History of the Recrystallisation of Metals: A Summary of Ideas and Findings until the 1950s

Abstract

The paper reviews the events that led to the understanding of the recrystallisation of metals throughout history, covering the timeline from 3500 BC until the 1950s and dealing mainly with the misconceptions related to the “recrystallisation” and “amorphisation”. This history begins with the thermomechanical processing of native metals in pre-Columbian America (3,000 BC), and the production of brass coins in Rome (100 BC). The analysis of the fracture surfaces of metals, commonly used between the 16^th and 18^th centuries in Europe for the quality control of metallic products, is briefly discussed. The observation of crystalline and fibrous fractures lead to the common misconception of the 19^th century that “recrystallisation” takes place during the heating of “amorphous” cold-worked metals. The use of reflecting optical microscopy in the late 19^th century indicated, however, that the plastic deformation only promotes a morphological change in the microstructure of the metals without any “amorphisation”. In the early 20^th century, the plastic deformation of metals by crystal plane slipping and twinning was well documented by metallographic observation during tensile testing. Nevertheless, in 1915, Prof. Rosenhain advocated that the “crystal” inside the slip bands of a plastically deformed metal was “amorphous” and responsible for the work hardening. The discovery of the X-ray diffraction technique, in 1913, allowed to resolve the ongoing dispute of the “amorphisation” of metals during plastic deformation. Between the 1920s and 1950s, X-ray diffraction was practically the only means of studying the internal structure of metals to explain the nature of their plasticity, confirming many aspects of the dislocation theory. This technique was crucially important to understand the atomic crystal structure of metals in the annealed and cold-work states. Our history finishes in the 1950s when the transmission electron microscopy finally revealed the first images of dislocation in metals. Up to that date, most of the understanding of the dislocations’ distribution and organisation in cold-work and annealed states had already been derived from X-ray diffractograms, which gave birth to the modern physical metallurgy.

Keywords:
Recrystallisation of metals; history; fractography; optical microscopy; x-ray diffraction