Figure 1Mughal dagger

Courtesy J. D. Verhoeven

Figure 2. Portrait of J N Tata, Founder of Tata Steel and the Indian Institute of Science

Figure 3. The Materials civilisation timeline (after L E Hummel)

Figure 4. The intensity of use of materials (after M F Ashby)

Figure 5 Golden mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamen

Figure 6. Chola bronze image of Nataraja, Velankanni, Government Museum, Chennai, ca AD 1000

Figure 7. Widmanstatten pattern in meteoritic iron. Note the beautiful geometry of the pattern and the scale visible to the naked eye

Figure 8. Emperor Gupta looking on, as the Delhi Iron Pillar is being completed and inscribed.

Figure 9. Cast iron pagoda from China

Figure 10. Tatara Iron Making in JapanCourtesy T. Inoue

Figure 11 Tama-hagane- Japanese ironmade in a tatara furnaceCourtesy T. Inoue

Figure 11. Iron-carbon (Fe-C) diagram and first phase diagram of any alloy to be established, done by Roberts-Austen in 1898 after whom austenite is named ( redrawn from the original).

Figure 12. Historical evolution of Fe-C diagram (after J. Wadsworth)

Figure 13. Microstructures of steels (a) ferrite grains in a hypoeutectoidsteel, (b) pearlite lamellae in an eutectoid steel (c) pearlite with cementite at grain boundaries in a hypereutectoid steel (d) martensite from Osmond

Figure 15. Sir Henry Bessemer, inventor of the Steel Converternamed after him.

Figure 16. Sketch of an Italian rapier sword

Figure 17. Greek conqueror Alexander being presented ‘ferrum candidum’ or bright iron by Indian kingPorus.

Figure 18. Encounter between King Richard and Sultan Saladin, showing off their swords: Richard cuts a steel bar, while Saladinamazingly slices a pillow with a Damascus sword ofwootz steel.

Figure 19. A view of the fabled Hampi bazaar of theVijayanagara kingdom

Figure 20. A Deccan painting showing swords kept at hand even during a romantic rendezvous

Figure 21. Shivaji with soldiers and retinue

Figure 22. Sword blades of wootz being sheared by the British as part of the disarmamentdrive following the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Figure 23 Sword of Tipu SultanCourtesy the Clive Museum

Figure 24. Tipu, seated on his fabled Tiger Throne looking at his collection of swords, while the sculpture-cum-organ of the Tipu’sTiger with the Englishman being mauled, gives a plaintive cry in the background!.

Figure 25. A conjectural sketch of Buchanan’s furnace.

Figure 26. A sword from the Thanjavur armoury

Figure 27. A Damascus dagger found in Ootacamund

Figure 28. Michael Faraday, inventor of electricity and investigator of wootz

Figure 29. Specimen of wootz in Science Museum, London

Figure 30 Etched structure of Wootz ingot revealing dendrites

Figure 31. The word for ironsmith (lohar) in Sanskrit as inscribeby Michael Faraday

Figure 32. A conjecture of Breant in the thick of experiments, finally exclaiming “Enfin! (At last!), Experiment No. 301 shows thatwootz= iron + carbon!” alluding to the astonishing 300 odd experiments he did onwootz steel.

Figure 33 Sketch of P A Anossoff, Russian Investigator

Figure 34 Sketch of N. Belaiew

Figure 35 Sketch of D. K. Tschernoff

Figure 36 Sketch of Cyril Stanley Smith

Figure 37. Superplastic flow in ultra high carbon steel (after Sherby)

Figure 38. Fine grained microstructure Courtesy O. Sherby and J. Wadsworth)

Figure 39. Banding in V containing steels Courtesy J. D. Verhoeven

Figure 40 Ladder patternCourtesy J. D. Verhoeven

Figure 41. Bladesmith Ric Fuller forging ‘Damascus ‘ blades at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in Washington Courtesy Ric Fuller

Figure 42. Sketch of Indonesian Kris

Figure 43 Steps involved in making the Samurai swordCourtesy T. Inoue

Figure 44. Sketch of a Japanese samurai warrior with his sword

Figure 45 Making Japanese samurai swords and testing for fatal errors'

Figure 46. Sketch of Japanese tsuba – wrought iron guards

Figure 47 Mokuma gane

Figure 48 Damask patternCourtesy Manfred Sachse

Figure 49 Illustration of toughening by laminate compositeCourtesy J Wadsworth

Figure 50 Wootz Crucible sites in IndiaAfter P. T. Craddock

Figure 51 Kodumanl crucibles and iron smelting debris

Figure 52 Artistic conjecture inspired bySangam Tamil literature of poetess Auvaiyarlooking on as chieftainAnci is locked in battle while artisans work overtime to make crucible steel for spears

Figure 53 Assemblage of crucibles from Mel siruvalur

Figure 54 Microstructure of a cross section of crucible from Mel-Siruvalur showing globule of steel

Figure 55 Crucibles collected by K. N. P. RaoCourtesy P. T. Craddock

Figure 56 Refractory of the crucible Courtesy Thelma Lowe and Gareth Thomas

Figure 57 Iron Making in Sri Lanka (after Gill Juleff)

Figure 58 Reconstruction of Furnace used at Merv (From Griffiths and Feuerbach, 1999)

Figure 59 Sketch of iron making by the Agarias

Figure 60 Materials Tetrahedron

15

•Mechanical: Superplasticity•High strength •Toughness•Damascus Swords

•Ultra high carbon Steel•Ferrite and carbide

•Crucible steel making•Forging

MaterialsHypertetrahedron

Wootz Steel

Image002.gif

Figure 61 Materials hypertetrahedron for Wootz steel

Figure 62 NanowiresCourtesy W. Kochmann

Figure 63. Indentation curvesCourtesy W. Kochmann

Figure 64 Multiscale ModellingCourtesy Greg Olson

Figure 65. Damascene Cu (Image courtesy IBM)