The steel cable of a colliery winding tower

Steel is an alloy made by combining iron and another element, usually carbon. When carbon is used, its content in the steel is between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Other alloying elements sometimes used are manganese, chromium, vanadium and tungsten.^[1] Carbon and other elements act as a hardening agent, preventing dislocations in the iron atom crystal lattice from sliding past one another. Varying the amount of alloying elements and the form of their presence in the steel (solute elements, precipitated phase) controls qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. Steel with increased carbon content can be made harder and stronger than iron, but such steel is also less ductile than iron.

Alloys with a higher than 2.1% carbon content are known as cast iron because of their lower melting point and good castability.^[1] Steel is also distinguishable from wrought iron, which can contain a small amount of carbon, but it is included in the form of slag inclusions. Two distinguishing factors are steel's increased rust resistance and better weldability.

Though steel had been produced by various inefficient methods long before the Renaissance, its use became more common after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, steel became an inexpensive mass-produced material. Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), lowered the cost of production while increasing the quality of the metal. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world, with more than 1.3 billion tons produced annually. It is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organizations.

Material properties[link]

Iron-carbon phase diagram, showing the conditions necessary to form different phases

Iron is found in the Earth's crust only in the form of an ore, usually an iron oxide, such as magnetite, hematite etc. Iron is extracted from iron ore by removing the oxygen and combining the ore with a preferred chemical partner such as carbon. This process, known as smelting, was first applied to metals with lower melting points, such as tin, which melts at approximately 250 °C (482 °F) and copper, which melts at approximately 1,100 °C (2,010 °F). In comparison, cast iron melts at approximately 1,375 °C (2,507 °F). All of these temperatures could be reached with ancient methods that have been used since the Bronze Age. Since the oxidation rate itself increases rapidly beyond 800 °C (1,470 °F), it is important that smelting take place in a low-oxygen environment. Unlike copper and tin, liquid iron dissolves carbon quite readily. Smelting results in an alloy (pig iron) containing too much carbon to be called steel.^[2] The excess carbon and other impurities are removed in a subsequent step.

Other materials are often added to the iron/carbon mixture to produce steel with desired properties. Nickel and manganese in steel add to its tensile strength and make austenite more chemically stable, chromium increases hardness and melting temperature, and vanadium also increases hardness while reducing the effects of metal fatigue. To prevent corrosion, at least 11% chromium is added to steel so that a hard oxide forms on the metal surface; this is known as stainless steel. Tungsten interferes with the formation of cementite, allowing martensite to form with slower quench rates, resulting in high speed steel. On the other hand, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus make steel more brittle, so these commonly found elements must be removed from the ore during processing.^[3]

The density of steel varies based on the alloying constituents but usually ranges between 7,750 and 8,050 kg/m³ (484 and 503 lb/cu ft), or 7.75 and 8.05 g/cm³ (4.48 and 4.65 oz/cu in).^[4]

Even in the narrow range of concentrations which make up steel, mixtures of carbon and iron can form a number of different structures, with very different properties. Understanding such properties is essential to making quality steel. At room temperature, the most stable form of iron is the body-centered cubic (BCC) structure α-ferrite. It is a fairly soft metallic material that can dissolve only a small concentration of carbon, no more than 0.021 wt% at 723 °C (1,333 °F), and only 0.005% at 0 °C (32 °F). If steel contains more than 0.021% carbon at steelmaking temperatures then it transforms into a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure, called austenite or γ-iron. It is also soft and metallic but can dissolve considerably more carbon, as much as 2.1%^[5] carbon at 1,148 °C (2,098 °F), which reflects the upper carbon content of steel.^[6]

