Robert Forester Mushet Inventor
Robert Forester Mushet (1811–1891) was a British metallurgist and businessman, born April 8, 1811, in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. He was the youngest son of Scottish parents, Agnes Wilson and David Mushet; an ironmaster, formerly of the Clyde, Alfreton and Whitecliff Ironworks. In 1818/9 David Mushet built a foundry at Darkhill, in the Forest of Dean. Robert spent his formative years studying metallurgy with his father and took over the management of Darkhill in 1845. In 1848 he moved to the newly constructed Forest Steel Works on the edge of the Darkhill site where he carried out over ten thousand experiments in ten years before moving to the Titanic Steelworks in 1862. It seems that Mushet only began using his middle name 'Forester' in 1845, and only occasionally at first. In his later years he said he had been given the name from the Forest of Dean, although he variously spelled it both 'Forester' and 'Forrester'. In 1876 he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal by the Iron and Steel Institute, their highest award. Robert Mushet died on January 29, 1891 in Cheltenham. He is buried with his wife and daughter, Mary, in Cheltenham Cemetery.
|Date of birth|
|April 8th, 1811|
Mushet steel, also known as Robert Mushet's Special Steel, self-hardening steel and air-hardening steel, is considered the first tool steel and air-hardening steel. It was invented in 1868 by Robert Forester Mushet. Prior to Mushet steel, steel had to be quenched to harden it. It later led to the discovery of high speed steel.