I should have included Sterlingworth Fluid Compressed Steel in the list of higher quality pre-WWI steels. A Sterlingworth brochure in 1911 mentioned chrome-nickel and vanadium steel barrels. Chromox High Pressure Fluid Steel was introduced in 1912
https://books.google.com/books?id=eGvdCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA137&lpg

Fred Herbert Colvin, Kristian A. Juthe, The Working of Steel, Annealing, Heat Treating, and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel, 1922
https://books.google.com/books?id=jWNJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA28&lpg
Vanadium itself, when combined with steel very low in carbon, is not so noticeably beneficial as in the same carbon steel higher in manganese, but if a small quantity of chromium is added, then the vanadium has a very marked effect in increasing the impact strength of the alloy.....Chrome-vanadium steels also are highly favored for case hardening. When used under alternating stresses it appears to have superior endurance.

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