When steels with less than 0.8% carbon, known as a hypoeutectoid steel, are cooled from an austenitic phase the mixture attempts to revert to the ferrite phase, resulting in an excess of carbon. One way for carbon to leave the austenite is for cementite to precipitate out of the mix, leaving behind iron that is pure enough to take the form of ferrite, resulting in a cementite-ferrite mixture. Cementite is a hard and brittle intermetallic compound with the chemical formula of Fe₃C. At the eutectoid, 0.8% carbon, the cooled structure takes the form of pearlite, named after its resemblance to mother of pearl. For steels that have more than 0.8% carbon the cooled structure takes the form of pearlite and cementite.^[7]

Perhaps the most important polymorphic form is martensite, a metastable phase which is significantly stronger than other steel phases. When the steel is in an austenitic phase and then quenched it forms into martensite, because the atoms "freeze" in place when the cell structure changes from FCC to BCC. Depending on the carbon content the martensitic phase takes different forms. Below approximately 0.2% carbon it takes an α ferrite BCC crystal form, but higher carbon contents take a body-centered tetragonal (BCT) structure. There is no thermal activation energy for the transformation from austenite to martensite. Moreover, there is no compositional change so the atoms generally retain their same neighbors.^[8]

Martensite has a lower density than austenite does, so that transformation between them results in a change of volume. In this case, expansion occurs. Internal stresses from this expansion generally take the form of compression on the crystals of martensite and tension on the remaining ferrite, with a fair amount of shear on both constituents. If quenching is done improperly, the internal stresses can cause a part to shatter as it cools. At the very least, they cause internal work hardening and other microscopic imperfections. It is common for quench cracks to form when water quenched, although they may not always be visible.^[9]

Heat treatment[link]

There are many types of heat treating processes available to steel. The most common are annealing and quenching and tempering. Annealing is the process of heating the steel to a sufficiently high temperature to soften it. This process occurs through three phases: recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. The temperature required to anneal steel depends on the type of annealing and the constituents of the alloy.^[10]

Quenching and tempering first involves heating the steel to the austenite phase, then quenching it in water or oil. This rapid cooling results in a hard and brittle martensitic structure.^[8] The steel is then tempered, which is just a specialized type of annealing. In this application the annealing (tempering) process transforms some of the martensite into cementite, or spheroidite to reduce internal stresses and defects, which ultimately results in a more ductile and fracture-resistant metal.^[11]

Steel production[link]

Iron ore pellets for the production of steel

When iron is smelted from its ore by commercial processes, it contains more carbon than is desirable. To become steel, it must be melted and reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point other elements can be added. This liquid is then continuously cast into long slabs or cast into ingots. Approximately 96% of steel is continuously cast, while only 4% is produced as cast steel ingots.^[12] The ingots are then heated in a soaking pit and hot rolled into slabs, blooms, or billets. Slabs are hot or cold rolled into sheet metal or plates. Billets are hot or cold rolled into bars, rods, and wire. Blooms are hot or cold rolled into structural steel, such as I-beams and rails. In modern foundries these processes often occur in one assembly line, with ore coming in and finished steel coming out.^[13] Sometimes after a steel's final rolling it is heat treated for strength, however this is relatively rare.^[14]

History of steelmaking[link]

Bloomery smelting during the Middle Ages

Ancient steel[link]

Steel was known in antiquity, and may have been produced by managing bloomeries, or iron-smelting facilities, in which the bloom contained carbon.^[15]

The earliest known production of steel is a piece of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old.^[16] Other ancient steel comes from East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC.^[17] In the 4th century BC steel weapons like the Falcata were produced in the Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steel was used by the Roman military.^[18] The Chinese of the Warring States (403–221 BC) had quench-hardened steel,^[19] while Chinese of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, gaining an ultimate product of a carbon-intermediate steel by the 1st century AD.^[20][21] The Haya people of East Africa invented a type of high-heat blast furnace which allowed them to forge carbon steel at 1,802 °C (3,276 °F) nearly 2,000 years ago.^[22]

Wootz steel and Damascus steel[link]

