Martin, Pierre Emile

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

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b. 18 August 1824 Bourges, France

d. 23 May 1915 Fourchambault, France

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French metallurgist, pioneer of open-hearth steelmaking.

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His father Emile owned an iron-and steelworks at Sireuil, near Angoulême, and, through this, Pierre became interested in improving the steelmaking process. In England, C.W. Siemens had developed the regenerative principle of waste-heat recovery that produced a much higher furnace temperature. In 1863, the Martins applied this process in an open-hearth furnace built under licence from Siemens, with the aid of his engineers. They melted a mixture of pig-and wrought iron to produce steel with the required carbon content. Martin exhibited the product at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 and was awarded a gold medal. The open-hearth process was for a long time known as the Siemens-Martin process, but Martin did not share in the profits which others gained from its successful adoption. He had difficulty in obtaining patent rights as it was claimed that the principles of the process were already known and in use. The costs of litigation brought Martin to the brink of poverty, from which relief came only late in life, when in 1907 the Comité des Forges de France opened a subscription for him that was generously supported. A week before his death, the Iron and Steel Institute of London bestowed on him their Bessemer gold medal.

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Principal Honours and Distinctions

Iron and Steel Institute Bessemer Gold Medal 1915.

Further Reading

Obituary, 1915, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 91:466.

LRD