Positive Quiddity: Comic Duo Hickman and Denver

Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver formed a nearly perfect but almost forgotten comedy team through their characters Dobie Gilllis and Meynard G. Krebs.

The television show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, worked because the odd partnership of Dobie and Meynard was funny and charming. Hickman, who had played Bob Cummings' scatterbrained nephew on The Bob Cummings Show, had the experience to lead this sitcom as Dobie Gillis. Dobie was an average young man, looking for the right girl and too often looking over his head for the wrong girl, spoiled, stuck-up Thalia Menninger, played by Tuesday Weld. Maynard was a beatnik, a rather clumsy and dimwitted one (in an era when beatniks were well-read bookworms). The two characters were good allies in a world where the spoiled rich boy, Chatsworth Osborne, Jr., always got bailed out and the popular students (played perfectly by very young Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld) got all the credit. The girl that actually loved Dobie, Zelda Fitzgerald, is gently spurned by Dobie, as his character always searches for infatuation rather than an adult partnership.

Doris Packer played the mother of both Beatty's character and Steven Franken's Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. As a conniving, pushy, wealthy suburban battle ax, she was a humorous and effective antagonist to the middle class friendship of Dobie and Maynard.

Hickman and Denver played high school students and then junior college students, but in real life they were both college graduates who knew what they were doing and, right from the beginning, knew how to read their lines to each other with crisp delivery and great timing.

Episodes ended in the local town park. With a copy of Rodin's “The Thinker” in the background, Dobie, seeming a lot like his mentor, Bob Cummings, would look into the camera and conclude the episode by offering a humble and ironic summary of the misadventures he had just endured. 

Here is a tribute to Denver written by Hickman on his blog:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Remembering Bob Denver

I want to share a few thoughts about my dear friend, Bob Denver, who passed away on Friday, September 2, 2005. Bob and I have been friends for over fifty years. We both attended Loyola University in Los Angeles. I knew him briefly from his work with the Del Rey Players, the college theatre group. In 1958 he came in to audition for the role of Maynard G. Krebs opposite my character, Dobie Gillis. I had already been cast and the producers asked me to test on film with all the actors they were interested in for the role of Maynard. I must have tested with twenty actors, some good, most not. It was the end of the day and as I was leaving the studio the producer called me back to test with one more actor. It was a favor to a secretary on the lot - it was her brother. When I returned to the set I was amazed to see that the secretary’s brother was Bob Denver. From the moment we began to read the lines all the other actors who had auditioned for the role just evaporated. Bob and I had a rhythm and timing that was instant and a new comedy duo was born.

For the next four seasons, I had the privilege to be Bob’s straight man. My favorite line? "Maynard, go home and feed your iguana." Maynard’s reply? "He don’t need me, Dobe, he can open the refrigerator door himself."

After Dobie Gillis ended its run, the next season Bob landed the title role of "Gilligan" and for the rest of his life, he and that character would become one.

Bob was a gentle comedian and wonderful with physical comedy. Everyone loved Maynard and Gilligan; they were both characters that you could identify with and root for.

We worked together on two Dobie Gillis reunion Movies of the Week in the 1970’s and 80’s and several years ago I joined him in the "Surviving Gilligan’s Island" movie. We had always hoped to work together again as Dobie and Maynard.

In fifty years we never had a harsh word. My wife Joan, son Albert, and I send our love and prayers to Bob's beautiful wife, Dreama and his wonderful children. I will always cherish my friendship with Bob and feel honored to have been his straight man..."Goodnight, Maynard - now go feed your iguana."

http://www.dwaynehickman.com/

Positive Quiddity: Breeding Tamer Foxes

Taming the Wild

Evan Ratfliff journeyed to Siberia last year for the National Geographic. He inspected the only facility in the world devoted to raising tame foxes. The work has been going on for over 50 years. In the old Soviet days, pioneers of the program were fired and imprisoned. The program only continued because key remaining researchers lied to Nikita Khrushchev about it when he came to visit the facility.

The article is provocative. It explains how, in fifteen generations, foxes can rapidly change themselves into domestic animals. These alterations appear to be the result of genetics, not at all because of nurture. There are very few animals that are suitable for domestication, about 14, and it is not obvious why a horse can become a domestic animal but a zebra fails to become domesticated even after multiple generations. The limits on domestication appear to be genetic.

