Iron Giant: One of America’s great machines comes back to life - An article in the March 2012 Issue of the Atlantic

Really interesting article by Tim Heffernan about a pretty amazing piece of technology generated by the United States Heavy Press Program between 1950 and 1957.

From the article: "The Fifty began its work in 1955, but its history goes back to 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to relinquish some of its principal iron-producing regions but allowed it to keep its abundant magnesium reserves. Strong and lightweight, the metal also had one crucial drawback: it could not be worked by hammering, the way iron could. Smack iron, and it bends. Smack magnesium, and it cracks. So of necessity, German engineers developed a new technique for shaping the temperamental metal: press forging. Components made by German forges, using both magnesium and aluminum, helped build the Third Reich’s war machine. But at the end of that conflict, the Soviets took the most powerful forge home with them."

Here is the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/iron-giant/8886/

The more you know.