Page 35 - Best of STIL 2018 English

only a few months because the cast or wrought iron had warped. The lack of quality steel threat- ened to slow the rate of progress.
Henry Bessemer then became the first person to produce steel with the desired carbon content. The British engineer and inventor developed a process in the mid-19th century which removed carbon from high-carbon cast iron – and in doing so allowed the carbon content of the steel to be pre- cisely controlled. This paved the way for the mass production of steel – but only if low-phosphorus Swedish ore was used for this process.
Iron and steel proved to be the engine driving modernization - along with the mining operations which extracted the required ore and coal. Steel established itself as the material of choice for ships, bridges and buildings. The Eiffel Tower, which
was completed to mark the World’s Fair in 1889, showcased the new art of engineering and archi- tecture for the masses. In the 1920s, heavy industry was still seen as the epitome of progress – a view memorably reflected in Fritz Lang’s science fiction classic “Metropolis” (1927) for instance: The film shows huge steel production machines as the embodiment of power and control. Just a few years later, at the start of the 30s, science then finally discovered what was actually happening to steel during production.
Deep into the second half of the last century, steel production was viewed as the yardstick of
economic power – which accordingly derived a nation’s political importance internationally. No other material was considered as important. Now- adays, these boundaries have increasingly shifted with the emergence of digitalization as the new “fuel” behind civilizational progress.
Iron ore and salt made the Salzgitter region attractive from an early point in time
Ore mining and iron production not only accel- erated the development of a civilization or a nation as a whole, but also contributed a great deal to the economy of individual regions. The area around Salzgitter is a prime example. In addition to the salt, local iron ore and coal deposits were what attracted people to settle in the region. Iron was smelted here as far back as 1,800 years ago. The Salzgitter ironworks and the mill in Ilsede were then established in the course of industrializa- tion in the 19th century. As the Salzgitter ore was heavily siliceous and low in iron, it was only used as fluxing ore for a long time before the ironworks was ultimately forced to close its doors. But after the First World War and the loss of the iron depos- its in Alsace-Lorraine, Salzgitter was back in the game – particularly as new processes now enabled the smelting of siliceous Salzgitter ore. And the re- gion has played a key role in this game ever since.
The construction phases of the Eiffel Tower, which was named after its architect Gustave Eiffel. In the end, the iron-framed construc- tion measured in at 324 meters – and was consid- ered a technical sensation at the time. Built with modern steels and production methods, the entire tower would total only 30% of its weight
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Photos: Théophile Féau / L‘histoire par image