The History of Stainless Steel

Harold M. Cobb graduated from Yale University in 1942, receiving a B. E. Degree in Metallurgical Engineering. He has had a broad background in the stainless steel industry and has been involved in the development of many stainless steel products. He was one of the principal promoters and developers of the Unified Numbering System for Metals (UNS) which was organized jointly by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) in 1970. He served as Secretary of the U. S. Secretariat for the International Standards Committee ISO/TC17/SC12 on Carbon Steel Sheet and Strip for fifteen years. He has edited twenty-two books on steel, including works on carbon, alloy and coated steel sheet and strip, tool steels, stainless steel specifications and a Pocketbook of Standard Wrought Steels. In 1999 he became Editor of the Stainless Steels Products Manual, one of the sixteen steel products manuals that the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) initiated in the 1950s. In 2008, Cobb edited and substantially revised his second edition of Stainless Steels, now published by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.