Engineering Disasters (19 of 28)

If not for the landslide, the Titanic probably would have disappeared into the mud.
But who is responsible for the sinking? The scientists wondered if the builders were to blame for the brittle steel.
Of course, the first thing that runs through your head is ''Oh scandal!'' ''Someone has built bad steel.'', you know and you wonder about what is going on.
So I, I went back and did some research into just what, what were the standards of the day.
Ferguson concluded the steel was passable for 1912.
But brittle fracture was not well understood at the time.
They did tests...

at the turn of the century.
But they were very limited.
And none of them had anything to do with, with the so-called brittleness of the steel.
People were building as fast as they can, bigger than they can, more invincible.
Let us just go and do what we can do.
Ah, at the same time, the steel industry was trying to keep up to this.
They were developing new ways of making steel.
And in fact, they were switching over just at this time.
And it just appears that, that it did not keep up.
Now, that is what technology does.
And that is often how technology evolves, is through failure.
It was not until World War Two that engineers began to understand the problem of brittle steel.
These are the ships that carried the stuff for war.