Evidence of the earliest production of high carbon steel in the Indian Subcontinent was found in Samanalawewa area in Sri Lanka.^[23] Wootz steel was produced in India by about 300 BC.^[24] Along with their original methods of forging steel, the Chinese had also adopted the production methods of creating Wootz steel, an idea imported into China from India by the 5th century AD.^[25] In Sri Lanka, this early steel-making method employed the unique use of a wind furnace, blown by the monsoon winds, that was capable of producing high-carbon steel.^[26] Also known as Damascus steel, wootz is famous for its durability and ability to hold an edge. It was originally created from a number of different materials including various trace elements. It was essentially a complicated alloy with iron as its main component. Recent studies have suggested that carbon nanotubes were included in its structure, which might explain some of its legendary qualities, though given the technology available at that time, they were produced by chance rather than by design.^[27] Natural wind was used where the soil containing iron was heated up with the use of wood. The ancient Sinhalese managed to extract a ton of steel for every 2 tons of soil^{[citation needed]}, a remarkable feat at the time. One such furnace was found in Samanalawewa and archaeologists were able to produce steel as the ancients did long ago.^[26][28]

Crucible steel, formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in the form of charcoal) in a crucible, was produced in Merv by the 9th to 10th century AD.^[24] In the 11th century, there is evidence of the production of steel in Song China using two techniques: a "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel and a precursor to the modern Bessemer process that used partial decarbonization via repeated forging under a cold blast.^[29]

Modern steelmaking[link]

A Bessemer converter in Sheffield, England

Since the 17th century the first step in European steel production has been the smelting of iron ore into pig iron in a blast furnace.^[30] Originally using charcoal, modern methods use coke, which has proven to be a great deal cheaper.^[31][32][33]

Processes starting from bar iron[link]

In these processes pig iron was "fined" in a finery forge to produce bar iron (wrought iron), which was then used in steel-making.^[30]

The production of steel by the cementation process was described in a treatise published in Prague in 1574 and was in use in Nuremberg from 1601. A similar process for case hardening armour and files was described in a book published in Naples in 1589. The process was introduced to England in about 1614.^[34] It was produced by Sir Basil Brooke at Coalbrookdale during the 1610s. The raw material for this were bars of wrought iron. During the 17th century it was realised that the best steel came from oregrounds iron from a region of Sweden, north of Stockholm. This was still the usual raw material in the 19th century, almost as long as the process was used.^[35][36]

Crucible steel is steel that has been melted in a crucible rather than being forged, with the result that it is more homogeneous. Most previous furnaces could not reach high enough temperatures to melt the steel. The early modern crucible steel industry resulted from the invention of Benjamin Huntsman in the 1740s. Blister steel (made as above) was melted in a crucible or in a furnace, and cast (usually) into ingots.^[36][37]

Processes starting from pig iron[link]

A Siemens-Martin steel oven from the Brandenburg Museum of Industry

White-hot steel pouring out of an electric arc furnace

The modern era in steelmaking began with the introduction of Henry Bessemer's Bessemer process in 1858. His raw material was pig iron.^[38] This enabled steel to be produced in large quantities cheaply, thus mild steel is now used for most purposes for which wrought iron was formerly used.^[39] The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic Bessemer process) was an improvement to the Bessemer process, lining the converter with a basic material to remove phosphorus. Another improvement in steelmaking was the Siemens-Martin process, which complemented the Bessemer process.^[36]

These were rendered obsolete by the Linz-Donawitz process of basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), developed in the 1950s, and other oxygen steelmaking processes. Basic oxygen steelmaking is superior to previous steelmaking methods because the oxygen pumped into the furnace limits impurities.^[40] Now, electric arc furnaces (EAF) are a common method of reprocessing scrap metal to create new steel. They can also be used for converting pig iron to steel, but they use a lot of electricity (about 440 kWh per metric ton), and are thus generally only economical when there is a plentiful supply of cheap electricity.^[41]

Steel industry[link]

Steel production by country in 2007

It is common today to talk about "the iron and steel industry" as if it were a single entity, but historically they were separate products. The steel industry is often considered to be an indicator of economic progress, because of the critical role played by steel in infrastructural and overall economic development.^[42]

In 1980, there were more than 500,000 U.S. steelworkers. By 2000, the number of steelworkers fell to 224,000.^[43]

The economic boom in China and India has caused a massive increase in the demand for steel in recent years. Between 2000 and 2005, world steel demand increased by 6%. Since 2000, several Indian ^[44] and Chinese steel firms have risen to prominence like Tata Steel (which bought Corus Group in 2007), Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation and Shagang Group. ArcelorMittal is however the world's largest steel producer.

