Alan Williams

The Wallace Collection, London · Conservation

Micro-invasive techniques will damage the artefact either by taking a sample or by altering a small area of the artefact, such as an edge, in situ, to facilitate inspection. For metallic artefacts, in this case the helm and sword, this commonly involves micro-polishing, etching and examination under a reflected-light metallurgical microscope to asc...

The effectiveness of the lance in mounted warfare and tournaments has been investigated by several riders attacking a target (of known weight) arranged to function as a ballistic pendulum. The height to which the target rose was measured by video recording and so the impact energy of the lance under different circumstances has been calculated. The...

Chapter in exhibition catalogue 2011

Contribution to book "Hidden Magdalen"

History of Chemistry

Analysis of armour from Churburg

A. Williams, D. Edge 2015, Three 'grotesque' helmet visors in the Wallace Collection, AMM XI: 225-233 Three 'grotesque' helmet visors in the Wallace Collection have been analysed. Two were made of hardened steel, and are likely to th have been products of the Innsbruck Hofplattnerei (Court Armoury) while the third one is a 19 c. fake. th

Section on sword excavated from the warship "Mary Rose"

In Europe, by the late 14 th century the production of relatively large blooms of steel made possible the development of the suit of steel plate armour, and the production of all-steel swords. Steel swords were being made in Japan by the Kofun period and techniques for making them of great hardness were established by the 12 th century CE, if not e...

Provenance studies of ancient armour based on trace elements in slag inclusions (SI) present analytical challenges due to the small size (<30 μm) of the particles. This paper presents an analytical protocol developed for this kind of SI using LA-ICP-MS. Two different LA-ICP-MS systems were tested: a double focusing inductively coupled plasma mass s...

This is a continuation study that aims to investigate the structural features of arms and armour allegedly made of wootz, a form of pattered crucible steel first developed in ancient Southern India and already reported in the historical record around 300 BC. Since artefacts made of wootz steel were highly priced for their superior mechanical and es...

At the end of the Middle Ages, armor was considered both an object for everyday military use and a luxury attire. Furthermore, war practices have undergone major changes both on the technological level (appearance of english longbows or firearms) as well as the organizational one (development of mercenary companies). Accordingly, defensives arms we...

We present novel imaging results from a non-invasive examination of three ‘pattern-welded’ swords from the Viking Age belonging to the National Museum of Denmark, using white beam and energy resolved tomographies with neutrons. Pattern-welded blades are made by forge welding together thin strips of iron and steel that were twisted and joined in var...

In this work we present the analysis of the micro-structural features of ancient Indian blades carried out by neutron tomography and neutron diffraction. The results provide a clear identification of the different types of steel used to produce such weapons. Among them, only a small proportion of the large number of swords produced in India were ma...

At the end of the Middle Ages, a major part of the craft of armour making was concentrated in a few international centres like Milan in Lombardy, which is considered as the centre of the Lombard iron trade. This city spread its production all over Europe. Nowadays, Milanese pieces can be identified thanks to the armourer’s workshop marking stamped....

Non-invasive experimental methods play an important role in the field of cultural heritage. Benefiting from the technical progress in recent years, neutron imaging has been demonstrated to complement effectively studies based on surface analysis, allowing for a non-invasive characterization of the whole three-dimensional volume. This study focuses...

At the end of the Middle-Ages, armor is an object both for everyday military use and a luxury attire produced in prestigious European centers of production like Milan located in the north of Italy and Nuremberg or Augsburg in the south of Germany. Even if some research works have focused on that subject nevertheless several questions concerning the...

In this research, we performed radiographic experiments exploiting polychromatic phase-contrast imaging, a method for contrast enhancement in transmitted neutron beams by measuring a sample made with a homogeneous material but exhibiting a different microstructure induced by mechanical actions. We were able to reveal the armourers’ marks now obscur...

Vikings (800–1050 CE) are famous for being fearsome seafarers and their weapons represented an indispensable tool in their plundering raids. Sword from the Viking age often showed pattern-welding, made by welding together thin strips of iron and steel that were twisted and forged in various ways, producing a decorative pattern on the surface. In th...

A la fin du Moyen Âge l‘armure est un objet à double destinations : à la fois objet de grande consommation et d’usage courant dans le cas des armures de troupes, mais également dans d’autre cas, un objet de prestige élaboré dans différents centres européens de grande renommée. Du point de vue de l’histoire des techniques de nombreuses questions se...

This note presents some data on early Chinese bronze swords to raise queries with respect to some of the distinctive features associated with their hand grip and presents metallurgical data on an unusual sword with similar properties to a sword with royal connections.

Various neutron techniques were employed at the Budapest Nuclear Centre in an attempt to find the most useful method for analysing the high-carbon steels found in Oriental arms and armour, such as those in the Wallace Collection, London. Neutron diffraction was found to be the most useful in terms of identifying such steels and also indicating the...

The analysis of the micro-structural features of ancient Indian swords has been carried out by neutron diffraction as well as by metallography. The results provide a clear identification of the different materials used to produce those weapons. Only a small proportion of the large number of swords produced in India historically were made of hypereu...

The evolution of metallurgy in history is one of the most interesting topics in Archaeometry. The production of steel and its forging methods to make tools and weapons are topics of great interest in the field of the history of metallurgy. In the production of weapons, we find almost always the highest level of technology. These were generally prod...

Neutron Diffraction represents the ideal technique for the characterisation of the micro-structural properties of ancient metals, allowing to retrieve information on the smelting process, and the mechanical and thermal treatments applied during the manufacture of the sample. The object under investigation is a 17th century Japanese helmet (kabuto)...

This paper discusses the metallurgy of some jousting armours, and other aspects of their equipment. Armours for the joust with sharp lances ( scharfrennen ) were found to be sometimes thinner than armour for the joust of peace ( gestech ) but these examples were made of better metal. Appendices discuss the textile padding, which was an integral par...

