Louis De Geer received Josh Modi's proposal for an expedition to Maryland early in 1633. After reading over the proposal he smiled.
Already on it, nephew-in-law, he thought, already on it. He chuckled to himself. Some of these American phrases were addicting.
When De Geer had toured the crucible steel plant in April of 1632, Josh Modi had explained that steel was simply a carbon alloy of iron, as was cast iron. Changing the percentage of carbon combined with proper heat treatment would allow the steelmaker to tailor specific steel for specific uses, from cutlery to cannon.
"It's all just a matter of understanding the chemistry," Josh said.
De Geer staggered.
It was as if a lightning bolt had run through his body from head to toe.
For almost thirty years he had been involved with blast furnaces, gun foundries, and cast iron cannon. He owned iron mines, tin mines, calamine ovens, brassworks and numerous foundries. But never had there been an adequate explanation for the different kinds of iron that he dealt with every day. All the questions and thoughts he had ever had about iron coalesced suddenly into a coherent whole.
"And red shortness?" De Geer asked.
"Too much sulfur," Josh replied. "Any time you get poor quality iron, it's due to some contaminating element. The two major ones are sulfur and phosphorus. Even then, if you add just the right percentages you can get a different alloy steel with properties you might want. It's all just a matter…"
"Of understanding the chemistry," finished De Geer.
Josh nodded and smiled. "Correct. The interesting thing of course, is that the chemistry will change with different types of alloys and different percentages of alloys, as will how you need to heat treat the steel or iron. Up-time it had become pretty much of an exact science, whereas down-time everyone is still groping in the dark and doing all kinds of strange things, some of which waste a lot of time and money."
"Besides carbon," De Geer asked, "which types of alloys are most important for iron and steel?"
Josh stopped to ponder the question. "For steel right now I think tungsten and chromium are the most important. Tungsten would allow you to make a steel close to what was called 'hi-speed tool steel.' With proper heat treatment it allowed you to machine metal and parts at high temperatures. It was at least six times as good as regular carbon tool steel. Chromium would give you a better structural steel and at high percentages provides a lot of corrosion resistance to the steel. With around twelve to twenty percent chromium, if you could get the carbon part of the steel down low enough, say below two tenths of one percent, you would have what we call 'stainless steel.' But this will be pretty difficult until we can build induction furnaces and get pure chromium metal. Not impossible, just very difficult. Four-forty types of stainless actually contain from seven-tenths up to one percent carbon.
"For cast iron," continued Josh, "silicon is the most important alloy, I would say. Higher silicon content makes for a more homogenous cast iron that is less likely to crack and have holes and gaps, especially if you heat treat it properly."
As they continued the tour, De Geer motioned to De Vries who had been standing nearby. "Find out everything you can about steel alloys, especially tungsten, chromium and silicon. Locations, uses, everything."
On the day before their departure from Grantville, De Vries met with De Geer to go over what he had discovered.
"So tungsten can be found in the tailings of tin mines?" De Geer asked in surprise.
De Vries nodded. "The mineral is called wolframite and will be found in ores in combination with another mineral called cassiterite."
"And chromium?" De Geer asked.
"Easiest to use form would be chromite. The Americans have identified the locations in general terms: Kemi in Finland, Bursa in Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Maryland in North America. Kemi may be difficult because of the rock overburden. Maryland was the world supplier of chromite for many years in the up-time early 1800's. The formations occur in what are called 'Serpentine Barrens' which will actually be easy to find because they have a different ground cover than the surrounding forest. One of Josh Modi's friends, Vince Masaniello, showed me a copy of a brochure with a simple map of an area called Soldier's Delight where some of the chromite was mined. While it was used as an alloy for steel eventually, most of its early use was for producing a yellow dye."
De Geer grunted. If chromite in the up-time universe was used for a dye, he might be able to use that fact to enlist Amsterdam dye makers in an expedition. But something nagged him. "Maryland? Where have I heard that name?"
De Vries smiled. "I looked up the history. Does the name Lord Baltimore sound familiar?"
De Geer snapped his fingers. "Of course, Lord Baltimore. George Calvert."
Late in the winter of 1631 De Geer had attended a meeting hosted by Philip Burlamachi who had been the financial agent in Amsterdam for the English Crown for almost twenty years. As usual they gossiped about the kings they represented and Burlamachi had told him about Lord Baltimore's latest land venture.
Despite the fact that George Calvert was a Catholic, he was a favorite of Charles I. In 1625 Charles had given George Calvert the title of Baron of Baltimore in the kingdom of Ireland for services rendered to the crown. Due to the pressure Calvert felt because of his Catholicism, he kept founding colonies or obtaining land grants in the New World, hoping to persuade the king to legalize the practice of Catholicism in the colonies. His latest attempt was a charter granting him palatine rights to millions of acres north of Virginia. He had wanted to call the colony Cresentia, but Charles I insisted, said Burlamachi, on having it named after his Queen, Marieland. In order to interest people in coming to Marieland, said Burlamachi, Lord Baltimore intended to offer a variety of rewards, including large land grants, government appointments, and noble titles. Those who transported sufficient numbers of colonists could have their tract designated as a manor.
De Geer smiled. "When we return to Amsterdam, remind me to send you to England to see Lord Baltimore. I'll offer to supply a ship with colonists. Miners, of course."
De Vries laughed. "Perhaps you can be the count of Soldier's Delight?"
But the Maryland expedition had been complicated by the fact of George Calvert's death in London on April 15, 1632 while De Geer was in Grantville. De Geer waited until he had heard that Cecil Calvert, the new Lord Baltimore, had obtained another charter which had gone into effect on June 20, 1632. He then dispatched De Vries to London along with Dirck Graswinckel to negotiate a land grant in the northern part of the colony that contained the serpentine barrens.
"Tell him I will transport a ship full of colonists on the Dragon," De Geer told them. "Attempt to get at least one hundred thousand acres in the area we want."