A hundred years ago World War I hadn’t yet happened, but was about to. A hundred years ago “automobiles” were just hitting the market, most of them Ford Model T. A hundred years ago the present was a hazy future inside a cubist painting.
Here’s 5 “Then and Now’s,” 1913 and 2013, to look over the slow grind and twerk of the last hundred years.
Cubes of stainless steel scrap. via sametal.co.za
1913: English metallurgist Harry Brearley invents the steel and chromium alloy inox, known now as “stainless steel.” He is looking for a corrosion resistant alloy for gun barrels. This new alloy is called “Allegheny metal” and “Nirosta Steel” as it searches for a name. One journalist calls it “Unstainable Steel” in 1921. In 1929 it is used to make an entrance canopy for the Savoy Hotel in London. It is one of the most widely applicable man-made materials in the world, and is 100% recyclable.
