Titanic Steel Barrels
 

Rummaging through my 'stuff' in my PC this morning I found this, among other interesting stuff.


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Titanic Steel Barrels
Announcement of Titanic Steel Barrels:
Sporting Life February 26, 1898

Parker Brothers, makers of hammer and
hammerless shotgun have issued the following notice:

“We can now supply you with a plain black
barrel that we do not hesitate to recommend
as a hard, tough and thoroughly reliable barrel
and in consequence is suitable for shooting nitro
powders.
"We unhesitatingly recommend them for trap
and pigeon guns when a party desires a barrel
similar to the Whitworth Fluid Pressed Steel.
“We have decided to name them ‘Titanic
Steel’ by which name they will be known and
stamped on the rib.
They will be made in the $100, $150 and $200
list, and will be kept up to the high standard
that has characterized our guns of these grades.
Parker Bros., Meriden, Conn.


The Dollar Grades referenced are, $100 (Grade 3 or D) - $150 (Grade 4 or C) - $200 (Grade 5 or B)





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That is interesting...........

Very interesting . . . Thanks for sharing

Cool. Titanic was a good choice IMO. The name seems to conjure up images of indestructible barrels. Much unlike other names, Bernard, Acme, Whitworth for example. Even Vulcan, a fictional Star Trek being I think. Of course the Titanic did sink :)

“Vulcan” actually conjures up ‘from the furnaces of Hell’ or some such volcanic beginning.





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Ask Wile E. Coyote about Acme

I don't have a Parker with Titanic steel barrels.....yet. Working on it.

Vulcan was a planet in the Star Trek universe inhabited by pointy-eared green people who prided themselves on their use of logic, referred to as Vulcans. Mr. Spock was the most famous Vulcan character of the series. "Live long and Prosper."

Thanks to Dave Suponski, and published in the Summer 2014 Parker Pages, we know Titanic, post-WWI Vulcan, and Trojan steel were essentially the same; AISI 1030 and 1035 Medium Carbon steels. Titanic did have low levels of both nickel and chromium compared to the others, but it would not be an “alloy steel”. Tensile strength testing was not performed on Dave's samples for comparison.
Pre-WWI Vulcan was AISI 1015. Many pre-WWI U.S. maker's tubes were AISI 1020.

Drew, can you explain for us what the different AISI numbers represent?





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Oh my. Dean I only impersonate a metallurgist on gun forums.

Extremely short version is that for Carbon Steel (AISI 10XX) the last 2 numbers are the Carbon content. Parker Titanic Carbon was measured at .32% = 1030 with an industrial standard tensile strength of 76,000 psi

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ai...em-d_1449.html
Carbon steels
10xx Plain carbon (Mn 1.00% max.)
11xx Resulfurized
12xx Resulfurized and rephosphorized
15xx Plain carbon (Mn 1.00–1.65%)

Relative to gun barrel steel, the higher the Carbon content, the greater the tensile strength.

Summary of “Cold rolled” barrel steel tensile strengths. All can be heat treated for different applications (rifle receivers) to much higher strength, and yield strength matters also.
AISI 1005: 40,000 psi
Twist and Crolle Damascus: about 55,000 psi
AISI 1015: 56,000 psi
Winchester Standard Ordnance and other "cold rolled" Bessemer/Decarbonized steels and AISI 1020: 60,000 psi
c. 1900 “Fluid Steel” (Siemens-Martin & Krupp Open Hearth Steel AISI 1021-1034: 75,000 – 85,000 psi
AISI 1140: 85,000
Krupp Fluss Stahl (Homogeneous Fluid Steel) was introduced about 1890 and by reported composition was similar to AISI 1045: 85,000 psi.
AISI 1040 (and modified), Bohler “Blitz”, 4140 Chrome Moly (not used until after 1930s): 95,000 – 100,000 psi
Winchester Nickel Steel and Marlin “Special Smokeless Steel”: 100,000 – 105,000 psi
Remington Ordnance Steel: 110,000 psi
Krupp “Nirosta” (1912 patent NIchtROstender STAhl 21% Chromium / 7% Nickel Stainless Steel introduced in 1913): 114,000 psi
Winchester Proof Steel (probably AISI 4340) introduced in 1931 for the Model 21: 115,000 - 120,000 psi
Krupp Spezial Gewehr Lauf Stahl / 1895 “Special Gun Barrel Steel”): 138,000 psi
Bohler “Antinit” (Rostfrei Laufstahl chrome-molybdenum-vanadium introduced 1912): 138,000 psi

Phosphorus increases strength and machinability, but can embrittle steel, esp. if cold (ie The Titanic).
Sulfur increases machinability, but if high Sulfur/Manganese ratio leads to Manganese Sulfide inclusions.
Nickel & Chromium increase corrosion resistance and hardenability.

I think we have good data that the Belgian produced "rough forged tubes" used by U.S. double gun makers prior to WWI were mostly AISI 1018 - 1030, possibly rephosphorized, with Decarbonized Steel on lower grades.