What the researchers say about nature, nurture, genetics, use of scientific controls and persistence is remarkable. The implications of this work in shedding light on the ascent of man are daunting and profoundly thought provoking.

The article, “Taming the Wild,” should be read from the March, 2011 National Geographic beginning on page 34, because the photographs by Vincent J. Musi and the graphical depictions are integral to the reporting. However a link to the text and some of the photographs is available at:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/taming-wild-animals/ratliff-text

Bacteria in Meteorites

A friend sent me this link today. NASA scientist finds fossil micro-organisms in a meteor (proving that extra-terrestrial life actually existed):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/nasascientistfindsevidenceofalienlife

 

desired additional proof: (a) independent test of the rock to make sure the elemental isotopes are different (ie the atomic weight is different – see my February 24, 2001, “daily quiddity” blog on the “Periodic Table” for how this works) and (b) an outside lab doing electron scanning microscope work on this meteor that also finds fossilized micro-organisms

The weirdness of some of the life forms adds weight to the authenticity of this research. Since the NASA work has been done and peer-reviewed, we can assume that LIFE ACTUALLY EXISTED ELSEWHERE unless further testing contradicts the peer reviewed finding.

Once confirmed, this work should earn a Nobel Prize in science – at a minimum.

"Atlas Shrugged" -- the movie -- is coming

The companion blog, Quiddity, has a series of posts about Ayn Rand,her philosophy and her very long novel, Atlas Shrugged.  Apparently this will be a three-part series, a movie with two sequels,  Shrugged I, II, and III.

Shrugged I appears to be in the can (after eighteen years of development!) for release April 15, 2011, the day tax returns are normally due (though this year they are actually due on April 18th).  I think the movie is likely to suck.  I think so for several reasons.  The biggest and most telling is that there have been eight screenwriters.  "That's too many."  This book must have a "written and directed by" credit or at least a very close collaboration between the director and the writer.  By this I mean a talent like Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder has got to be directing -- and that's just impossible.  If it were possible, there wouldn't have been a revolving door of screenwriters.

As mentioned on the Quiddity blog, the real hero of Atlas Shrugged is Francisco d'Anconia.  I can't believe the eight screenwriters as a group have achieved that understanding in collaboration with a director.  So, instead, we are going to have a souped-up Nickolai Tesla as the "hero," the mysterious John Galt.  I doubt the audience is going to be able to suspend disbelief.

Another thing that sucks is that the book is essentially a melodrama.  It appears that the movie is going to imitate being an action movie as much as possible.  "That's a potential train wreck."  I'm afraid this movie is going to be Executive Suite meets Unstoppable.  It is, barely, possible to make a white collar melodrama -- The Bad and the Beautiful is an example that should be the template for Shrugged I.  But it doesn't seem likely that such a thing has happened here.  If the screenwriters turned the script into one emphasizing Washington politics and "K Street," making Wesley Mouch's character the lead, and filming him the way Kirk Douglas was filmed in Bad and the Beautiful, it might work as a hair-raising, nail-biting indictment of modern lobbying.  Yet I feel sure that something else is happening here, an irresistible impulse to make a "statement" rather than make a movie.

I recommend to readers of this blog that they read through the libertarian and Ayn Rand postings on the companion Quiddity blog and then go see Shrugged I out of sheer and intense morbid curiosity.  That's what I'm going to do.

-- the blog author

Positive Quiddity: Clara Barton

Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was a pioneer American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. She is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross.

Youth, Education and Family Nursing

Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts, to Stephen and Sarah Barton. She was the youngest of five children. Clara's father was a farmer and horse breeder (who also served as a captain in the French and Indian Wars), while her mother Sarah managed the household. The two later helped found the first Universalist Church in Oxford.

When Clara was eleven, her brother David became her first patient after he fell from a rafter in their unfinished barn. Clara stayed at his side for three years and learned to administer all his medicines, including the "great, loathsome crawling leeches”.

