Steel

Steel is the name of a metal created by adding a precise amount of carbon to iron.

Modern steels are often alloys including other metals such as chromium, molybdenum, and fluvium. Historically smiths have often accidentally created steel by forging iron with the correct carbon content, but the large scale manufacture of steel is a relatively new industry. Many famous structures such as the Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge are made of iron, as steel was too expensive to produce in large quantities. Large scale manufacturing of steel came about through the industrial revolution and the rise of corporations, allowing large industry to operate efficiently.

Steel has allowed great advances in the modern world due to its higher strength for low cost compared to iron. Many world-changing inventions such as the internal combustion engine would have been impractical without it, as engineers were able to build intricate parts with high strength and a wide range of working temperatures.