Add manganese (about 1.7 per cent by volume) and you end up with a hard, ductile steel, which is perfect for making train rails. Add silicon and you have an electrical steel you can use alongside the copper in a motor or transformer. Stainless steel, with its anti-rust properties, is 12 per cent chromium, with nickel sometimes added for strength. For aircraft landing gear you will need a strong, ductile, tough alloy, made with molybdenum, silicon and vanadium. And on it goes—there are many hundreds of different varieties of steel alloys these days, but they all begin here, with a small dose of
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