As she continued to develop an interest in nursing, Clara may have drawn inspiration from stories of her great-aunt, Martha Ballard, who served the town of Hallowell (later Augusta), Maine, as a midwife for over three decades. Ballard helped deliver nearly one thousand infants between 1777 and 1812, and in many cases administered medical care in much the same way as a formally trained doctor of her era.
On his death bed, Clara's father gave her advice that she would later recall:

"As a patriot, he had me serve my country with all I had, even with my life if need be; as the daughter of an accepted Mason, he had me seek and comfort the afflicted everywhere, and as a Christian he charged me to honor God and love all kind. The door that nobody else will go in at, seems always to open widely for me."

American Civil War

On April 21, 1861, nine days after the start of the Civil War, Barton tended to wounded Massachusetts soldiers quartered in the U.S. Senate chamber in Washington. Then after the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, Barton established the main agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers. She was given a pass by General William Hammond to ride in army ambulances to provide comfort to the soldiers and nurse them back to health and lobbied the U.S. Army bureaucracy, at first without success, to bring her own medical supplies to the battlefields. Finally, on August 3, 1862, she obtained permission to travel to the front lines, eventually reaching some of the grimmest battlefields of the war and serving during the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. In 1864 she was appointed by Union General Benjamin Butler as the "lady in charge" of the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln placed Clara in charge of the search for the missing men of the Union Army. Around this time, a young soldier named Dorence Atwater came to her door. He had copied the list of the dead without being discovered by the Andersonville officials, and taken it with him through the lines when he was released from the prison. Having been afraid that the names of the dead would never get to the families, it was his intention to publish the list. He did accomplish this. His list of nearly 13,000 men was considered invaluable. When the war ended, Barton and Atwater were sent to Andersonville with 42 headboard carvers, and Barton gave credit to young Dorence for what came to be known as “The Atwater List” in her report of the venture. Dorence also has a report at the beginning of this list, still available through Andersonville National Historical Site in Georgia. Because of the work they did, they became known as the "Angels of Andersonville," according to a biography of Barton. She was also known as "The Angel of the Battlefield". Her work in Andersonville is displayed in the book, Numbering All the Bones, by Ann Rinaldi. This experience launched her on a nationwide campaign to identify all soldiers missing during the Civil War. She published lists of names in newspapers and exchanged letters with soldiers’ families.

She joined the ranks of such individuals as Virginia's Sally Louisa Tompkins in helping develop nursing as a skilled profession during the Civil War.

American Red Cross

Barton then achieved widespread recognition by delivering lectures around the country about her war experiences. She met Susan B. Anthony and began a long association with the woman's suffrage movement. She also became acquainted with Frederick Douglass and became an activist for black civil rights.
When Clara Barton returned to the United States, she inaugurated a movement to gain recognition for the International Committee of the Red Cross by the United States government. When she began work on this project in 1873, most Americans thought the U.S. would never again face a calamity like the Civil War, but Barton finally succeeded during the administration of President James Garfield, using the argument that the new American Red Cross could respond to crises other than war.

Barton naturally became President of the American branch of the society, which was founded on May 21, 1881 in Dansville, N.Y.

                                      Clara Barton
This changed with the advent of the Spanish-American War during which it aided refugees and prisoners of war. In 1896, responding to the humanitarian crisis in the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the Hamidian Massacres, Barton sailed to Istanbul and after long negotiations with Abdul Hamid II, opened the first American International Red Cross headquarters in the heart of Beijing,China. Barton herself traveled along with five other Red Cross expeditions to the Armenian provinces in the spring of 1896. Barton also worked in hospitals in Cuba in 1898 at the age of seventy-seven. Barton's last field operation as President of the American Red Cross was the relief effort for the victims of the Galveston hurricane of September 1900. The operation established an orphanage for children of the 6,000 dead, helped to acquire lumber for rebuilding houses, and teamed with the New York World newspaper to accept contributions for the relief effort. As criticism arose of her management of the American Red Cross, plus her advancing age, Barton resigned as president in 1904, at the age of 83. On April 12, 1912 at the age of 90 she died in Glen Echo, Maryland with all her friends by her side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Barton

Positive Quiddity: Jack Paar

Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962. Time magazine's obituary noted that: "His fans would remember him as the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar."

