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03/4/2008 -
Black Sand: The History of Titanium (First Edition) (2006)
by Kathleen L. Housley
ISBN 0-935297-43-X. International Titanium Association, Broomfield, Colorado 2007. Softcover. 148 pages. $12.00.
This is a comprehensive book on the historical path followed by titanium as a metal as well as the titanium industry. It delves deep into history, providing a concise summary of the discovery of titanium and the development of alloys depending on the needs of the different industries. Having written and edited a concise historical text on titanium in Wikipedia myself and remembering the hard-to-find historical information commonly sought after, I can easily say that this book is of great value to any titanium enthusiast, be he/she in the industry or in academia.
In the first chapter, the reader is introduced to the ores of titanium. Some terms unimaginable in the current century have been cited, the most notable among them being “phlogiston,” which stands for oxygen and “dephlogistated air” that stands for deoxygenated air. The history of William J Kroll (a name synonymous with the Kroll process) is also the main focus of Chapter 2. It deals mostly with his background as a metallurgist in Germany. Though mainly known for his work for the Kroll process with regards to extraction of titanium and zirconium, it is for the first time that the reader is introduced to the other metallurgical contributions of the eminent metallurgist. This chapter has been appropriately named “Son of Vulcan–William J. Kroll.” It would have been more appealing if a few pages in this chapter were devoted to the development of the Kroll process.
Subsequent chapters show the interest of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in the post- war era in the development of the titanium and zirconium extraction processes. This is followed up by the increasing demand for titanium with the start of the arms race between the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union. The creation of the United States’ largest titanium plant by the merger of National Lead and Allegheny Ludlum is also brought into the light during this demanding era for titanium. The plant appropriately named Titanium Metallurgical Corporation of America (TMCA), later on came to be known as TIMET. The serendipitous discovery of Ti-6Al-4V was described for the benefit of increasing the high temperature strength properties of titanium by alpha and beta stabilization. The author also takes one down the history lane by some interesting pictures starting appropriately from William Gregor and William J. Kroll and ending with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which is considered to be one of the marvels of the twentieth century.
In summary the author has aptly gone through two and half centuries of history of the metallurgy of titanium and the people and industries involved in the effort of titanium extraction and cost-effective production in a matter of nine chapters and 121 pages. A concise treatise of the technological development in the development of the Kroll process and the work being pursued at present around the world and in the United States as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency titanium initiative might have made this book a more interesting subject for a much larger audience of the world..
For more on Black Sand: The History of Titanium (First Edition), visit the International Titanium Association web site. |
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