With pleasure Dave and that's yet another publication, along with Parker & L.C. Smith publications, to which I need to subscribe.
J.C. Fischer of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, looks to have been the 1st to acknowledge/discover the nickel alloy. He noticed Turkish damascened swords in a museum in Vienna(quote - "In 1824 the Swiss metallurgist JC Fischer, who was visiting his son in Vienna,
saw an exhibition of meteorites at the Imperial Museum of Natural History" ) and figured that a nickel steel was the key. He had nickel steel ingots at the 1851 Exhibit.
“Fischer made his steel nickel alloy, or meteor steel, by melting a mixture of 12 kilograms of cast steel, 248 grams of ‘meteor powder’(four parts of nickel and one part of silver) and 186 grains of kaolin. The alloy was polished with a mixture consisting of 20 parts of vinegar and one part of nitric acid. Domenico Donazzi wrote in 1841: “The subsequent addition of a one-hundredth part of nickel produces a fairly hard product which has very fine luster. With the help of acids a damascened effect can be secured. Such a steel has been marketed by Fischer(J.C.) of Schaffhausen under the name of “meteor steel”. The iron united with the nickel to produce a pure alloy which does not rust when exposed to the air’(Guida for gli Orrefici, Argentieri, Chincaglieri ed altri Aftefici di Metallurgia per prepare la Leghe Metalliche da usare nei diversi Lavori…(Bologna, 1841).”
John Cockerill was attempting to make steel at this same time circa 1830. J.C. Fischer and John Sanderson, of England, look to have been friends. Fischer holds patents in Lower Austria and may have assisted the jump start of Bochumer Verein .
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
