A history of Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology...

Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology was founded in 1965 as British Corrosion Journal, the journal of the newly formed Joint Corrosion Group of the (British) Iron and Steel Institute, the Society of Chemical Industry, the Institute of Metals and the Institute of Metal Finishing. The Group was supported by 11 other cooperating societies, including all the major UK engineering institutions. It built on an involvement in corrosion going back to at least 1911 when the Institute of Metals formed a Corrosion Committee and raised funds to appoint Guy Bengough as an investigator and the establishment of science-based corrosion research under the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (the forerunner of the current National Physical Laboratory). For many years Bengough led the DSIR corrosion laboratory becoming the first “corrosionist” Fellow of the Royal Society for his development of dezincification-resistant Admiralty Brass.

The objectives of the Joint Corrosion Group, and British Corrosion Journal, was to act as a focal point for the dissemination and discussion of corrosion research and to promote the discipline of corrosion and corrosion prevention as an independent area of scientific and engineering expertise. The promotional objective in particular continues to resonate today, as do other aspects of the journal’s early coverage: a strong focus on corrosion engineering and technology as well as corrosion science; concern over the failure to apply the principles of corrosion engineering at an early stage of the design process; and the cost of corrosion to industry and society. The early issues still convey the enthusiasm of the new interdisciplinary activity, both in the technical papers and in the journal’s news and features (a distinguishing feature of the journal that continues), and include classic papers that remain relevant to today’s practitioners.

A highlight of the July 1965 launch issue is U. R. Evans’ address to the inaugural meeting of the Joint Corrosion Group in March 1965. Evans, a founding father of corrosion as an academic discipline, makes the pointed distinction between ‘defeatists’ who assume corrosion will occur and who try to measure its velocity, ‘hoping merely to make it slow’, and those who entertain the possibility of an approach based on the probability that corrosion will not start at all. Despite progress in the understanding of corrosion mechanisms in the intervening 45 years, current contributions to the journal suggests that the defeatists still largely hold the field. In the context of a discussion of Pourbaix diagrams, Evans comments: ‘Several other ideas have crossed the Atlantic in both directions – although not always as quickly as Christopher Columbus, who accomplished the voyage in a matter of months’.

The intellectual driving force of the journal was the publications committee, chaired by S. C. Britton (who held the post until 1975). When in 1974, management of the journal passed to the Metals Society, formed by the merger of the Iron and Steel Society and the Institute of Metals, Dora Brasher became Editor, belatedly recognising her direct responsibility for the content of the journal since 1971. Dora, who spent her career at the National Physical Laboratory, had a formidably wide range of interests and international contacts, coupled with a commitment to accuracy and attention to detail that has also characterised her successors. When she stepped down as Editor in 1985, another founding member of the publications committee, Hector Campbell, became Consulting Editor. Hector’s broad experience in corrosion research at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association and subsequently as a consultant was reflected in the journal’s coverage during his period of office. He had been the author of seminal work on the pitting of copper alloys, a subject that became topical again in the context of the failure of water pipes and the role of organic films in these processes. Several important papers in this area appeared in the journal. Hector was also a driving force in the investigations arising from the raising and preservation of the 1901 submarine Holland I (now on display at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum).

In 1989, the editorship passed to Tony Mercer, a protégé of Dora Brasher’s at NPL. As well as his editorial role and international activities, including standardisation, Tony served as Scientific Secretary of the European Federation of Corrosion (EFC), consolidating the close relationship that the journal has enjoyed as an official organ of the Federation since 1985. He was in 1996 succeeded both as Editor and as EFC Secretary by Paul McIntyre. Paul’s expertise was in the corrosion behaviour of steels, particularly stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue, having carried out his PhD with Redvers Parkins and spent extended periods at British Steel’s Swinden Labs and the Central Electricity Research Laboratory at Leatherhead. Paul’s period as Editor saw two significant developments for the journal, in 2003: the re-launch as Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology and the appointment of Rob Kelly at the University of Virginia as US Editor. The new title recognised both the journal’s broad scope and interest in corrosion engineering, and the fact that its outlook and contributor base had for many years been international in extent. Rob Kelly’s appointment had the aim of attracting more submissions from the Americas as well as assisting the Editor with the growing numbers of submissions received from all regions.

After a decade of distinguished service, Paul handed over in 2006 to the current Editor, Stuart Lyon, Head of the Corrosion and Protection Centre in the School of Materials at the University of Manchester. He will be joined in 2011 by Scott Lillard of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who will take over as US Editor from Rob Kelly.  The re-launched journal has been very successful in attracting submissions and, in recognition of this, increased in frequency from four to six issues per year in 2009. Occasional special issues are also published on hot topics and in 2011 seven issues are planned, the extra one focussing on corrosion in nuclear waste disposal environments.