In the decades to come, however, there would be many more claimants to wonder-working

gloryamong them other metals, polymers, ceramics, blends called composites, and the
electrically talented group known as semiconductors. Over the course of the 20th century,
virtually every aspect of the familiar world, from clothing to construction, would be profoundly
changed by new materials. High performance materials would also make possible some of the
century's most dazzling technological achievements: airplanes and spacecraft, microchips and
magnetic disks, lasers and the fiber-optic highways of the Internet. And behind all that lies
another, less obvious, wonderthe ability of scientists and engineers to customize matter for
particular applications by manipulating its composition and microstructure: they start with a
design requirement and create a material that answers it.

Of the various families of metals represented among high performance materials, steel still stands
supreme in both versatility and volume of production. Hundreds of alloys are made by adding
chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, or other metals to the basic steel recipe
of iron plus a small but critical amount of carbon. Some of these alloys are superstrong or
ultrahard; some are almost impervious to corrosion; some can withstand constant flexing; some
possess certain desired electrical or magnetic properties. Highly varied microstructures can be
produced by processing the metal in various ways.

Until well into the 20th century, new steel alloys were concocted mainly by trial-and-error
cookery, but steelmakers at least had the advantage of long experience3 millennia of it, in fact.
That wasn't the case with aluminum, the third most common element in Earth's crust, yet never
seen in pure form until 1825. It was heralded as a marvellight, silvery, resistant to corrosion
but the metal was so difficult to separate from its ore that it remained a rarity until the late 19th
century, when a young American, Charles Martin Hall, found that electricity could pull aluminum
atoms apart from tight-clinging oxygen partners. Extensive use was still blocked by the metal's
softness, limiting it to such applications as jewelry and tableware. But in 1906 a German
metallurgist named Alfred Wilm, by happy chance, discovered a strengthening method. He made
an alloy of aluminum with a small amount of copper and heated it to a high temperature, then
quickly cooled it. At first the aluminum was even softer than before, but within a few days it
became remarkably strong, a change caused by the formation of minute copper-rich particles in
the alloy, called precipitation hardening. This lightweight material became invaluable in aviation
and other transportation applications.

In recent decades other high performance metals have found important roles in aircraft. Titanium,
first isolated in 1910 but not produced in significant quantities until the 1950s, is one of them. It is
not only light and resistant to corrosion but also can endure intense heat, a requirement for the
skin of planes traveling at several times the speed of sound. But even titanium can't withstand
conditions inside the turbine of a jet engine, where temperatures may be well above 2,000 F.
Turbine blades are instead made of nickel- and cobalt-based materials known as superalloys,
which remain strong in fierce heat while spinning at tremendous speed. To ensure they have the
maximum possible resistance to high-temperature deformation, the most advanced of these blades
are grown from molten metal as single crystals in ceramic molds.
The technologic advancements that have been incorporated into consumer applications to make
everyday living easier also have assisted industry to become more efficient, to produce more with fewer
resources.

The mining and metal processing industries were among the first to take advantage of electricity, which
was used to power trams and trains, underground and in-pit crushers, and conveyor systems that,
combined with employing diesel- and diesel/electric-haulage vehicles, replaced the draft animals. By the
end of the 20th century, the mining industry used machines of great size and power that operated at
astounding rates and could mine continuously in underground mines and in surface operations.
Additionally, innovative materials, such as synthetic greases and lubricants and metal alloys, were
employed in critical wear areas to enhance their reliability. The various technologic advancements in
mining and related technologies that took place during the century increased the quantity of material
produced per employee.

Also during the 20th century, legislation to protect the health and safety of employees and regulations
to protect the environment and the mining industry were promulgated. Mining and metal processing
waste was regulated in an effort to protect the environment, and laws were enacted that would help
miners who were injured on the job or who got sick because of their working conditions.

Innovation was not restricted to mining machinery and mining practices but also to ore processing and
mineral separation. Mineral processing can have one or more of several goals depending on the nature
of the ore and the desired end product. Early in the century, simple crushing, screening, and washing
operations were augmented by such improvements as log washing, jigging, heavy media separation, and
tabling that separated mineral species based on density.

Later, froth flotation of finely crushed materials produced concentrates from low-grade ore; in-situ
solution mining, solvent extraction, and heap leaching proved to be cost-effective ways of producing
uranium, copper, and gold, respectively; and the unique Frasch method of underground melting of
sulfur was practiced for most of the century. By combining processes, mining companies were able to
produce multiple products from a single ore, which meant that they could mine ore bodies that would
have been avoided early in the century owing to their leanness and could thus make a profit from the
leaner ores.
20th century, without doubts, contributed most significantly to theoretical, as well as practical applications of the
science and technolo- gy, which had great and global influence on the life of the whole human society and mostly
to its benefits.
Beginning of the 20th century car industry.
End of the 1930s airplane industry and increasing demands on fuels, synthetic fibres, plastics, and
pharmaceuticals.
From the 1940s chemical industry, followed by progress in long-distance survey (radar end of the 1930s),
computing technology (MARK I 1944), nuclear research (atomic bomb 1945; nuclear power-plant 1954).
From the 1950s telecommunication technology and miniaturization (transistor 194853), space rockets,
satellites and space probes (1957).
Towards the end of the 1970sintense progress in genetics and its applications, culminating by decoding the
human genetic code around 2000.

Let us point out that the large social changes and catastrophes of the 20th century which formed the
overall character of the science and technology and affected their aims made the work of historians
of science and technology often more difficult. Two hot wars and forty years of a cold war, accompanied
by a steady military tension in certain territories, manifested themselves in fundamental changes of
production and research but also in significant losses of documents, despite perfect archive legislative.

CONSTRUCTION
The 20th century saw the emergence of tall buildings, hydroelectric dams, high bridges, and highways
that span the length and breadth of the country. Buildings of great height could be constructed because of
steel-frame building techniques and the electric elevator. Skyscrapers, such as the World Trade
Center and the Empire State Building in New York City and the Sears Tower in Chicago, which consumed
large quantities of cement, ceramic tiles and sanitary ware, copper, glass, and steel, were almost
exclusively a feature of the cities of North America for a good part of the 20th century. Late in the century,
building of skyscrapers boomed in Asia. Water power and associated dams, canals, and locks have
been used for centuries; dams were used for flood control by maintaining water levels at navigable
depths, to store water for drinking and irrigation, and to provide power. The widespread expansion of
electric power grids and the constant increase in demand for electricity in the United States and
worldwide prompted the construction of dams of unprecedented size during the 20th century.