I attempted to post this before last month's telephone meeting and am not sure how far it circulated. In the end I was not able to attend the meeting but aim to be there tomorrow. This is to introduce myself and the link now made between the Archaeometallurgy Community and the Historical Metallurgy Society.
Thanks for the notes from the telephone meeting. I had hoped to attend but a previous meeting hadn't finished. I did want to introduce myself and the new link with the Historical Metallurgy Society (HMS).
My name is Peter Northover and I am retired from forty years' research in archaeological and historical metallurgy in the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, and am currently a council member of the Historical Metallurgy Society, and also am a member of its Archived and Collections Committee which, at the moment, has a lot to do with HMS outreach.
Following email conversations started between Scott Henry and Russell Wanhill, the idea emerged of establishing a link between the HMS and the ASN Archaeometallurgy Group/Society and a first steps have been taken with an exchange of membership so that Patricia is a member of HMS and I am now a member of ASM and your group. Looking at the notes of the meeting there is clearly a lot we could develop jointly. One area is web content for both ASM and HMS. (We are at https://historicalmetallurgy.org/. Click or tap if you trust this link." style="background-color: #FFFFFF">The Historical Metallurgy Society
We curate a small number of legacy collections of metallographic samples from archaeological and historic material and this will expand. I think another area for collaboration is in developing best practice for metallography in our areas of interest where our samples can be small, corroded, and very heterogeneous. An ultimate dream would be an ASH handbook for archaeological and historic materials.
For myself, my beginning in metallurgy was at the labs of Westland Aircraft/Saunders Roe at Cowes, IoW, where the projects were the first cross-Channel hovercraft and the Black Arrow rocket programme. This got me hooked on metallography and it has never worn off. After a doctorate on stress corrosion cracking and hydrogen embrittlement with the British Steel Corporation Labs, I have spent my working life in archaeological and historical metallurgy, almost all in non-ferrous and precious metals. Now retired, I have a metallographic microscope at home, together with a mounting press and grinder polisher, soI can carry on through all the Covid restrictions.
I look forward to joining the next meeting,
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Peter Northover
Retired
University of Oxford
+44 1865 820543
peter.northover@retired.ox.ac.uk------------------------------