In 2005, the British Geological Survey stated China was the top steel producer with about one-third of the world share; Japan, Russia, and the US followed respectively.^[45]

In 2008, steel began trading as a commodity on the London Metal Exchange. At the end of 2008, the steel industry faced a sharp downturn that led to many cut-backs.^[46]

Recycling[link]

Contemporary steel[link]

Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was one of the world's largest manufacturers of steel before its 2003 closure.

Modern steels are made with varying combinations of alloy metals to fulfill many purposes.^[3] Carbon steel, composed simply of iron and carbon, accounts for 90% of steel production.^[1] High strength low alloy steel has small additions (usually < 2% by weight) of other elements, typically 1.5% manganese, to provide additional strength for a modest price increase.^[47] Low alloy steel is alloyed with other elements, usually molybdenum, manganese, chromium, or nickel, in amounts of up to 10% by weight to improve the hardenability of thick sections.^[1] Stainless steels and surgical stainless steels contain a minimum of 11% chromium, often combined with nickel, to resist corrosion (rust). Some stainless steels, such as the ferritic stainless steels are magnetic, while others, such as the austenitic, are nonmagnetic.^[48]

Some more modern steels include tool steels, which are alloyed with large amounts of tungsten and cobalt or other elements to maximize solution hardening. This also allows the use of precipitation hardening and improves the alloy's temperature resistance.^[1] Tool steel is generally used in axes, drills, and other devices that need a sharp, long-lasting cutting edge. Other special-purpose alloys include weathering steels such as Cor-ten, which weather by acquiring a stable, rusted surface, and so can be used un-painted.^[49]

Many other high-strength alloys exist, such as dual-phase steel, which is heat treated to contain both a ferritic and martensitic microstructure for extra strength.^[50] Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steel involves special alloying and heat treatments to stabilize amounts of austentite at room temperature in normally austentite-free low-alloy ferritic steels. By applying strain to the metal, the austentite undergoes a phase transition to martensite without the addition of heat.^[51] Maraging steel is alloyed with nickel and other elements, but unlike most steel contains almost no carbon at all. This creates a very strong but still malleable metal.^[52] Twinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel uses a specific type of strain to increase the effectiveness of work hardening on the alloy.^[53] Eglin Steel uses a combination of over a dozen different elements in varying amounts to create a relatively low-cost metal for use in bunker buster weapons. Hadfield steel (after Sir Robert Hadfield) or manganese steel contains 12–14% manganese which when abraded forms an incredibly hard skin which resists wearing. Examples include tank tracks, bulldozer blade edges and cutting blades on the jaws of life.^[54]

Most of the more commonly used steel alloys are categorized into various grades by standards organizations. For example, the Society of Automotive Engineers has a series of grades defining many types of steel.^[55] The American Society for Testing and Materials has a separate set of standards, which define alloys such as A36 steel, the most commonly used structural steel in the United States.^[56]

Though not an alloy, galvanized steel is a commonly used variety of steel which has been hot-dipped or electroplated in zinc for protection against rust.^[57]

Uses[link]

A roll of steel wool

Iron and steel are used widely in the construction of roads, railways, other infrastructure, appliances, and buildings. Most large modern structures, such as stadiums and skyscrapers, bridges, and airports, are supported by a steel skeleton. Even those with a concrete structure will employ steel for reinforcing. In addition, it sees widespread use in major appliances and cars. Despite growth in usage of aluminium, it is still the main material for car bodies. Steel is used in a variety of other construction materials, such as bolts, nails, and screws.^[58] Other common applications include shipbuilding, pipeline transport, mining, offshore construction, aerospace, white goods (e.g. washing machines), heavy equipment such as bulldozers, office furniture, steel wool, tools, and armour in the form of personal vests or vehicle armour (better known as rolled homogeneous armour in this role). Steel was the metal of choice for sculptor Jim Gary and a frequent choice for sculpture by many other modern sculptors.

