Still the iron age : iron and steel in the modern world / Vaclav Smil.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Although the last two generations have seen an enormous amount of attention paid to advances in electronics, the fact remains that high-income, high-energy societies could thrive without microchips, etc., but, by contrast, could not exist without steel. Because of the importance of this material to comtemporary civilization, a comprehensive resource is needed for metallurgists, non-metallurgists, and anyone with a background in environmental studies, industry, manufacturing, and history, seeking a broader understanding of the history of iron and steel and its current and future impact on society. Given its coverage of the history of iron and steel from its genesis to slow pre-industrial progress, revolutionary advances during the 19th century, magnification of 19th century advances during the past five generations, patterns of modern steel production, the ubiquitous uses of the material, potential substitutions, advances in relative dematerialization, and appraisal of steel's possible futures, Still the Iron Age: Iron and Steel in the Modern World by world-renowned author Vaclav Smil meets that need.

Front Cover; Still the Iron Age: Iron and Steel in the Modern World; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface and Acknowledgments; Previous Works by The Author; 1 Iron and Steel Before the Eighteenth Century; Bloomery Iron; Blast Furnaces; Charcoal; Premodern Steel; 2 Rise of Modern Ferrous Metallurgy, 1700-1850; European and British Ironmaking before 1750; British Transition to Coke; Larger Furnaces and Hot Blast; Wrought Iron; 3 Iron and Steel Before WW I, 1850-1914; Blast Furnaces; Inexpensive Steel: Bessemer Converters and Open Hearths; New Markets for Steel.

Steel in Transportation and Construction4 A Century of Advances, 1914-2014; From WW I to the End of WW II; America's Postwar Retreat; Japan in the Lead; Chinese Dominance; 5 Modern Ironmaking and Steelmaking; New Blast Furnaces; Direct Reduced Iron; Basic Oxygen Furnaces; Electric Arc Furnaces; Continuous Casting; Diffusion and Improvements; 6 Materials in Modern Iron and Steel Production; Materials for BFs and BOFs; Iron Ore; Metallurgical Coke; Material Balances of Integrated Steelmaking; Steel Scrap; Material Balances of EAFs.

7 Energy Costs and Environmental Impacts of Iron and Steel ProductionEnergy Accounting; Energy Cost of Steelmaking; Air and Water Pollution and Solid Wastes; Life Cycle Assessments; 8 Ubiquitous Uses of Steel; Infrastructures and Buildings; Fuels and Electricity; Transportation; Industrial Equipment and Consumer Products; 9 Looking Back; A Century and a Half of Modern Steel; Industry's State; Flows and Consumption Rates; Steel Stocks; 10 Looking Ahead; Substitutions; Lightweighting; Substituting Coke with Charcoal; Dematerialization; Absolute Dematerialization; New Processes.

Future RequirementsForecasts; Appendix A: Units and Their Multiples and Submultiples; Appendix B: Some Basic Terms; Appendix C: Global and National Production of Pig Iron and Steel, 1800-2015; Appendix D: Production of Crude Steel, 1900-2014; References; Index; Back Cover.