Talk:History of materials science

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The 64.142.50.225 edits are mine; the stupid software logged me out yet again. Alison Chaiken 23:46, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needs expansion

This article deals briefly with the use of materials in prehistory (and the Roman period). It then jumps to the 20th century. At a quasi-political level, one may say that the concept of 'Materials Science' has arisen from the merger of academic departments and learned societies that separately dealt with metallurgy, and with other materials, for example the amalgamation of the Iron and Steel Institute (JISI) with other bodies successively to form the Metals Society, the Institute of Materials and most recently IOM3. In one sense the subject 'Materials Science' did not exist as a separate discipline when metallurgy, plastics, glass etc. were treated separate disciplines. At another level, it was a practical technological subject, where the theory was still running behind industrial practice until as recently as 1950. JISI was founded as far back as the 1870s, before that one can look to such people as David Mushet, who as an experimental metallurgist should certainly be regarded as a materiasl scientist. Peterkingiron 14:14, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HIstory of silk

Some one has added a cross-reference to the History of Silk. Since Materials Science is primarily concerned with bulky materials such as metals and plastics, I would question the appropriateness of including one class of textile. It might be appropriate to have a cross-refernece to textiles generally, but if silk, why not cotton, wool, flax, hemp, etc. If they start being added this article will become unweildy and lose its main focus. Peterkingiron 22:37, 13 May 2007 (UTC)