                                                 Jack Paar

Birth Name:                        Jack Harold Paar

Nationality:                         American

Genres:                              Observational Comedy

Subject(s):                         Everyday life, American culture

Influences:                         Will Rogers, Jack Benny

Influenced:                         Johnny Carson, Robert Klein, Alan King, George Carlin,

                                         Don Rickles, Tom Snyder, David Letterman

[Top Achievement:]        In over 45 years since 1965, no other talk show host has

                                         maintained a multi-year, prime time network U.S.

                                         television program – the blog author]

Early life and education

Paar was born in Canton, Ohio, the son of Howard and Lillian M. Paar. He moved with his family to Jackson, Michigan, 30 miles south of Lansing, as a child. As a child he had a stuttering problem which he conquered. He contracted tuberculosis when he was 14, and left school at 16.

Early career

He first worked near home as a radio announcer at WIBM in Jackson and later as a humorous disc jockey at Midwest stations, including WJR in Detroit, WIRE in Indianapolis, WGAR in Cleveland and WBEN in Buffalo. In his book P.S. Jack Paar, he recalled doing utility duty at WGAR in 1938 when Orson Welles broadcast his famous simulated alien invasion, War of the Worlds over the CBS network (and affiliate WGAR). Attempting to calm possible panicked listeners, Paar announced, "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?"

Paar was drafted into the military during World War II and assigned to the U.S.O. in the South Pacific to entertain the troops. He was a clever, wise cracking master of ceremonies whose impersonations of officers nearly got him into trouble. [He was noticed by Jack Benny, then touring with the U.S.O., and profiled in Esquire magazine because of his talent for entertaining servicemen – the blog author].

Radio and films

After WWII, Paar worked in radio as a fill-in on The Breakfast Club show and appeared as a panelist on the $64 Question. He got his big break when Jack Benny, who had been impressed by Paar's U.S.O. performances, suggested that Paar serve as his 1947 summer replacement. Paar was enough of a hit on Benny's show that Benny's sponsor, American Tobacco Company decided to keep him on the air, moving him to ABC for the fall season. Paar later refused American Tobacco's suggestion that he come up with a weekly running gag or gimmick, saying he "wanted to get away from that kind of old-hat comedy, the kind being practiced by Jack Benny and Fred Allen.” The show was then terminated, earning Paar an enduring image as a spoiled kid (as Dunning phrased it). A profile of Paar by the Museum of Broadcast Communications suggests that Paar later emulated Benny's mannerisms.

Paar also signed as a contract player for Howard Hughes' RKO Pictures in the immediate post war period, appearing as the emcee in the movie Variety Time (1948), a compilation of vaudeville sketches. He later recalled that RKO producers had trouble figuring out what kind of screen characters he could play, until one of the executives dubbed him, "Kay Kyser, with warmth." Paar projected a pleasant personality on film, and RKO called him back to emcee another filmed vaudeville show, Footlight Varieties (1951). Paar also appeared in the 1950 film, Walk Softly, Stranger, with Joseph Cotton. In 1951, he played Marilyn Monroe's boyfriend in the 20th Century Fox film, Love Nest.

Paar returned to radio in 1950, hosting the $64 Question for one season, then quitting in a wage dispute in the spring of 1951 after the show's sponsor pulled out and NBC insisted everyone involved take a pay cut. In 1956, he gave radio one more try, hosting a disc jockey effort, The Jack Paar Show, on ABC. Paar once described this show as "so modest we did it from the basement rumpus room of our house in Bronxville."

Television

He got his first tastes of television in the early 1950s, appearing as a comic on The Ed Sullivan Show and hosting two game shows, Up To Paar (1952) and Bank on the Stars (1953), before hosting The Morning Show (1954) on CBS. He guest starred twice in 1958 on Polly Bergen's short-lived NBC comedy/variety show, The Polly Bergen Show.

The Tonight Show

NBC asked Paar to succeed Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show. He hosted the program from 1957 to 1962. At first, the show was called The Tonight Show With Jack Paar; after 1959 it was officially known as Tonight With Jack Paar. Paar was often unpredictable and emotional. When network censors cut a joke about a "water closet" (the British term for a toilet), on February 11, 1960, he received national attention by leaving the show and did not return until three weeks later. Paar's emotional nature made the everyday routine of putting together a 105-minute program difficult to continue for long. As a TV Guide item put it, he was "bone tired" of the grind. He signed off the show for the last time on March 29, 1962.