Historical[link]

A carbon steel knife

Before the introduction of the Bessemer process and other modern production techniques, steel was expensive and was only used where no cheaper alternative existed, particularly for the cutting edge of knives, razors, swords, and other items where a hard, sharp edge was needed. It was also used for springs, including those used in clocks and watches.^[36] With the advent of speedier and thriftier production methods, steel has been easier to obtain and much cheaper. It has replaced wrought iron for a multitude of purposes. However, the availability of plastics in the latter part of the 20th century allowed these materials to replace steel in some applications due to their lower cost and weight.^[59]

Long steel[link]

A steel pylon suspending overhead powerlines

• As reinforcing bars and mesh in reinforced concrete
• Railroad tracks
• Structural steel in modern buildings and bridges
• Wires
• Input to reforging applications

Flat carbon steel[link]

• Major appliances
• Magnetic cores
• The inside and outside body of automobiles, trains, and ships.

Stainless steel[link]

A stainless steel gravy boat

• Cutlery
• Rulers
• Surgical equipment
• Wrist watches

Low-background steel[link]

Steel manufactured after World War II became contaminated with radionuclides due to nuclear weapons testing. Low-background steel, steel manufactured prior to 1945, is used for certain radiation-sensitive applications such as Geiger counters and radiation shielding.

See also[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Ashby, Michael F.; Jones, David Rayner Hunkin (1992). An introduction to microstructures, processing and design. Butterworth-Heinemann. 
• Bugayev, K.; Konovalov, Y.; Bychkov, Y.; Tretyakov, E.; Savin, Ivan V. (2001). Iron and Steel Production. The Minerva Group, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-89499-109-7. http://books.google.com/?id=MJdIVtmwuUsC. Retrieved 2009-07-19. .
• Degarmo, E. Paul; Black, J T.; Kohser, Ronald A. (2003). Materials and Processes in Manufacturing (9th ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-65653-4. 
• Gernet, Jacques (1982). A History of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Smith, William F.; Hashemi, Javad (2006). Foundations of Materials Science and Engineering (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-295358-6. 

Further reading[link]

• Duncan Burn; The Economic History of Steelmaking, 1867–1939: A Study in Competition. Cambridge University Press, 1961.
• Harukiyu Hasegawa, The Steel Industry in Japan: A Comparison with Britain. 1996.
• J. C. Carr and W. Taplin, History of the British Steel Industry. Harvard University Press, 1962.
• H. Lee Scamehorn, Mill & Mine: The Cf&I in the Twentieth Century. University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 1 & Part 3. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
• Warren, Kenneth, Big Steel: The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901–2001. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Steel

Look up steel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• World Steel Association (worldsteel)
• steeluniversity.org: Online steel education resources from worldsteel and the University of Liverpool
• Extensive picture gallery of iron and steel production methods in North America and Europe
• Interactive knife steel composition chart and comparison graph builder
• Huge archive on steels, Cambridge University
• Steel classification chart

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2012)

