Steel

Steels are alloys of iron and other elements, primarily carbon, widely used in construction and other applications because of their high tensile strengths and low costs. Carbon, other elements, and inclusions within iron act as hardening agents that prevent the movement of dislocations that otherwise occur in the crystal lattices of iron atoms.

The carbon in typical steel alloys may contribute up to 2.1% of its weight. Varying the amount of alloying elements, their formation in the steel either as solute elements, or as precipitated phases, retards the movement of those dislocations that make iron comparatively ductile and weak, and thus controls qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. Steel's strength compared to pure iron is only possible at the expense of ductility, of which iron has an excess.

Although steel had been produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, steel's use expanded extensively after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century for blister steel and then crucible steel. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, a new era of mass-produced steel began. This was followed by Siemens-Martin process and then Gilchrist-Thomas process that refined the quality of steel. With their introductions, mild steel replaced wrought iron.

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Port Talbot

Coordinates: 51°35′26″N 3°47′55″W / 51.59055°N 3.79859°W / 51.59055; -3.79859

Port Talbot (/pərˈtɔːlbət/ or /pərˈtælbət/) is a town in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 37,276 in 2011.

History

Modern Port Talbot is a town formed from the merging of multiple villages, including Baglan and Margam, and centred on Aberafan on the west side of the river Afan. 'Port Talbot' first appears in 1837 as the name of the new docks built on the east side of the river by the Talbot family. The name became applied to the emerging conurbation.

The earliest evidence of humans in the Port Talbot area has been found on the side of Mynydd Margam where Bronze Age farming ditches can be found from 4,000 BC. There were Iron Age hill forts on Mynydd Dinas, Mynydd Margam, Mynydd Emroch and other nearby hills. Mynydd Hawdef contains remains of an ancient Iron Age village. The Margam deer herd was first introduced by the Romans.

Aberafan was first established by Caradoc ap Iestyn (son of Iestyn ap Gwrgant), on the instructions of Robert Fitzhamon, after the Normans' conquest of south Wales by the end of the eleventh century. The town grew up with and around the castle which Fitzhamon ordered to be built (where Castle, Norman and Bailey streets are situated near to Saint Mary's Church in modern-day Port Talbot). The first recorded name of Aberafan was the French Norman 'Avene' which is likely to be an interpretation of the Welsh 'a-bhan' meaning 'from the heights' meaning the hills of the Afan Valley, from whence flowed the River Afan. 'Afan' is always pronounced 'Avan'. Margam Abbey was founded in 1147 as a daughter house of Clairvaux, a Cistercian foundation, by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester. Local landowner John Talbot, fought at the Battle of Crécy, and bred the Talbot dog, a breed of small white dog, an ancestor of the modern Beagle.

Sosban Fach

Sosban Fach (Welsh for "Little Saucepan") is a traditional Welsh folk song. It is one of the best-known and most often sung songs in the Welsh language.

The song catalogues the troubles of a harassed housewife. The song is associated with the rugby union club Llanelli RFC and, more recently, the Scarlets regional rugby side. The association derives from Llanelli's tin plating industry, which used to tin-plate steel saucepans and other kitchen utensils as a cheap supply to the British public. During the final years of Stradey Park, the former ground of Llanelli RFC and the Scarlets, the goalposts were adorned with Scarlet saucepans as a tribute to the town's history; the utensils have been transferred to the clubs' new ground, Parc y Scarlets. The Scarlets' official magazine is titled Sosban. Dr.J.D.Keith Palmer (M.A., Brun) in 1986 recorded a song in Norway. It is a slow rendering of the Sospan tune, called "folketone fra Hornindal". An ancient folk classic, it has a recent lyric by Arnulf Overland called "Om kvelden" - in the evening. Swansea began as "Svein's Oy" , a ca 1000AD island trading post of Norsemen in the estuary of Abertawe. Was this old Norwegian melody an import, to be later rediscovered to become "Sospan Fach"? ref: Book “Fiddling for Norway: Revival and Identity” by Chris Goertzen: " ‘Folketone far Hornindal’ is widely known in the West (of Norway). It existed in recent times as an instrumental tune, informally referred to as ‘classical,’ though its vocal origins are obvious. Now it has a text in some performances

Welsh Open

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