Prime time

Because NBC did not want to lose Paar to another network, it offered him a Friday prime-time hour, giving him carte blanche on content and format. Paar agreed, deciding on a variation of his late-night format and titling his show, which first aired in the fall of 1962, The Jack Paar Show. The show had a world view, debuting acts from around the globe and showing films from exotic locations; most of the films were made on travels made by guests such as Arthur Godfrey or Paar himself (e.g., several visits with Albert Schweitzer at his compound in Gabon in Central Africe, and Mary Martin at her home in the jungles of Brazil).
Paar showed film clips of the Beatles performing, one month before their famous live appearance on the The Ed Sullivan Show.

During the first half of 1964, a mock feud pitted Paar against the show immediately preceding his program, David Frost's satire series That Was the Week that Was. A typical exchange would have That Was the Week That Was "signing off" the NBC Television Network just before the Paar program, with Paar responding that the show immediately preceding his was the Amateur Hour. The feud suddenly evaporated when NBC moved That Was the Week That Was to a different time slot.

Paar's prime time show aired for three years, including guests such as Brother Dave Gardner, Peter Ustinov, Lawrence of Arabia's brother, Richard Burton, Oscar Levant, Lowell Thomas, Muhammad Ali reciting his poetry to piano accompaniment by Liberace, an occasionally inebriated Judy Garland, Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen,Bill Cosby (whose nickname for Paar was "The Boss"), Bette Davis, Robert Morley, Cliff Arquette (as Charlie Weaver), Dick Gregory and many others. The final closing segment of the series, broadcast on June 25, 1965, featured Paar sitting alone on a stool, sharing a discussion that he had with his daughter Randy, who called Paar's departure a sabbatical. He said that his own field was, though not completely used up, "a little dry recently." Then he called to his German shepherd, who came to him from the seats of what was, for once, an empty studio, and walked out. (Johnny Carson precisely copied this format for his own farewell episode of The Tonight Show in 1992.)
Paar continued to appear in occasional specials for the network until 1970.

Later career

Paar came back to television on a regular basis beginning in January 1973, appearing one week a month as one of several rotating hosts on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Paar claimed it was the most he was willing to appear, and that he would not have appeared at all unless ABC had committed to keeping Dick Cavett, a former writer for Paar, on the air. Paar's announcer for this series was Peggy Cass, and perhaps its most notable aspect was the national television debut of comic Freddie Prinze. Paar stayed on the show, which was in direct competition with Tonight, for one year before he quit. Dissatisfied with the one-week-per-month formula, he complained that even his own mother did not know when he was on. Paar later expressed discomfort with developments in the television media and once said he had trouble interviewing people dressed in "overalls", a reference to young rock acts.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Paar made rare guest appearances on The Tonight Show (hosted by Johnny Carson and Jay Leno) and Late Night with David Letterman, as well as Charles Grodin's CNBC talk-show.

Retrospectives

In 1986, NBC aired a special featuring Paar, titled Jack Paar Comes Home; the following year, a second special Jack Paar Is Alive and Well was broadcast by the network. Both of these specials were largely made up of kinescoped clips from Paar's prime time program, to which he maintained the copyright.
PBS television devoted an edition of the American Masters series to Paar's career in 1997, and in 2003 revisited the topic with another hour-long examination of the Paar phenomenon, entitled Smart Television. The program featured clips of Paar with guests including Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Judy Garland, Bill Cosby (in his first network appearance), Peter Ustinov, Richard Burton, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy (in his first interview after his brother's assassination), Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and many others compiled from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as more recent interviews with people who worked with Paar.

In the spring of 2004, a memorial for Jack Paar was held at The Museum of Television & Radio in New York City. Ron Simon, one of the television and radio curators at the Museum, was host and moderator with appearances and speeches by television talk show host Dick Cavett, TCM host Robert Osborne, and Paar's daughter, Randy.

Awards

Paar was nominated for an Emmy for Best Performance by a Continuing Character in a Musical or Variety Series in 1951, and again nominated in 1958 for an Emmy for Best Continuing Performance in a Series by a Comedian, Singer, Host, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, or Panelist.