The Right Honourable The Lord Steel of Aikwood KT KBE PC
1st Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
In office 12 May 1999 – 7 May 2003
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	George Reid
Leader of Social and Liberal Democrats
In office 3 March 1988 – 16 July 1988 Serving with Robert Maclennan
Preceded by	Party Created
Succeeded by	Paddy Ashdown
Leader of the Liberal Party
In office 7 July 1976 – 16 July 1988
Preceded by	Jo Grimond
Succeeded by	Paddy Ashdown(as leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats)
Liberal Chief Whip
In office 1970–1976
Leader	Jeremy Thorpe Jo Grimond
Preceded by	Eric Lubbock
Succeeded by	Cyril Smith
Member of Parliament for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale
In office 11 June 1983 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Michael Moore
Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles
In office 24 March 1965 – 11 June 1983
Preceded by	Charles Donaldson
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothians
In office 6 May 1999 – 1 May 2003
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Mark Ballard
Personal details
Born	David Martin Scott Steel (1938-03-31) 31 March 1938 (age 74) Kirkcaldy, Fife
Political party	(1) Liberal Party (2) Liberal Democrats
Spouse(s)	Judith Steel
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Religion	Church of Scotland[1]

David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC (born 31 March 1938) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1965 to 1997 and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2003, during which time he was the parliament's Presiding Officer. Since 1997, he has been a member of the House of Lords.

Early life[link]

David Steel was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, the son of a Church of Scotland minister also called David Steel, who would later serve as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was brought up in Scotland and Kenya, and educated at Dumbarton Academy; James Gillespies Boys' School, Edinburgh; the Prince of Wales School, Nairobi; and George Watson's College, Edinburgh.^[2]

Member of Parliament[link]

He first took an active part in Liberal politics at the University of Edinburgh, and after graduating in Law worked for the Scottish Liberal Party and then the BBC before being elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles at a 1965 by-election, becoming the "Baby of the House". He represented this seat until 1983, when he was elected in Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, a new constituency covering much of the same territory.

As an MP he was responsible for introducing, as a Private Member's Bill, the Abortion Act 1967 (see Abortion in the United Kingdom). He also became the Liberal Party's spokesman on employment, and in 1970 its Chief Whip.

Leader of Liberal Party[link]

In 1976, after the downfall of Jeremy Thorpe and a short period in which Jo Grimond acted as caretaker leader, he won the Liberal leadership by a wide margin over fellow MP John Pardoe. At only 38 years old, he was one of the youngest party leaders in British history. In March 1977, he led the Liberals into the "Lib-Lab pact" by which they agreed to keep the Labour government, whose narrow majority since the general election in October 1974 had been gradually eroded and left them as minority government, in power in return for a degree of prior consultation on policy. This pact lasted until August 1978^[3]

Steel has been criticised both then and since for not driving a harder bargain; the opposing case is that the continuing scandal surrounding Thorpe left the party in a very weak state to face an early general election and Steel was wise to buy himself some time from Callaghan. The unpopularity of the Labour government impaired the Liberals' performance, and Steel's first election as leader, the 1979 general election, saw a decline in Liberal fortunes.

SDP-Liberal Alliance[link]

In 1981, a group of Labour moderates left their party to form the Social Democratic Party. They were joined by the former Labour deputy leader Roy Jenkins who had previously had discussions with Steel about joining the Liberals. Under Jenkins's leadership, the SDP joined the Liberals in the SDP-Liberal Alliance, an electoral alliance that was so promising in its early days that Steel felt able to tell delegates at the Liberal Assembly that year to

"go back to your constituencies and prepare for government."

Steel had genuine hopes at this stage that the Alliance would win the next general election and form a coalition government. Opinion polls were showing Alliance support as high as 50% by late 1981.

However, the beginning of the Falklands War the following spring radically shifted the attitude of the electorate, and the Conservatives regained the lead in polls from the Alliance by a wide margin.^[4]

The Alliance secured more than 25% of the vote at the 1983 general election, almost as many votes as Labour, but it won very few seats and Steel's dreams of a big political breakthrough were left just that - a dream.^[5]

Shortly afterwards David Owen replaced Roy Jenkins as leader of the SDP and the troubled leadership of the "Two Davids" was inaugurated. It was never an easy relationship - Steel's political sympathies were well to the left of Owen's. Owen had a marked antipathy towards the Liberals though he respected Steel's prior loyalty to his own party contrasting it with Jenkins' lack of interest in preserving the SDP's independence. The relationship was also mercilessly satirised by Spitting Image which portrayed Steel as a squeaky voiced midget, literally in the pocket of Owen. Steel has often stated that he feels this portrayal seriously damaged his image.^[6] This portrayal of Steel as weaker than Owen was also present in other satires, such as Private Eye's Battle for Britain strip. The relationship finally fell apart during the 1987 general election when the two contradicted each other both on defence policy and on which party they would do a deal with in the event of a hung parliament.

