In the late 1800s, Sir Robert Hadfield sought a way to make steel alloys less brittle. Hadfield, a British metallurgist, was finally able to develop a material that did not break from heavy impact after years of trial and error and countless tests. The metal he used to accomplish this feat was manganese. Manganese, which is atomic No. 25 on the periodic table, is one of the most common transition elements in the earth's crust. While it is hard, it is also very brittle. And it wasn't until Hadfield combined manganese with steel that its industrial uses became apparent.
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