Having first graduated in Chemistry, I became interested in the history of this subject and its application in the Middle Ages. The manufacture of saltpetre for gunpowder was a challenge to "alchemists" but the necessity of defeating steel armour led to its solution. This question led me on to the analysis of hundreds of suits of armour from the 13th to the 17th centuries, and the story that these results told about the changing methods for the manufacture of iron and steel.
The ferrous metallurgy of Asia (India, Iran, Central Asia) developed along quite different lines to that of Europe, and its most famous product was the "Damascus sword" rather than the suit of plate armour. This was a sword of extraordinary hardness identified by a surface pattern said to resemble "watered silk". Although much studied in recent years, there are still many unanswered questions about their manufacture. The analysis of such swords (which must be non-destructive) has proved difficult until the recent development of neutron techniques.
We propose to prepare simulated Indo-Persian steels in the Wolfson School and then find out more about their development into swords.
Following the changes in microconstituents of such steels during the course of forging, at controlled temperatures and rates of strain, will, we hope, lead to a better understanding of historical processes.
Grants and contracts
- Elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, January 2004.
- Awarded Research Medal of the Arms & Armour Society 2005.
- ISIS (STFC) Science and Society Impact Award 2018.
- “The Knight and the Blast Furnace” (Leiden & Boston, 2003) xii + 956pp. reprinted 2012
- “The Sword and the Crucible” (Leiden & Boston, 2012) viii + 292 pp.
Co-authored books
- "The Royal Armoury at Greenwich, 1515-1649" (with A.de Reuck), Royal Armouries Monograph No.4 (1995)
- “Arms and Armour - History, Conservation and Analysis”, (Edited by Alan Williams and Keith Dowen)
- Archetype Publications, in association with the Arms and Armour Society (London, 2021)