red-short

[ red-shawrt ]

adjective

, Metallurgy.

1. brittle when at red heat, as iron or steel containing too much sulfur.

Word History and Origins

Origin of red-short¹

1720–30; < Swedish rödskört, neuter of rödskör, equivalent to röd red + skör brittle

Example Sentences

It makes steel tender and brittle at that temperature—a condition known to the workmen as "red-short."

From Project Gutenberg

In practice, blooms made by this process have been so red-short that they could not be hammered at all.

From Project Gutenberg

The size of the pieces of the material employed prevents the intimate mixture of the particles of iron with the particles of carbon, and hence we would, on theoretical grounds, anticipate just what practice has proved, viz., that the reduction is incomplete, and the resulting metal being charged with oxides is red-short.

From Project Gutenberg

On the other hand, the method of further desulphurization outside the blast furnace, described in this paper, presents the double advantage that part of the blast furnace can be kept cooler, and thus lime and coke be saved, and that there is a certainty that no red-short charges are obtained in the treatment in the converter, while the pig iron passes to the converter at a suitable temperature.

From Project Gutenberg

I told them, consistent with the notion I had adopted in common with all others I had conversed with, that I thought it impossible, because the vegetable salts in the charcoal being an alkali acted as an absorbent to the sulphur of the iron, which occasions the red-short quality of the iron, and pit coal abounding with sulphur would increase it.

From Project Gutenberg