News USS Johnston: Sub dives to deepest-known shipwreck

[Urwumpe]

That still leaves the problem of elemental iron.

That is no alloy. And thus no steel. Important is, that the amount of carbon in the alloy is less than the maximum solubility of carbon in gamma-iron.

 

[jedidia]

The problem with the definition "steel is anything below 2% iron" is that wrought iron falls in that category

Well, it's the industry definition, so it's basically "the law". I'm afraid linguistics take a back seat here. Historically, most steel was just called iron. Even archeology calls most steel artifacts just "iron" (the distinction apparently not being so important to them, since in the early iron age it was pretty much just luck whether forged iron ended up fitting into the modern definition of steel or not. It's not half as maddening as their ubiquitous use of the term "copper alloy", since the distinction between bronze and brass is a lot more significant and was a lot more deliberate...).

 

[Linguofreak]

That is no alloy. And thus no steel. Important is, that the amount of carbon in the alloy is less than the maximum solubility of carbon in gamma-iron.

But then whether something counts as "steel" or not can change as your ability to precisely measure and/or control the composition of a batch of metal you manufacture gets better (thus changing what might be regarded as an alloy). If I were writing the industry standards, I'd define everything below a certain currently measurable carbon content as "iron", then, in order of increasing carbon content, "low carbon steel", "high carbon steel", and for cast iron, something like "excess carbon steel", indicating that the carbon content is high enough not to be soluble and to compromise the quality of the steel.

 

[Urwumpe]

But then whether something counts as "steel" or not can change as your ability to precisely measure and/or control the composition of a batch of metal you manufacture gets better (thus changing what might be regarded as an alloy). If I were writing the industry standards, I'd define everything below a certain currently measurable carbon content as "iron", then, in order of increasing carbon content, "low carbon steel", "high carbon steel", and for cast iron, something like "excess carbon steel", indicating that the carbon content is high enough not to be soluble and to compromise the quality of the steel.

That system would be wrong, if you look at the diagrams. Anything which is not oversaturated with carbon is steel or elemental iron. And elemental iron is a rare product. What your problem is, is purely historic terms for those differing from modern scientific definitions.

You would say, its meteorite iron. Metallurgists would say, its meteorite steel.