Whats Been Happening in Materials

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• Whats Been Happening in Materials?
• Wesley Cantwell,
• Department of Engineering
• University of Liverpool

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Whats Been Happening in Materials?(3500
BC-2009)

• The top materials moments in history
• (JOM).

Some interesting moments in the Dept. of
Materials during the last 40 years
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The Top 50 Materials Moments in History
JOM
The following is a summary of some of the top 50
materials moments in history as voted upon by
more than 900 survey participants during early
2007.
A Great Materials Moment is defined as a pivotal
or capstone event of human observation or
invention that has resulted in a paradigm shift
in humanitys understanding of materials
behaviour.
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6 - 1755

• John Smeaton invents modern concrete
• Introduces the dominant construction material of
  the modern age.

He was a civil engineer often regarded as the
"father of civil engineering" responsible for
the design of bridges,canals, harbours and
lighthouses. He was also a more than capable
mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist.
His pioneering work lead to the development of
Portland cement.
Asked by ITV News what his message to terrorists
was, he said
"This is Glasgow we'll set about ye"
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5. 1668 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek develops an
optical microscope capable of magnifications of
200 times and greater. He enabled the study of
the natural world and its structures that are
invisible to the unaided eye.
Leeuwenhoek was a simple fabric merchant. Sparked
by a natural and insatiable curiosity, began to
observe everything around him. He examined saliva
and blood, pond water, vinegar and beer.
He created over 400 different microscopes, only
nine of which still exist.
4. 2200 BC - The peoples of northwestern Iran
invent glass. Introduces the second great
nonmetallic engineering material (following
ceramics).
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• 3. 1948 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and
  William Shockley invent the transistor. Becomes
  the building block for all modern electronics and
  the foundation for microchip and computer
  technology.

Bardeen won the Nobel prize on 2 occasions, 1956
for his work on transistors and in 1972 for his
work on superconductivity. In 1929, he applied
for a scholarship at the University of Cambridge,
but was rejected.

• 3500 BC Egyptians smelt iron for the first time.
  It was used mostly for ornamental or ceremonial
  purposes.
• Unlocks the first processing secret of what will
  become the world's dominant metallurgical
  material.

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1. 1864 - Dmitri Mendeleev devises the Periodic
Table of Elements.Introduces the ubiquitous
reference tool of materials scientists and
engineers.
Mendeleev was one of 17 children from a very poor
family. At one stage he was married to 2 women
at the same time and was refused entry into the
Russian Academy of Sciences as a result of the
goings on in his private life.
Mendeleev also worked on establishing a scale for
proofing vodka. He also invented Pyrocollodion,
a smokeless gunpowder and tried to persuade the
Russian Navy to use it.
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The Odd One Out?
David Bacon
Duke of York
James Prescott Joule
Year 0 student
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July 2001
After meeting the Dean and hearing about the
work of the Faculty, the Duke of York accepted an
invitation from Professor Gareth Padfield to
fly the simulator himself and took the controls
during the simulated flight of a tilt-rotor
aircraft on a search and rescue mission over
difficult terrain.
Whats a Joule Old Boy?
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The Odd One Out?
David Bacon
Duke of York
James Prescott Joule
Year 0 student
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• 26 - 1965
• Cambridge Instruments introduces a commercial
  scanning electron microscope.
• Provides an improved method for the
  high-resolution imaging of surfaces at greater
  magnifications and with much greater depth of
  field than possible with light microscopy

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• 28 - 1933
• Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska build the first
  transmission electron microscope.
• Accesses new length scales and enables improved
  understanding of the structures of materials.

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The Top 50 Materials Moments in History Journal
of Materials

• 20 / 50 of these moments have occurred since
  1900.

Only one of these 50 moments has occurred over
the last 40 years.
8 / 50 of these were British moments
9 / 50 were US moments
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36 (1991) Sumio Iijima discovers nanotubes -
carbon atoms arranged in tubular structures.
Creates expectations of important structural and
nonstructural applications as nanotubes are about
100 times stronger than steel at just a sixth of
the weight.
Sumio Iijima is often cited as the discoverer of
carbon nanotubes. His 1991 paper generated
unprecedented interest in the carbon
nanostructures and has since fueled intense
research in the area of nanotechnology.
Many papers start referring to The discovery of
carbon nanotubes by Iijima, such a recurrent
sentence makes a statement which is misleading,
often wrong and neglectful of the scientists who
preceded this citation on the path to the
understanding of carbon materials.
Monthioux and
Kuznetsov, Carbon, 44, 2006
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43 - 1909
Leo Baekeland synthesizes the thermosetting hard
plastic Bakelite.
Marks the beginning of the "plastic age" and the
modern plastics industry.
In 1943, Bakelite was tested for possible use as
the one cent coin before the US Mint settled on
zinc-coated steel.
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The Odd One Out Round

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Research Performance Indicator
RPI
N
x I
x A
x (15QI)
x (1NYS)
Number of years at Surrey
Number of publications
Research income
Age
Quality indicator
FREng QI 10 No FREng QI 0
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Typical RPI Table
1st Goodhew 11,875 RPI points
2nd Pond 247 3rd Bacon 230
. . . 48th Cantwell 2.5
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48 - 1959

• Richard Feynman presents "There's Plenty of Room
  at the Bottom" at a meeting of the Am. Phys. Soc.
• Introduces the concept of nanotechnology (while
  not naming it as such).

He also presented the "weird possibility" of
"swallowing the doctor." This concept involved
building a tiny, swallowable surgical robot.
This robot would then be used to build smaller
robots and they in turn would build even smaller
robots, culminating in perhaps a billion tiny
factories to achieve massively parallel
operations.
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A.A. Griffith

• 50 (1921) A.A. Griffith publishes "The Phenomenon
  of Rupture and Flow in Solids," forming the basis
  of many principles of fracture mechanics.

Griffith studied Mechanical Engineering, followed
by a Masters Degree and a Doctorate at Liverpool
University. He went on to lead a distinguished
career at the Royal Aircraft Establishment and
Rolls Royce.
Boeing 247
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• In the late 1920s Frank Whittle wrote his
  thesis on turbine engines. Whittle sent his paper
  to the Air Ministry in 1930, who passed it on to
  Griffith for comment. After pointing out an error
  in Whittle's

calculations, Griffith rejected the idea.
The Air Ministry replied to
Whittle saying they were not
interested in the design. Whittle was
crestfallen, but was convinced by friends in the
RAF to pursue the idea. Luckily, Whittle
patented his design and the rest is history.
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What didnt Make the Top 50

• 1844 - Charles Goodyear invents the vulcanisation
  of rubber.

1956 - Peter Hirsch and co-workers provide
experimental evidence of dislocations.
1989 - Don Eigler spells out IBM with
individual Xenon atoms using a scanning
tunnelling microscope.
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And finally..hard times
Anonymous
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