We present novel results from a non-invasive examination of two kabuto (helmets), made in Japan in the 17th century. Neutron-imaging experiments (radiography and tomography), carried out at the ICON and NEUTRA beamlines, operating at the neutron source SINQ (CH), have allowed to determine the inner metal structure and manufacturing techniques of th...

In this work we present an extensive time of flight neutron diffraction (ToF-ND) study on some Japanese armour components. The experiments were carried out at the INES diffractometer at ISIS, the pulsed neutron source in the UK. In particular, we have studied seven Japanese helmets (kabuto) made between the 16th and 17th century. By means of this n...

Edwin Wood, David Edge, Alan Williams 2013, A note on the construction and metallurgy of mail armour exhibited in The Wallace Collection, AMM IX: 203-229 An exhibition was mounted in 2009 at the Wallace Collection, London, displaying a number of mail shirts and other garments. The number of rings used in several of these mail shirts has been accura...

A large number of swords from the Viking era bear the inscription «VLFBERHT» or a variation on that. The metallurgy of different examples of these swords varies considerably but the metal employed correlates with the spelling of that name. In seeking to determine the origin of these swords, metallurgical studies may guide us, especially as many of...

To elucidate the origin of armours supposed to be from Lombardy according to art-historians, the very small Slag Inclusions entrapped in the metallic matrix were analysed on the samples taken on armours. This paper presents the analytical protocol, based on the coupling of LA-ICP-MS and confocal SR-[small micro]-XRF (confocal Micro-X-ray fluorescen...

The production and refinement of steel has followed very different paths in different parts of the Eurasian continent. In aiming to characterize the similarities and differences between various smelting and smithing methods, we have analysed steel samples from four different areas and historic periods: the Kotō Age in Japan (twelfth-sixteenth centu...

While «pattern-welded» swords have been found all over Europe from sites dating from the Migration Period and into the Early Middle Ages, they were steadily supplanted during the Viking period by swords made out of a few pieces of iron and steel, or even a single piece of steel. Swords with «Ulfberht» or related inscriptions were the most famous of...

Iron-arsenic alloys are described in many medieval chemical recipes as a means to "liquefy" iron. In fact, while such alloys have relatively low melting points, they are not the only examples of iron being known as a liquid metal. There is evidence from the analysis of swords, as well as from written references, that crucible steel, probably import...

resumen While «pattern-welded» swords have been found all over Europe from sites dating from the Migration Period and into the Early Middle Ages, they were steadily supplanted during the Viking period by swords made out of a few pieces of iron and steel, or even a single piece of steel. Swords with «Ulfberht» or related inscriptions were the most f...

The metallurgy of Indian swords shows many differences from that of European swords. The distinction between "Damascus Steel" (or wootz) and crucible steel is explained. Ten broken blades from the Armoury of the Nizams of Hyderabad were made available for microscopic examination. Six of these seem to been made from crucible steels, and are of notab...

font face="Times-Roman" size="2"> It is well known that the breastplates of many armours from the later 16 th century and the 17 th century bear the hemispherical dents generally known as proof marks. It has been taken as axiomatic that these marks were made in order to demonstrate the armours’ effectiveness against firearms. If however some of the...

The examination of the microstructure of metal artefacts allows a great deal of information to be obtained about the quality of the material used for manufacturing as well as information related to the technology of fabrication. Unfortunately accessing this information normally requires an invasive intervention on the artefact: a small fragment nee...

This article shows the results from the analysis made on a group of helmets dated from late 12^th century to early 15^th century. Metallographic advances recorded on them are considered as determinating factors on its evolution. Este trabajo expone los resultados de los análisis realizados sobre un grupo de yelmos datados desde...

The metallurgy of ten armour pieces from the Palace Armoury Collection in Malta was examined. Results showed that out of ten artefacts examined, six were produced in low carbon steel, one from a high carbon steel and three were made from wrought iron. One of the wrought iron armour pieces was fabricated from a phosphoric iron, an unusual material f...

The metallurgy of ten armour pieces from the Palace Armoury Collection in Malta was examined. Results showed that out of ten artefacts examined, six were produced in low carbon steel, one from a high carbon steel and three were made from wrought iron. One of the wrought iron armour pieces was fabricated from a phosphoric iron, an unusual material f...

The analysis of eight early medieval swords shows that some were made from a single piece of steel, while others had a steel cutting edge welded on. Heat-treatment to harden the steel was undertaken in six out of seven cases; the other proved to be a modern replica. El análisis de ocho espadas altomedievales muestra que algunas de ellas fueron hec...

Man has sought to protect himself from physical injury resulting either from the vicissitudes of an arbitrary natural environment or from the calculated activity of his fellow creatures since at least the beginning of recorded time. The earliest substantial British evidence of this activity dates from shortly after the Roman invasion of 55 BC. The...

The author looks to the metallurgy development during the Middle Ages related to military technology. He discusses how armor was made and the materials that were used, as well as the evolution of various metalworking processes and how these affected the armor's performance. Citing examples from The Royal Armouries at The Tower of London and from th...

THE oldest specimen of interlinked mail yet found has been excavated from a 3rd cent. B. C. Celtic grave in Romania, and this was probably developed from protective garments made up of rings threaded onto cords, like netting. A fragment of such a garment has been found in a Hallstatt grave, perhaps of the 8th cent. B. C. in Bohemia. Representations...

During the Dark Ages in Europe, the manufacture of the swords known as «pattern-welded», flourished. This type first appeared in the third century and disappeared by the tenth century A. D. Their characteristic appearance has drawn attention to them and numerous papers have been published describing their manufacture. No disponible. Consultar resu...