Personal life

Paar was twice married to his first wife Irene Paar. After divorcing, the couple remarried, only to divorce again. Paar was married to his second wife, Miriam Wagner, for nearly 61 years - from 1943 until his death in 2004. Miriam appeared on Paar's 1956–57 ABC radio show, with their daughter.

Death

Paar's health declined in the late 1990s. He died at his Greenwich, Connecticut, home on January 27, 2004, with his wife and daughter Randy by his side. He had long been in ill health, having undergone triple-bypass heart surgery in 1998. He also suffered a stroke a year before he died.

Bibliography

• Jack Paar (1959). My Brother was an Only Child. Dutton. pp. 96. , ASIN: B0006AVWCE
• Jack Paar (May 1, 1961). I Kid You Not. Cardinal. , ASIN: B00005W4PA
• Jack Paar (January 1, 1965). 3 On A Toothbrush: Adventures And Encounters Around The Globe. Doubleday & Company. pp. 276. , ASIN: B0012ACN9S
• Jack Paar (1983). P.S. Jack Paar: An Entertainment. Doubleday. , ASIN: B000O6439O

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Paar

Stainless Steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass. Stainless steel does not stain, corrode, or rust as easily as ordinary steel, but it is not stain-proof. It is also called corrosion-resistant steel or CRES when the alloy type and grade are not detailed, particularly in the aviation industry. There are different grades and surface finishes of stainless steel to suit the environment the alloy must endure. Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and resistance to corrosion are required. Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium present. Unprotected carbon steel rusts readily when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film (the rust) is active and accelerates corrosion by forming more iron oxide. Stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to form a passive film of chromium oxide, which prevents further surface corrosion and blocks corrosion from spreading into the metal's internal structure.

Passivation only occurs if the mixture of chromium is high enough.

A few corrosion-resistant iron artifacts survive from antiquity. A famous example is the Iron Pilla of Delhi, erected by order of Kumara Gupta I around AD 400. Unlike stainless steel, however, these artifacts owe their durability not to chromium but to their high phosphorus content, which, together with favorable local weather conditions, promotes the formation of a solid protective passivation layer of iron oxides and phosphates, rather than the non-protective cracked rust layer that develops on most ironwork.
The corrosion resistance of iron-chromium alloys was first recognized in 1821 by French metallurgist Pierre Berthier, who noted their resistance against attack by some acids and suggested their use in cutlery. Metallurgists of the 19th century were unable to produce the combination of low carbon and high chromium found in most modern stainless steels, and the high-chromium alloys they could produce were too brittle to be practical.

In the late 1890sHans Goldschmidt of Germany developed an aluminothermic (thermite) process for producing carbon-free chromium. Between 1904 and 1911 several researchers, particularly Leon Guillet of France, prepared alloys that would today be considered stainless steel.
Friedruich Krupp Germaniawerft built the 366-ton sailing yacht Germania featuring a chrome-nickel steel hull in Germany in 1908. In 1911, Philiip Monnartz reported on the relationship between chromium content and corrosion resistance. On October 17, 1912, Krupp engineers Benno Strauss and Eduard Maurer patented austenitic stainless steel.

Similar developments were taking place contemporaneously in the United States, where Christian Dantsizen
and Frederick Becket were industrializing ferritic stainless steel. In 1912, Elwood Haynes applied for a US patent on a martensitic stainless steel alloy, which was not granted until 1919.

Also in 1912, Harry Brearley of the Broth-Firth research laboratory in Sheffield, England, while seeking a corrosion-resistant alloy for gun barrels, discovered and subsequently industrialized a martensitic stainless steel alloy. The discovery was announced two years later in a January 1915 newspaper article in The New York Times. The metal was later marketed under the Staybrite brand by Firth Vickers in England and was used for the new entrance canopy for the Savoy Hotel in London in 1929.

Brearley applied for a US patent during 1915 only to find that Haynes had already registered a patent. Brearley and Haynes pooled their finding and with a group of investors formed the American Stainless Steel Corporation, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the beginning stainless steel was sold in the US under different brand names like Allegheny metal and Nirosta steel. In 1929 before the Great Depression hit, over 25,000 tons of stainless steel was manufactured and sold in the US.