Two parties merger[link]

Steel addressing the Liberal Party assembly in Harrogate on merger in 1987

Steel was convinced the answer to these difficulties was a single party with a single leader, and was the chief proponent of the 1988 merger between the Liberals and the SDP. Steel emerged victorious in persuading both parties to accept merger in the teeth of opposition from Owen and radical Liberals such as Michael Meadowcroft but badly mishandled the issuing of a joint policy document. Steel had often been criticised for a lack of interest in policy and it appeared he had agreed to the document – drawn up by politically naive SDP advisers – without reading it. Steel's colleagues rejected it immediately and demanded a re-draft, fatally wounding his authority.

Steel was briefly joint interim leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (as the new party was at first called) before elections in which he did not stand, before becoming the party's Foreign Affairs spokesman. In 1989 he accepted an invitation from Italian liberals to stand for the European Parliament in that year's elections as a Pan-European gesture. Although not elected he polled very well. He was knighted and received the KBE in 1990. He became President of the Liberal International in 1994, holding the office until 1996.^[7]

Retirement and Life Peer[link]

He retired from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election and was made a life peer as Baron Steel of Aikwood, of Ettrick Forest in the Scottish Borders in the same year, residing at Aikwood Tower. He campaigned for Scottish devolution, and in 1999 was elected to the Scottish Parliament as a Liberal Democrat MSP for Lothians. He became the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the Scottish Parliament on 12 May 1999. In this role, he used the style "Sir David Steel", despite his peerage, and had no party allegiance. He stepped down as an MSP when the parliament was dissolved for the 2003 election, but remained as Presiding Officer until he had supervised the election of his successor George Reid on 7 May of that year. He was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in both 2003 and 2004.

On 30 November 2004, the Queen created Lord Steel of Aikwood a Knight of the Order of the Thistle – the highest honour in Scotland.

Family[link]

Steel and his wife, Judith (known as Judy), have three children: Graeme, Catriona and Rory. He has seven grandchildren: India, David, Caledonia, Hannah, Persia, James and Rio.

Further reading[link]

• Peter Bartram, David Steel: His Life and Politics (W.H. Allen, 1981)
• David Steel, A House Divided (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980)
• David Steel, Against Goliath: David Steel's Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989)

See also[link]

• General Mediterranean Holdings owned by Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi. Lord Steel was a director of it, and was pressured to quit it.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by David Steel
• Catalogue of the Steel papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
• Lord Steel of Aikwood profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Prince of Wales School:Old Cambrians Society, Nairobi
• We need to rethink my abortion law Steel's thoughts on the abortion debate today.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe at Piccadilly Circus in London during filming of A Good Year, October 2005
Born	Russell Ira Crowe (1964-04-07) 7 April 1964 (age 48) Wellington, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealand
Citizenship	Australian
Occupation	Actor and musician
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Danielle Spencer (2003–present)[1][2]
Children	Charles Spencer Crowe Tennyson Spencer Crowe
Parents	John Alexander Crowe Jocelyn Yvonne Wemyss

Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is a New Zealand born Australian actor, film producer and musician.^[3][4][5][6] He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, an Empire Award for Best Actor and a London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and ten further nominations for Best Actor. Crowe appeared as the tobacco firm whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in the 1999 film The Insider, for which he received five awards as Best Actor and seven nominations in the same category. In 2001, Crowe's portrayal of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash in the biopic A Beautiful Mind brought him numerous awards, including an BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor category Motion Picture Drama and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.