done with chrome, and for automobile con- 
 struction, he has worked almost entirely with 
 chrome -vanadium. 
 
 Broadly speaking, as before stated, it was 
 found that if another alloy be added so as to 
 greatly increase strength, the "dynamics" suffer 
 severely; but by making use of the static inten- 
 sifying property of vanadium among its other 
 qualities, one is able to use a much smaller pro- 
 portion of these alloys, which are in themselves in 
 large quantity mischievous dynamically, while 
 at the same time the original dynamic value of 
 the carbonless iron base is greatly enhanced. 
 
 The author has no hesitation whatever in 
 saying that chrome-vanadium steel is the 
 finest steel the world has ever seen for moving- 
 machinery parts, and believes he has well 
 named it : "Anti-fatigue steel. ' ' 
 
 There is no one vanadium steel that does 
 all things. It is necessary to make all kinds 
 and grades of vanadium steel for different 
 purposes. Before the speaker are samples of 
 
 14 
 
some of these types. One of these, a knotted 
 sample, is an open -hearth chrome-vanadium 
 steel of the type used for springs ; its extreme 
 ductility is apparent by the cold knotting of the 
 annealed bar. The sharp end was quenched 
 from about 900 deg. C. in ordinary water; it 
 scratches glass. That is a combination of soft- 
 ness and hardness in one material which is diffi- 
 cult to beat. With regard to alternating tests 
 on that type of steel : when any steel is 
 tempered, its dynamic resistance beyond its 
 elastic limit goes down. A piece of the best 
 carbon spring steel made in the crucible was 
 selected, one piece annealed ; a sample of vana- 
 dium spring steel was tempered as for a spring ; 
 and the tempered vanadium steel was superior 
 dynamically to the annealed carbon steel. In 
 the English conditions of alternating stress test 
 where the free length is perhaps four inches, 
 the specimen y%" square and a permanent set 
 -of about %" a side is given, the carbon steel 
 annealed stood 250, the carbon steel tempered 
 stood about 40 ; the vanadium steel annealed 
 stood over 500 and the vanadium steel tempered 
 stood between 350 and 400. Now, under this 
 test, be it noted, it is not that because one 
 stands double the number of alternating im- 
 pacts it is only twice as good steel. We have 
 the question of alternating impact under life 
 conditions and under them (though we hope 
 the steel will never break) it may break at the 
 end of 6 or 12 months. In this machine the 
 steel is broken by fatigue in a minute or so ; 
 
 15 
 
the test has been most drastic as regards the 
 stresses applied and the material has no time to 
 readjust itself in the slightest degree. There 
 can be no factor of comparison in test and life 
 conditions unless the life conditions are con- 
 stant. In automobiling, for instance, no one 
 can tell what stones are going to be hit on the 
 road, while each stone hit means a shock. The 
 life conditions must vary considerably and there- 
 fore it is not possible to get an absolute compar- 
 ison figure, but the probability is that taking 
 the average life conditions the comparison of the 
 two would be on a curve of high degree, so 
 that two to one under testing conditions would 
 mean something like one thousand to one if the 
 tenth power represented life conditions. 
 
 The speaker believes that vanadium steels 
 of all grades have been subjected to nearly all 
 tests known, and everybody who has tested 
 them has spoken well of them. 
 
 This roughly is a brief general history of 
 what vanadium can do in steel. The different 
 grades of steel have not been touched upon. 
 The grades suited to automobile work princi- 
 pally made are : 
 
 1st. A grade suitable for crankshafts, 
 transmission shafts, and driving axles ; 
 
 2d. Another grade for connecting rods 
 and very often for light axles ; 
 
 3d. Another for stub axles ; 
 
 4th. Another for springs ; 
 
 5th. Another for mesh gears; 
 
 6th. Another for case hardening, etc. , etc. 
 
 16 
 
Very thorough microscopic study has been 
 given by the speaker to the conditions of case 
 hardening. In case hardening there are five 
 scientific principles which must be considered 
 to assure success. Everyone will assuredly agree 
 that no tempering steel should be case hardened ; 
 the core of the bar must be strong and tough after 
 it is quenched. Therefore, begin low and finish 
 high, rather than begin high at first and then 
 fall over the top. The idea is to have the core 
 approach in quality as nearly as possible to 
 the material that is put in crank shafts, but 
 it must be after the bar is carburized and 
 quenched that the conditions inside are analo- 
 gous to the tempered shaft, thus it is necessary 
 to start from two different points of view in 
 order to arrive at the one final goal. 
 
 Here are two practical instances which 
 demonstrate the dynamic superiority of vana- 
 dium. One automobile manufacturer could 
 not get a steel to stand certain work, and 
 the trouble was diagnosed by the author as a 
 question entirely of alternating impact. In 
 March, 1904, this manufacturer was given six 
 vanadium steel axles of a type best fitted to 
 resist such conditions, the understanding being 
 that they were to be put on trial cars and 
 punished severely, so as to form a fairly quick 
 opinion of the nature of the steel. He was of 
 the opinion they would break, as the tensile 
 strength, elongation, and reduction of area were 
 practically similar to those in the steel he 
 was unsuccessfully using. The vanadium steel 
 
 17 
 
chosen succeeded triumphantly and that man 
 has never built a car since with any other 
 kind of axle steel. Another illustration is 
 that of a friend who desired shafts for a three 
 engine launch, the shafts to transmit 80 h. p. 
 at 1,200 revolutions a minute, through 17' 6" '. 
 Carefully checked designs of these shafts in 
 vanadium steel, showing an ample factor of 
 safety, only came out at \y%" diameter, and, 
 despite most pessimistic remarks from ' ' prac- 
 tical" men, these shafts behaved perfectly 
 under the most exigent trials. The boat 
 in which they were used won the race (I do 
 not say because the shafts were made of vana- 
 dium steel), and the builder stated he was de- 
 signing a lot more launches and had specified 
 vanadium steel for all. The steel he had been 
 using before had higher static ultimate strength, 
 good ductility and was apparently first-class 
 steel, he was using a bigger shaft and yet he 
 had been getting breakages. 
 
 These two instances are typical of dozens. 
 
 The author does not advocate absolutely 
 lowering tensile strength, but in many cases a 
 steel possesses all the tensile strength required, 
 and perhaps a little more, and it would be 
 folly to further increase tensile strength which 
 is not required at the expense of something 
 essential. The dynamic qualities of the mate- 
 rial must be maintained to insure life in serv- 
 ice, and a steel of the same ductility, but of 
 improved dynamic qualities though of compara- 
 tively low "strength " might succeed where a 
 
 18 
 
s teel of merely higher tensile qualities would 
 fail. Dynamic properties are not given suf- 
 ficient consideration in too many cases. 
 
 The following may be taken as showing 
 the static power of vanadium : A type of open 
 hearth vanadium steel, tempered in the ordinary 
 shop, gave an elastic limit of 224,000 pounds 
 to the square inch, ultimate tensile strength 
 232,000 pounds, elongation 11 per cent., and 
 reduction of area 39 per cent. This type of 
 steel is recommended for certain purposes, but 
 it would not be suitable in the highest degree 
 for a chain shaft or driving axle, because it 
 would not possess the best dynamic qualities, 
 while a steel of lower static strength is amply 
 able to meet all requirements for such purposes. 
 
 Vanadium is a most satisfactory alloy be- 
 cause it can be employed so universally. It 
 works in more than one direction and the 
 direction can be determined at will. If the 
 compounding of steels is considered with regard 
 to the particular service they are required to 
 perform, vanadium has placed a master weapon 
 in the hands of the steel-makers. 
 
 The history of vanadium has not been 
 touched upon, because that probably will not 
 interest this assembly ; nor has anything been 
 said as to the natural occurrence of vanadium, 
 as this latter is a question of more interest to 
 the steel-maker. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, you have heard 
 Mr. Kent Smith's very interesting remarks on 
 vanadium steel. The subject is now open for 
 
 19 
 
discussion. This seems to be a kind of ultima 
 thule. that we have been looking for. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : I would like to ask Mr. 
 Kent Smith what that alternating impact test 
 is? How it differs from what we call the alter- 
 nating stress test, where we rotate the piece. 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : In the test I use 
 the test piece is held vertically. When the 
 "tool" moves forward it hits the specimen, 
 deflects it and moves it beyond its elastic limit. 
 It is really an alternate bending very rapidly 
 performed partly by impact. I have a few 
 bars here that were run through on a machine 
 that I fitted up temporarily. There is one 
 thing I ought to say about the tests ; in this 
 system of testing the bar ought to be polished 
 with a glassy surface ; with rough samples, you 
 get widely discordant results, the tool marks 
 being miniature notches. These were run 
 through in a hurry (showing samples) and 
 almost exactly follow work previously done by 
 me, though I never publish figures obtained 
 on specimens like these, because I do not think 
 it would be fair information for anybody. The 
 deflection is done by a combination of impact 
 and push. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : How did the vanadium 
 steel compare with a very good high-carbon 
 steel ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Taking a' sub-satu- 
 rated steel and a super-saturated carbon steel, 
 my experience is that the latter goes very 
 quickly comparatively. 
 20 
 
MR. MAXIM : By very quickly, what do 
 you mean ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : It soon breaks. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : How many alternations ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : A high-carbon steel 
 (super-saturated) might run. perhaps 100. As 
 regards vanadium, I made some tests in Sheffield 
 for demonstration to a high official ; the samples 
 were tested against carbon steel that was sup- 
 plied by him samples of acid open-hearth 
 steel, officially recommended as of the very best 
 kind for axles and connecting-rod bolts and 
 giving most excellent static results. That of 
 course was a sub-saturated steel ; it ran about 
 290 alternations before it fractured. An ex- 
 cellent quality of nickel steel went about 270. 
 A sample of vanadium steel, which was statically 
 comparable with the nickel steel, instead of 
 going 290 went 570. That is a test ratio of 
 practically two to one ; in life it would be 
 enormously greater as before stated. Tempered 
 vanadium steel alternated under the same con- 
 ditions, with a static strength which is double 
 that of the vanadium steel already quoted and 
 with practically the same ductility, instead of 
 570 ran 480. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : Can you give us an idea, 
 if you should use a piece of wrought iron in 
 that test what the result would be ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : A piece of wrought 
 
 iron on the same machine went about 270, 
 
 almost exactly the same as the nickel steel. 
 
 You have a different condition from the pure 
 
 21 
 
vibration test in the test I am speaking of, because 
 there is a serious deflection accompanied by 
 shock. The " power ' ' goes on all of a sudden. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : Does it make any differ- 
 ence whether it is very quick or very slow ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Yes, a very big dif- 
 ference. You must adopt standard conditions 
 as to rate, size of test piece, and way of grip- 
 ping (being careful not to cut the specimen). 
 You must have the same length of bar under 
 test. Prof. Arnold is now, I believe, working 
 out an elaborate series of tests, getting at the 
 different co-efficients of time and deflection. 
 He has taken several thousand pieces of the 
 steel which is so strongly recommended as giv- 
 ing excellent results, and he has treated them 
 all in the same way. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : Results are obtained very 
 quickly? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Yes. I use round 
 specimens, as I have found the results were abso- 
 lutely concordant amongst themselves, though 
 you cannot compare them exactly with results 
 obtained on square specimens. The round 
 specimen is easier to prepare ; a round piece six 
 inches long does not take long to turn on the 
 lathe, nor does it take long to polish it with a 
 fine emery powder. If you have the con- 
 ditions I was speaking of just now, it is a 
 good steel that goes a minute under test. 
 Giving half a minute for fixing in the grip and 
 half a minute for putting down the results, etc., 
 does not make it a very long test. 
 22 
 
MR. MAXIM : Can you get those testing 
 machines on the market ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Prof. Arnold is mak- 
 ing them in England. The tests I have made 
 here were done on a temporary machine. I 
 hope Mr. Souther will use one of those 
 machines, so that we can all get comparable 
 results. 
 
 MR. WILKINSON: I would like to know 
 how these results would compare if, instead of 
 carrying the strain beyond the elastic limit, you 
 carried the strain inside the elastic limit. 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : There can be no 
 absolute comparison, for in one case you have 
 a very variable factor, and in the other case 
 you are getting at the fundamental quality of 
 the metal to resist intermolecular disintegra- 
 tion. It is the combination of those two tests 
 that, in my opinion, is very important. For 
 an axle or a connecting-rod I believe strongly 
 in the test I have just described. 
 
 MR. WILKINSON : I think you did not 
 quite understand my question. You strain the 
 material beyond the elastic limit, and then 
 perhaps your piece of vanadium steel will stand 
 quite as many alternations as a piece of nickel 
 steel with equal tensile strength. 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : It stands far more. 
 
 MR. WILKINSON : Now, if you put them 
 both in and strain them only to one -half the 
 elastic limit, will the vanadium show up more 
 than twice? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Certainly it will. I 
 
 23 
 
worked with Prof. Stead for some time on 
 vibration tests; his test is different from that 
 of Mr. Souther; he uses a small cylindrical 
 test piece filleted. There we have had perhaps 
 three or four different steels giving practically 
 the same rotary vibration results. They had 
 not the same elastic limit ; and when we put 
 them on the alternating impact machine they 
 showed quite different figures. As I said, 
 there can be no absolute comparison between 
 the results, the two conditions being so funda- 
 mentally different. It would almost be like 
 trying to deduce dynamic qualities from a static 
 test. 
 
 MR. SOUTHER: Mr. Chairman, I think 
 I reflect the feeling of the others present when 
 1 say it is a great pleasure to have a man come 
 here from the other side of the water and con- 
 firm some of our notions. Mr. Kent Smith 
 has brought out the great value of the dynamic 
 test as compared with the static test. He has 
 grown up in about the same era and generation 
 that I have in the steel business apparently, 
 and with very much the same results. In the 
 old days, when the government inspected the 
 steel at the steel works, the static test the 
 plain tensile test or torsion or bend was 
 considered final by everybody. That notion 
 I came to New England with, and lived with 
 a while before I discovered that a rapidly 
 moving machine, a machine subjected to shock, 
 was different from a bridge or the rivets in a 
 ship. I was put up against the bicycle prob- 
 
 24 
 
lem, and next against the automobile problem. 
 As Mr. Kent Smith has made plain, here is 
 required the greatest resistance to shock. 
 Consequently, the idea of a dynamic test, 
 alternations of load combined with shock, was 
 brought forcibly to my attention, and I hunted 
 around to find an endurance or alternating 
 stress machine. I found that one existed at 
 Watertown, and I equipped one and obtained 
 results ; and recently, as you all know, another 
 one has been developed which is very much 
 easier to use. It has, however, the drawback 
 of being slow in its results. 
 
 I had known of these alternating bending 
 tests; that is what they amount to, for you 
 bend the steel beyond its elastic limit and bend 
 it back again. Horseshoe people use it and 
 axle people use it to bend axles backward and 
 forward under a drop ; and I, of course, had 
 read of this Arnold machine. I cannot help 
 thinking that its greatest merit is in its quick 
 results. I have not been able to feel that a 
 test could be of greatest value that bent a 
 specimen beyond its elastic limit. Suppose we 
 bend an axle on an automobile. If we bend it 
 much, we are out of business. We do not go 
 over another rock and bend it back again. 
 What we actually do is to bend it within its 
 elastic limit an immense number of times. 
 That is the result that we get from the 
 endurance machine. I believe it reproduces 
 as nearly as possible what we do on the road. 
 Nevertheless, I think that if this bending test 
 
 25 
 
is a quick measure of the same thing, we want 
 to use it frequently. 
 
 Mr. Kent Smith has given to the old 
 idea of crystallization a name which, I think, 
 is a fine one. It is ' ' intermolecular disinteg- 
 ration." It exactly conveys to my mind what 
 happens when an axle drops off on a smooth 
 piece of road ; as we all know it does. It drops 
 off more often, according to my observance, 
 when it is running quietly along a decent piece 
 of road than it does going over a hump. I 
 had various experiences of the same kind in 
 connection with bicycles, for I have been rid- 
 ing a bicycle and something has dropped off 
 when there was absolutely no cause for it. 
 
 What I would like to know, and it cannot 
 be answered yet I think Mr. Kent Smith will 
 bear me out is if there is any relation exist- 
 ing between the bending and endurance tests, 
 the endurance test within the elastic limit and 
 the endurance test where there is an actual 
 bending. I hardly think the results are well 
 enough known to draw a conclusion. 
 
 Also I want to ask one or two practical 
 questions. I know some of the members have 
 them in their mind. Does the addition of a 
 small amount of vanadium and the existence 
 of it in the steel increase the life of a plain 
 carbon steel ? Next, does it increase the life 
 of nickel steel? Does it increase the life and 
 endurance of chrome-nickel or silico-man- 
 ganese, and so on? all of which interests us. 
 Further, does the addition of vanadium to a 
 
 26 
 
carbon steel increase the difficulty of machining 
 or forging the steel? And, similarly, does it 
 increase the ductility and ease of machining 
 or forging the other steels ? 
 
 In conclusion, I should add that we have 
 just now finished a test on some vanadium 
 specimens in our laboratory at Hartford and 
 the results bear out what Mr. Kent Smith 
 has said about endurance. The vanadium 
 specimen has run one hundred million revolu- 
 tions. I did not succeed in breaking it under 
 the fiber stress adopted as our stress. Mr. Kent 
 Smith and I talked over various modifications 
 of the test and there is one, I think, should be 
 tried, to hasten the result. It is to take the 
 fiber stress, which we have now adopted as 
 being standard, 53,000 pounds to the square 
 inch, and run a specimen, say, ten thousand 
 revolutions. If it does not break, increase the 
 fiber stress 10,000 pounds and run it another 
 ten thousand revolutions ; and so on, increasing 
 the fiber stress every ten thousand revolutions. 
 We are driven to this by exactly what Mr. 
 Kent Smith stated : that maybe the steel has 
 gone " beyond its life" and the ordinary fiber 
 stress will not break these steels within a 
 reasonable length of time. 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : With regard to the 
 tests, Mr. Souther has brought out a point 
 which I am very glad to have the opportunity 
 of saying a few words upon. Mr. Souther 
 asked about the relation between the Arnold 
 test and the pure vibration test. As I said 
 
 27 
 
before, I did not quite see how there could be 
 any relation between the two because of the 
 absolutely different conditions. But with the 
 modified form of rotary vibration tests Mr. 
 Souther speaks of, namely, keeping on increas- 
 ing the load, it is likely there will be some 
 interesting relationship established between 
 some of the various forms of dynamic tests. 
 Of course, the great value that is attached to 
 this Arnold test is that the distortion of the 
 metal is practically accomplished, one-half by 
 steady push and one-half by shock ; and my 
 own notion has always been that in practice 
 we had to study the combination of the two, 
 especially, I take it, in the trade in which the 
 gentlemen here assembled are interested, be- 
 cause you all have to study the question of pure 
 vibration accompanied by shock. Say you 
 have an axle rotating: it is rotating against 
 counter-weight, and there are shocks which 
 shift the moment of fiber stress on the axle 
 with regard to the elastic limit, some shocks 
 applied having practically the effect of shifting 
 the point of fiber stress much nearer the elastic 
 limit according to their greater magnitude. 
 
 As regards the addition of vanadium to car- 
 bon steel, I say if the carbon steel is pure and of 
 a good grade, that vanadium will increase the 
 life very much. It is impossible to give actual 
 "life" figures, but in some tests that were 
 made with plain carbon steel under practically 
 the same conditions as I have stated the thirty 
 carbon steel, already quoted ran 290. A 
 
 28 
 
lower carbon steel ran about 280. Wrought 
 iron ran 270. A sample of steel of the same 
 carbon as that which had run 280 with the 
 addition of vanadium showed about 450. The 
 effect of the simple addition of vanadium to a 
 low carbon steel raises the tensile strength and 
 elastic limit of that steel somewhat, but still not 
 so considerably as if it had another element 
 to act through. 
 
 Now, in regard to the action of vanadium 
 on nickel steel as to increasing life. I have not 
 yet found any intensified nickel steel whether 
 it was intensified by vanadium or chrome to 
 have really a considerable measure of longer 
 "life " when tested beyond its elastic limit. I 
 believe in the intensifying of chrome by vana- 
 dium where "dynamics" are in question. 
 Where the requirements are much more static 
 than dynamic, or in equal proportion of both, 
 then I consider the vanadium-nickel steel is supe- 
 rior. I am speaking now of the experience I 
 had in vanadium-nickel steel over a few years ; 
 but I have not had any such experience in it as 
 I have in vanadium-chrome steel. The results 
 that have been obtained in the automobile trade 
 have been almost entirely in regard to vanadium- 
 chrome. 
 
 (A few of the properties of the different 
 types of vanadium steel are shown in the 
 appended tables. ) 
 
 There is one point that Mr. Souther asked 
 that has a very great bearing, I think, to the 
 practical man, the question of machining. 
 
 29 
 
Vanadium steel machines nicely, a vanadium- 
 chrome steel machining almost like a carbon 
 steel. There is no difference practically ob- 
 servable in machining a carbon axle and a 
 vanadium-chrome axle. It is almost the same 
 in a crankshaft : a vanadium-chrome steel shaft 
 is a little stiffer to machine than an ordinary 
 carbon crankshaft, but it is certainly no more 
 difficult to machine than the ordinary nickel 
 crankshaft, and it is nothing like as difficult 
 as the nickel-chrome crankshaft, 
 
 In forging and hot working, the vana- 
 dium steels, like all other steels of high temper, 
 must be treated carefully in the first heating. 
 High carbon steel cannot be heated in the first 
 stage with the same drastic procedure that a 
 low carbon steel can be heated ; the heat is 
 applied at first reasonably slowly. In a con- 
 tinuous billet furnace, where you begin fairly 
 cool and finish hot, you have the ideal condi- 
 tions for heating any class of steel. I do 
 not mean that you should treat billets by 
 "hand warming," but put them into the rea- 
 sonably hot furnace and then raise the furnace 
 heat. One should not put a billet of any kind 
 of steel into a really hot furnace, otherwise 
 you get the bursting effect ; and the high-temper 
 steels are more susceptible to disintegration by 
 such heating than the low-temper. In actual 
 forging and drop forging the vanadium steels 
 are almost as easily worked as plain carbon 
 steels of the same types. 
 
 There is not as much difficulty in hammer- 
 so 
 
forging vanadium-chrome steel as there is in 
 forging ordinary nickel steel ; if you add vana- 
 dium to nickel it makes it no more difficult to 
 forge than plain nickel steel, but, on the con- 
 trary, easier. I have always regarded the most 
 useful field for vanadium as in the quaternary 
 steels. 
 
 MR. SOUTHER : Have you any reason to 
 believe that the addition of vanadium would 
 injure chrome-nickel or the other alloys that 
 you have mentioned? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : No. It certainly will 
 not. 
 
 MR. SOUTHER : Have you any reason to 
 believe that it would help them? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : I think it would help 
 them. 
 
 MR. SOUTHER : You have no evidence to 
 be able to state that vanadium nickel is bad ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Certainly not, but 
 that I find, when it comes to a combination of 
 static and dynamic qualities that vanadium- 
 chrome is the best combination ; where the 
 conditions to be considered are practically half 
 one and half the other, or even more static than 
 dynamic, I have found vanadium and nickel a 
 good combination without a doubt. No man 
 has a higher opinion of nickel steel than I 
 have. Nickel steel is a splendid thing; but 
 the chief fault about it is that too much has 
 been claimed for it. When it comes to be a 
 question of dynamics, then we have a special 
 question. 
 
 31 
 
MR. SOUTHER : Have you successfully 
 used or seen used chrome-vanadium steel for 
 gears, and, if so, what was the effect as to case- 
 hardening; or could it be hardened in the 
 ordinary way? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH: I can answer that 
 question almost absolutely by instances. I 
 have used chrome-vanadium steel both hard- 
 ened and case-hardened. For gears in contin- 
 ual mesh I use hardened steel (something 
 between crankshaft composition and spring 
 composition as far as actual chemical composi- 
 tion goes) with excellent results. Several 
 auto-makers in England are using it very 
 largely. Vanadium case-hardened steel is 
 very largely used over the water. One gen- 
 tleman, who is in absolute charge of the build- 
 ing of a very high-grade car there, will not 
 use any other kind of case-hardening steel. He 
 says he gets results out of the case-hardening 
 type of chrome-vanadium steel that he cannot 
 duplicate with any other case-hardening steel he 
 has. I am a strong advocate of case-hardening 
 sliding gears. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Do you draw the temper of 
 the case-hardened gear? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : No. I carburize a 
 mild vanadium steel, the carburized article 
 being allowed to cool slowly. Crystalline 
 fractures are very noticeable at this stage. (I 
 have followed the crystalline fracture micro- 
 scopically in another place. ) I then reheat the 
 cased article to 850 or 900 degrees Centigrade 
 
 32 
 
in a non-oxidizing atmosphere as far as pos- 
 sible, and quench it in warm water. Some 
 people want absolute glass-hardness, but I 
 personally have not found that to give such 
 excellent wearing results in case-hardening ; I 
 do not say I want the article soft, but just 
 "rough " to a smooth file. Therefore I quench 
 in warm water. If I want glass-hardness I 
 quench in cold water, salt and water, or potash 
 and water. 
 
 MR. ELWOOD HAYNES : I would like to 
 ask Mr. Kent Smith one or two questions. 
 First, whether he has ever noticed any increase 
 in the rigidity or what is usually termed modulus 
 of elasticity in the vanadium steel or any of 
 its combinations; or whether he has ever 
 observed any increase in this property in any 
 steel over the ordinary carbon steel? Secondly, 
 whether it is essential for any of the vanadium 
 to remain in the vanadium steel, in order to 
 give the special properties of vanadium steel ; 
 or whether it acts the same as magnesium does 
 on impure nickel ? for if you introduce a little 
 magnesium into nickel it totally changes the 
 property of the nickel, and renders it plastic 
 instead of brittle. Thirdly, what is the compo- 
 sition of the steels that are exhibited here, as 
 to their carbon, chrome, and vanadium ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH . I have no absolute 
 figures on the modulus of elasticity as yet I 
 recently supplied a large number of vanadium 
 samples to one of the colleges in London, Eng- 
 land, and am expecting the results in by any 
 33 
 
mail. As regards rigidity, the vanadium-chrome 
 steels are more rigid than the carbon steels 
 used for the same purpose. You get a greater 
 rigidity and therefore you can use a slightly less 
 area. But I cannot put this into figures until I 
 have those modulus of elasticity results in front 
 of me ; the moment I receive them a copy shall 
 be mailed to you. I had no apparatus for 
 determining accurately the modulus of elasticity, 
 nor the time to go very deeply into that ques- 
 tion. That part of the vanadium study was by 
 no means overlooked, but, unfortunately, the 
 man that took it up was unable to finish it, his 
 health breaking down, so I had to go all over it 
 again. It is an extensive series of investiga- 
 tions and the ordinary engineering college is 
 not famed for working exceedingly quickly; 
 its work is accurate rather than quick, as a 
 general rule. I am expecting those results in 
 time; in the meantime, as the result of shop 
 figures, I can positively say that you will find 
 vanadium steel more rigid than carbon steel for 
 the same purpose. 
 
 With regard to the question as to whether 
 it is necessary for vanadium to remain in the 
 steel, I answer that strongly in the affirmative. 
 Vanadium is an * ' elusive ' ' element. If there 
 is any oxide left in the steel the vanadium will 
 scavenge it out ; but vanadium is an expensive 
 scavenger. You want your vanadium left in 
 to both statically intensify and to give dynamic 
 quality to the metal. It will do the scavenging 
 in preference to anything else, because it is 
 
 34 
 
the easiest work. Hence there is little use in 
 adding vanadium to an oxidized steel, because 
 you will not find the vanadium in the steel. 
 I have said already that it does not follow that 
 because you put a certain amount of vanadium 
 in the steel that vanadium is there. That is 
 why so many of the old results went wrong, 
 because vanadium was just put into the steel, no 
 consideration being given to the oxidation of 
 the steel itself or the oxidizing conditions that 
 were the concomitants of the vanadium addi- 
 tion. The vanadium did its easiest work first, 
 and its easiest work was to combine with 
 oxygen. Commercial nickel contains a con- 
 siderable quantity of oxides. There are prob- 
 ably many people who have more extensive 
 sources of information on that point than I 
 have ; one should not base an opinion on just a 
 few spasmodic trials, but I found that by the 
 very careful use of aluminum in the oxidized 
 metal I could get practically as good results as 
 with magnesium, though if I used a little too 
 much aluminum the nickel alloy remaining had 
 nothing like the properties of the pure nickel. 
 As regards the composition of these steels 
 before us I am glad to say anything I can. 
 The steels are basic steels. This is an oil-tem- 
 pered crankshaft steel (producing samples). 
 This is a cold bend of the same. It con- 
 tains about .25% carbon, 1.0% chromium, and 
 .18% vanadium. Its elastic limit is about 
 110,000 to 120,000 pounds to the square inch, 
 its ultimate strength about 140,000; the 
 
 35 
 
elongation on two inches about 21 or 22%, 
 and the contraction of area between 56 and 
 60%. I may here say that I have invari- 
 ably, as the result of twelve years' pretty close 
 watching, found the bend to follow the con- 
 traction of area and not the elongation. The 
 average elongation, I take it, is very largely a 
 measure of longitudinal flow; if the metal 
 flows inward the elongation will be very much 
 less, but it does not follow that the steel is any 
 less ductile. I do not bother my head about 
 the elongation unless I know both the general 
 and local elongations, and as a measure of 
 strength I always look at the elastic limit pure 
 and simple. We used to judge steel by 
 tensile strength and elongation, but those 
 things are in the far-away now. I always run 
 my carbon a little higher in basic steel than 
 I do in acid steel. D (spring type) will run 
 nearly . 50 % carbon ; manganese from . 8 % to 
 1%, with 1.25% of chrome, while I use 
 about the same amount of vanadium as before. 
 I use the vanadium as a "master." In the 
 case-hardening type, with perhaps .12 to .15% 
 carbon, very low manganese, and about 0.3% 
 chrome, the vanadium will run .12 to .15%. 
 Vanadium steel is very susceptible to quench- 
 ing as I think that sample that I showed you 
 demonstrated, and the finished article in case- 
 hardening is a quenched article, be it remem- 
 bered, therefore, for case-hardening we must 
 use an initially "dead mild" vanadium steel. 
 Vanadium is a very powerful weapon ; 
 
 36 
 
indeed, vanadium in steel is comparable to 
 strychnine in medicine. A little is a splen- 
 did tonic, but if you give too much you kill 
 your patient. I look on vanadium to metal- 
 lurgy as strychnine to medicine, for I defeat 
 my own ends if I use too much, though if I use 
 in ordinary case-hardening steel only .02% or 
 .04% vanadium I will not get as good a result 
 as by using .15%. 
 
 MR. SOUTHER : That is remaining in the 
 steel? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : That is remaining 
 in the steel. The question of how much 
 remains in the steel and how much goes out, 
 is, of course, a steel-maker's question; but I 
 never had any difficulty in adding vanadium 
 with about 10 per cent. loss. There is no dif- 
 ficulty whatever from a technical steel-making 
 point of view in adding vanadium. It prac- 
 tically accompanies the addition of silicon. 
 The thing is adding it properly and at the 
 right time. It is simply a question of an intel- 
 ligent interpretation of the higher principles 
 of steel -making. 
 
 When I was connected with vanadium 
 steel-making we used to run a lot of grades for 
 different purposes. We varied the grades 
 slightly according to the conditions to be 
 met ; some typical grades of steel for automo- 
 biles are shown in tables 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. We 
 would run a separate grade for railway tire- 
 work and so on, as we would also run a grade 
 for connecting-rod bolts. There was a differ- 
 
 37 
 
ence in each, and the difference was not so much 
 in the vanadium as in the relation of the other 
 constituents; that is, the carbon, manganese, 
 and chrome it being taken for granted, of 
 course, that sulphur and phosphorus were low. 
 
 MR. SOUTHER : How low do you regard 
 it necessary to have phosphorus? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : The lower the better. 
 We made it .02% and .03$, and I would not 
 care to go above .03% of each. Of course, in 
 acid steel you must run a lower carbon com- 
 paratively. I prefer a carefully-refined basic 
 steel ; that is, I think, the highest grade of steel 
 that we can get out of the open hearth. I 
 think the prejudice against basic steel is dying 
 out, maybe slowly, but dying out all the same ; 
 and I think that prejudice largely arose through 
 absolute misapprehension, since it was known 
 that basic steel can be made from almost any 
 kind of inferior stuff. In my mind the real 
 trouble lay in the fact that basic steel is much 
 more prone to oxidize than is acid steel in the 
 furnace; if it is carefully worked down and 
 good stock used, and at the end you have a 
 good non-oxidized pure bath, I think you 
 will have to go a long way to beat steel 
 made by the basic process. Of course, it is 
 no use adding any alloy, I do not care whether 
 nickel, nickel-chrome, tungsten, or vanadium, 
 to impure steel; if you start with a bad foun- 
 dation you will never get good results. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : There is one more ques- 
 tion I would like to ask .Mr. Kent Smith. He 
 
 38 
 
spoke about a transmission shaft which was very 
 alarming when he first saw it, it being an inch 
 and an eighth in diameter. When you make 
 that of vanadium and it stands up and does not 
 break, it does not necessarily mean, does it, 
 that it does not spring more than the old shaft? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : No. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : In building automobiles we 
 frequently meet those two conditions : a con- 
 dition in which a part is not strong enough, 
 and also a condition where it might spring if it 
 was made of a better material ; and springing 
 in some of our work is very serious. Is it a 
 fact that vanadium steel, although it is stronger, 
 springs just as much, and therefore when it is 
 made smaller it springs more than our ordinary 
 steel ? For instance, take a small crankshaft, 
 although it would not break, it would be liable 
 to spring more, would it not, and possibly give 
 bearing difficulty ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Possibly, but the shaft 
 would have to be very light indeed. In the 
 particular work I was speaking of, the bearing 
 easily took care of any difference, as the old 
 shaft was very well supported all the way down. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : What would be the cost of 
 vanadium steel in comparison to nickel-chrome 
 or nickel steel ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : There is no question 
 of the cost being prohibitive. Vanadium steel 
 can be furnished we are not steel-makers at 
 a price which does not exceed the price of special 
 steels to-day. 
 
 39 
 
MR. ELWOOD HAYNES : In regard to the 
 supply of vanadium I would like to know 
 whether its use is fully warranted. It is a very 
 rare substance, unless it has been discovered 
 in greater quantity and very widely diffused and 
 in very large deposits. A man who started in 
 to use vanadium steel would not want to quit 
 before the year was over. 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Mr. Haynes alludes 
 to vanadium as a rare element. I want that 
 impression to be somewhat modified. Vanadium 
 is not a rare element. It may surprise many in 
 this room to hear that ordinary soap generally 
 contains a quantity of vanadium, because it is 
 found in caustic soda, but the quantity is 
 microscopical. The quantities we have been 
 talking of are huge in comparison. The aver- 
 age percentage of vanadium that I have found 
 in caustic soda has been .004^, and I found 
 it by working on a pound or so. Most fire 
 clays also contain vanadium. But vanadium 
 is comparatively a rare element, or was at least 
 a short time ago, when it came to the question 
 of finding it in sufficiently concentrated de- 
 posits to repay extraction. The extraction 
 of vanadium is a difficult problem in itself. 
 Although there is a great deal of vanadium 
 distributed over the world in odd places, I do 
 not think it is likely we shall ever find another 
 vanadium deposit like that which the Ameri- 
 can Vanadium Company has secured in Peru. 
 I have here a sample from one of the main 
 veins (exhibiting). I think that if one-half of 
 
 40 
 
the steel production of the United States to-day 
 was vanadium steel, we could take care of it 
 as far as Mother Nature goes, though we might 
 have to build a very large factory to extract 
 the necessary amount of vanadium alloy. As 
 far as ordinary conditions go there is no earthly 
 likelihood of there ever being a shortage of 
 vanadium. Vanadium is an unique thing in 
 metallurgy, since only a few years ago vanadium 
 alloys and salts had only been prepared as 
 ' ' curiosities. ' ' Now the whole subject is on a 
 commercial footing ; we have any quantity of 
 vanadium ore and we are building a factory that 
 is reasonably big enough to take care of all the 
 vanadium alloy that is likely to be wanted for 
 a long time to come, while there is no difficulty 
 in doubling or trebling the size of that fac- 
 tory. We can do that in a short time, and 
 will warrant the supply at any time. There is 
 no danger of automobile manufacturers starting 
 out to use vanadium steel and then finding that 
 there is no more vanadium to be had. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Can vanadium be welded- 
 easily, heated by the ordinary process or the 
 electric process? There has been difficulty in 
 welding nickel steel and chrome-nickel steel. 
 Does vanadium increase the difficulty or de- 
 crease it? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : The presence of vana- 
 dium, as far as welding goes, is beneficial rather 
 than the reverse, because, as I said before, it 
 forms a fusible oxide and thus promotes the 
 welding action of the iron itself. If taken in 
 
 41 
 
conjunction with chrome, the vanadium being 
 a static intensifying element, one is able to use 
 very much less chrome, and therefore vanadium- 
 chrome steels are more easily welded than 
 ordinary chrome and nickel steels. The weld- 
 ing of vanadium-chrome steel does not present 
 any difficulty. One can take a bar of steel 
 containing about .25% or .30% carbon, cut 
 the bar in two, weld it, and twist it cold so 
 that it shows several twists, or take another 
 piece, weld it, pull it, and it will not break at 
 the weld. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : How do you weld it ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : I weld it in an ordi- 
 nary blacksmith shop or by any good method. 
 
 MR. ROBERT JARDINE : At what heat ? 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : About the same heat 
 that you weld an ordinary .20 carbon steel. 
 I do not push the " A " type of steel ( see table) 
 as welding steel, but I do say that steel 
 containing vanadium with mild carbon is as 
 good a welding metal as the best wrought iron 
 you can get. That is a very big statement to 
 make, but it is backed by fact. As I said before, 
 the influence of vanadium itself on the welding 
 is beneficial, and on account of its static inten- 
 sifying effect you can use very much less of the 
 "obstinate" alloys, therefore vanadium steels 
 for all purposes are much more easily welded 
 than analogous chrome-nickel steels or nickel 
 steel. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : If there are no further ques- 
 tions you would like to ask I will call for a vote 
 
 42 
 
of thanks to the American Vanadium Company 
 and also to Mr. Kent Smith for the very inter- 
 esting talk that he has given us on vanadium 
 steel. 
 
 MR. MAXIM : I so move. 
 
 The motion was seconded and carried. 
 
 MR. KENT SMITH : Mr. Chairman and 
 Gentlemen, will you allow me to thank you 
 once more for the very kind invitation you have 
 given me. Vanadium is not only my business, 
 it has been my hobby for years. I am delighted 
 to talk on the subject, and I am more than 
 delighted to talk about it when I have so kind 
 and patient a set of listeners as I have had this 
 morning. 
 
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 LBS. PER SQ. IN. 
 
 RATIO 
 
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 CONTRACTION OF AREA 
 
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 NUMBER OF BLOWS. 
 
 ROTARY VIBRATIONS 
 XUMBER OF REVOLUTIONS. 
 
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 CD 
 
 
THE AMERICAN VANADIUM COMPANY 
 
 GENERAL OFFICES SUITE 302 FRICK BUILDING 
 
 PITTSBURGH, PENN., U. S. A. 
 
 COMPARATIVE TESTS ON VANADIUM & CARBON STEEL SPRINGS 
 
 TESTED BY THE AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY. 
 
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 THESE TESTS INDICATE THAT VANADIUM SPRING STEEL IS FAR 
 SUPERIOR TO CARBON STEEL AND IS PARTICULARLY 
 TO BE RECOMMENDED WHERE THE SEVEREST 
 SERVICE CONDITIONS ARE ENCOUNTERED. 
 
 STATIC TEST ON PIECE CUT FROM LEAF OF SPRING. 
 
 ELASTIC LIMIT 227.100 
 ULTIMATE STRENGTH 237.500 
 RATIO 96 PER CENT 
 ELONGATION 2" 10 PER CENT 
 CONTRACTION OF AREA . . . .35 PER CENT 
 
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 11-12 FAILED AT THE CENTRE. 
 
 TYPE "D" VANADIUM SPRING STEEL. 
 I 
 
 
 THE VANADIUM SPRING WAS TESTED: 
 1. TO 62,700 LBS. WITH 34" CENTRES 
 
 2. TO 92,000 LBS. WITH 36" CENTRES 
 3. TO 94,000 LBS. WITH 36" CENTRES 
 ON SECOND TEST, ELASTIC LIMIT WAS REACHED 
 AT 85,000 LBS. OR 234,500 LBS. FIBRE STRESS 
 WITH PERMANENT SET OF .48' I 
 
 WITHOUT THE LEAST VARIATION FROM RECORDED 
 HEIGHTS. 
 
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 47 
 
VANADIUM STEEL CASTINGS 
 
 FOR LOCOMOTIVE PARTS. 
 
 FERRO-VANADIUM, AS AN ALLOY, WHEN ADDED TO STEEL IN THE PRO- 
 CESS OF CASTING, HAS A MARKED INFLUENCE ON THE GENERAL QUALITY 
 THROUGHOUT, CLEANSING, BINDING TOGETHER THE MOLECULAR STRUCT- 
 UREAND IMPARTING TO THE FINISHED PRODUCT VITALITY WHICH OTHER- 
 WISE WOULD BE LACKING, RENDERING RESULTS MORE EFFICIENT IN 
 SERVICE WHERE SHOCK, STRAIN AND VIBRATION ARE CONSTANT, YIELD- 
 ING PROPORTIONATELY A HIGHER ELASTIC STRENGTH, AND AFFORDING 
 A MARGIN OF SAFETY ABOVE THE ORDINARY STEEL CASTING. 
 
 COMPARATIVE AVERAGE TENSILE & VIBRATION TEST. ORDINARY AND VANADIUM STEEL CASTINGS. 
 TEST PIECES TAKEN FROM CAST STEEL LOCOMOT VE FRAMES. 
 
 STEEL. 
 
 ELASTIC LIMIT. 
 
 ULT. TEN. RATIO 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 8" 
 ELONGATION. 
 
 VIBRATIONS. 
 
 ORDINARY. 
 VANADIUM. 
 
 36.29O 
 45.62O 
 
 68.520 52.9% 
 77.8OO 58.6% 
 
 2O% 
 
 23% 
 
 4206 
 12776 
 
 VIBRATION TEST ON ALTERNATING BENDING MACHINE. BAR HELD RIGID ONE 
 END, OTHER END DEFLECTED ^ 'FROM EACH SIDE OF CENTRE. 
 
 USE 
 
 VANADIUM STEEL CASTINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING PARTS. 
 
 " AIR BRAKE CYLINDER LEVERS. 
 
 ^ENGINE FRAMES. 
 'ENGINE TRUCK FRAMES. 
 ENGINE TRUCK CENT. PIN GUIDE. 
 ENGINE TRUCK SWING BOLSTER. 
 ENGINE TRUCK SWING LINKS. 
 EQUALIZER BEAMS. 
 ECCENTRICS. 
 \ ECCENTRIC STRAPS. 
 
 P 
 
 PILOT FRAME ENDS. 
 PILOT FRAME TOPS AND 
 BOTTOM. 
 PEDESTALS. 
 PISTONS. 
 
 B BELL CRANKS. 
 BRAKE BEAMS. 
 j BRAKE BRACKETS. 
 ! BOILER PADS. 
 BUFFERS. 
 
 * FIRE BOX MUD RINGS. 
 FOOT PLATES. 
 FRAME STIFFENING PIECE. 
 FRAME BRACES. 
 FULCRUM SHAFT BEARINGS. 
 FULCRUM CASTING. 
 
 R 
 
 ROCKER ARMS. 
 ROCKER BOX. 
 REVERSE SHAFTS. 
 RUNBOARD BRACKETS. 
 RUBBING OR CHAFING IRONS- 
 RADIAL BAR CROSS TIE CAPS- 
 
 c 
 
 : CROSS HEADS. 
 CROSS HEAD SHOES. 
 : CROSS HEAD ARM. 
 CROSS BRACES. 
 CAB BRACKETS. 
 CYLINDER HEADS. 
 CENTRE PLATES. 
 
 G 
 
 GUIDE YOKES. 
 GUIDE YOKE KNEES- 
 GRATE SHAFT BEARINGS. 
 
 S 
 
 SIDE BEARINGS. 
 SPRING RIGGING POSTS- 
 SPRING SADDLES. 
 SPRING SEATS. 
 SPRING HANGER PLATES- 
 SCOOP LEVERS. 
 STEAM CHEST. 
 
 DRIVER BRAKE LEVERS. 
 DRIVING BOXES. 
 DRIVING BOX BEAM. 
 DRIVING WHEEL CENTRES. 
 . DRAW HEADS. 
 
 LINK MOTION SUPPORTS. 
 LIFT SHAFTS. 
 
 T 
 
 TRANSMISSION BAR. 
 TRAILING TRUCK BRAKE. 
 LEVERS. 
 
 AMERICAN VANADIUM COMPANY 
 
 FRICK BUILDING. 
 PITTSBURGH, PENN., U. S. A. 
 Any. 1007 B.E. 
 
 
 PRINT 
 ,s N0 ' 5 
 
 48 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 Addition of Vanadium to carbon steel, Effect 
 
 of, . . . . . 26 to 29 
 
 Addition of Vanadium to nickel steel, Effect 
 
 of,. . . . .- . . . . ' 26 to 29 
 
 Addition of Vanadium to chrome steel, Effect 
 
 of, 7 . . . 26 to 29 
 
 Alternating tests, general, . . . . , . . . .12 
 
 Alternating tests records, 15 
 
 Alternating stress tests, 20 
 
 Alternating impact bends indicate fundamental 
 
 quality of metal, 23-28 
 
 Anti-fatigue metal, 14 
 
 Prof. Arnold's test, . 22,23,27,28 
 
 Automobile construction requirements, . . . 7, 8, 9 
 Automobile construction, Grades of Vanadium 
 
 steel for, 16 and tables 
 
 Axles, Vanadium steel for, 17, 18 
 
 Bend follows contraction of area, 36 
 
 Bending and endurance tests, Relation of, . . 26 to 28 
 Carbon steel, Comparative alternating test of, . . .21 
 Carbon steel, addition of Vanadium to, Effect 
 
 of,. . . . . . . /."'-. . . 26, 27, 28, 29 
 
 Case hardening, 17, 32 
 
 Chairman, Discussion by, 19, 20 
 
 Chrome-Vanadium steel, anti-fatigue metal, ... 14 
 Chrome steel, addition of Vanadium to, Effect 
 
 of, .... . 26, 27, 28, 29 
 
 Coefficient of time and deflection, 22 
 
 Contraction of area, Bend follows, 31 
 
 Crucible Vanadium steel, Early, 13, 14 
 
 Demands on steel, Past and present, 6 
 
 Deterioration, Relation of elastic limit to, .... 6 
 
 Discussion, 20 to 43 
 
 Discussion, by Chairman, 19, 20, 39, 41 
 
 Discussion, by Mr. Elwood Haynes, .... 33, 34 
 Discussion, by Mr. Maxim, . . 20, 21, 22, 38, 39, 43 
 Discussion, by Mr. Souther, . . . . 24 to 33, 37, 38 
 
 49 
 
Page 
 Discussion, by Mr. Wilkinson, 23 
 
 Dynamic deterioration, Adverse effect of large 
 
 quantities of alloys, 12 
 
 Dynamic properties essential, 11 
 
 Dynamic qualities, necessity of maintenance, . . .18 
 Dynamic superiority of Vanadium steel, Instances 
 
 of, 17, 18 
 
 Early experiments with Vanadium, . 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 
 
 Elasticity, Modulus of, 33, 34 
 
 Elastic limit, Useful strength represented by the, . 12, 13 
 Elongation, Measure of longitudinal flow, ... 36 
 
 Elwood Hayes, Discussion by, 33, 34 
 
 Endurance and bending tests, Relation of, . 20, 27, 28 
 
 Endurance testing machine, 25 
 
 Factor of safety, 12,13 
 
 Fatigue of metals, 6 
 
 Ferrite, 11 
 
 Forging of Vanadium steel, 27, 30 
 
 Gears, Case hardening Chrome -Vanadium steel 
 
 for, 32 
 
 Intermolecular disintegration of steel, . . . . .26 
 
 Launch, Transmission shafts for, 18 
 
 Machining of Vanadium steel, 27, 30 
 
 Maxim, Discussion by, . . . . 20, 21, 22, 38, 39, 43 
 
 Modulus of elasticity, or rigidity, 33, 34 
 
 Mysterious failures of steel, 6, 7 
 
 Nickel steel, alternating test, Comparative, ... 21 
 Nickel steel, Addition of Vanadium to, .... 31 
 
 Nickel-Vanadium steel, 31 
 
 Open-hearth Vanadium steel, Early, . . . . 13, 14 
 
 Pearlite, Breaking up of, 11,12 
 
 Phosphorus, Percentage permissible in Vanadium 
 
 steel, 38 
 
 Price of Vanadium steel, 39 
 
 Recalescence point, 10, 11 
 
 Rigidity, or modulus of elasticity, 33, 34 
 
 Rotary vibration tests, 12, 24 
 
 Souther, Discussion by, ..... 24 to 32, 37, 38 
 Souther's test of Vanadium steel, 27 
 
 50 
 
Page 
 Spring steel 15 
 
 Stead's test, 24 
 
 Static power of Vanadium, 19 
 
 Strains below elastic limit, Tests of, 23 
 
 Strains, Relation to rupture, 5, 6 
 
 Stresses, Gradual and sudden, 7 
 
 Subsaturated steel, 10, 11 
 
 Subsaturated carbon, nickel, and Vana'dium steels, 
 
 Alternating tests of, . . . . . . . . .21 
 
 Supply of Vanadium, . ,-.".. . . ... .40 
 
 Swedish iron containing Vanadium, It, 10 
 
 Test pieces, Standard conditions, 22 
 
 Tests, Alternating, Comparative, ...... 21 
 
 Tests, Alternating, Impact, 20 
 
 Tests, Alternating under "life" conditions, . . 15, 16 
 
 Tests, Alternating stress, 12, 20 
 
 Tests, Alternating stress records 15 
 
 Tests, Prof. Arnold's, . . ... . 22, 23, 27, 28 
 
 Tests, Bending and endurance, Relation of, 2H, 27, 28 
 
 Tests, Illogical, 8, 9 
 
 Tests, Machine for endurance, 25 
 
 Tests, Rotary vibration, 12, 24 
 
 Tests, Strains below elastic limit, 28 
 
 Transmission shafts, 18 
 
 Vanadium, Master weapon for steel makers, . . .19 
 Vanadium, Necessary that it remain in the 
 
 steel '..... 33, 34, 35 
 
 Vanadium, Percentage of loss by oxidation, ... 37 
 
 Vanadium, Supply of, 40 
 
 Vanadium steel, Price of, 39 
 
 Vanadium steel, Forging of, . . . . . . . 27, 30 
 
 Vanadium steel, Machining of, 27, 30 
 
 Vanadium steel, Welding of, 41, 42 
 
 Vanadium steel, Unbroken after 100 million 
 
 revolutions, Souther test, 27 
 
 Welding of Vanadium steel, 41, 42 
 
 Wilkinson, Discussion by, . . 23 
 
 Wrought iron, Comparative alternating test, . . .21 
 
 61 
 
photomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros., Inc. 
 
 Makers 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 
 PAT IAN. 21. 1908 
 
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