Properties

High oxidation-resistance in air at ambient temperature is normally achieved with additions of a minimum of 13% (by weight) chromium, and up to 26% is used for harsh environments. The chromium forms a passivation layer of chromium(III) oxide (Cr₂O₃) when exposed to oxygen. The layer is too thin to be visible, and the metal remains lustrous. The layer is impervious to water and air, protecting the metal beneath. Also, this layer quickly reforms when the surface is scratched. This phenomenon is called passivation and is seen in other metals, such as aluminium and titanium. Corrosion-resistance can be adversely affected if the component is used in a non-oxygenated environment, a typical example being underwater keel bolts buried in timber.

When stainless steel parts such as nuts and bolts are forced together, the oxide layer can be scraped off, causing the parts to weld together. When disassembled, the welded material may be torn and pitted, an effect known as galling. This destructive galling can be best avoided by the use of dissimilar materials for the parts forced together, for example bronze and stainless steel, or even different types of stainless steels (martensitic against austenitic), when metal-to-metal wear is a concern. Nitronic alloys reduce the tendency to gall through selective alloying with manganese and nitrogen. In addition, threaded joints may be lubricated to prevent galling.

Applications

Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance, relatively low cost, and familiar luster make it an ideal material for many applications. There are over 150 grades of stainless steel, of which fifteen are most commonly used. The alloy is milled into coils, sheets, plates, bars, wire, and tubing to be used in cookware, cutlery, hardware, surgical instruments, major appliances, industrial equipment (for example, in sugar refineries) and as an automotive and aerospace structural alloy and construction material in large buildings. Storage tanks and tankers used to transport orange juice and other food are often made of stainless steel, due to its corrosion resistance and antibacterial properties. This also influences its use in commercial kitchens and food processing plants, as it can be steam-cleaned and sterilized and does not need paint or other surface finishes.

Stainless steel is used for jewelery and watches with 316L being the type commonly used for such applications. It can be re-finished by any jeweler and will not oxidize or turn black.

Some firearms incorporate stainless steel components as an alternative to blued or parkerized steel. Some handgun models, such as the Smith & Wesson Model 60 and the Colt M1911 pistol, can be made entirely from stainless steel. This gives a high-luster finish similar in appearance to nickel plating. Unlike plating, the finish is not subject to flaking, peeling, wear-off due to rubbing (as when repeatedly removed from a holster), or rust when scratched.

Some automotive manufacturers use stainless steel as decorative highlights in their vehicles.

Architectural

Stainless steel is used for buildings for both practical and aesthetic reasons. Stainless steel was in vogue during the art deco period. The most famous example of this is the upper portion of the Chrysler Building (pictured). Some diners and fast-food restaurants use large ornamental panels and stainless fixtures and furniture. Owing to the durability of the material, many of these buildings retain their original appearance.
The forging of stainless steel has given rise to a fresh approach to architectural blacksmithing in recent years.
Type 316 stainless is used on the exterior of both the Petronas Twin Towers and the Jin Mao Building, two of the world's tallest skyscrapers.

The Parliament House of Australia in Canberra has a stainless steel flagpole weighing over 220 tons.
The aeration building in the Edmonton Composting Facility, the size of 14 hockey rinks, is the largest stainless steel building in North America.

Monuments and sculptures

• The Unisphere, constructed as the theme symbol of the 1964-5 World's Fair in New York City, is the world's largest globe-shaped structure.
• The Gateway Arch is clad entirely in stainless steel: 886 tons (804 metric tonnes) of 0.25 in (6.4 mm) plate, #3 finish, type 304 stainless steel.
• The United States Air Force Memorial has an austenitic stainless steel structural skin.
• The Atomium in Brussels, Belgium was renovated with stainless-steel cladding in a renovation completed in 2006; previously the spheres and tubes of the structure were clad in aluminium.
• The Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor, in Chicago US.
• The Sibelius monument in Helsinki, Finland, is made entirely of stainless steel tubes.

Recycling and reuse

Stainless steel is 100% recyclable. An average stainless steel object is composed of about 60% recycled material of which approximately 40% originates from end-of-life products and about 60% comes from manufacturing processes.

There is a secondary market that recycles usable scrap for many stainless steel markets. The product is mostly coil, sheet and blanks. This material is purchased at a less-than-prime price and sold to commercial quality stampers and sheet metal houses. The material may have scratches, pits and dents but is made to the current specifications.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel