Tempering
['tempərɪŋ]
Definition
(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Temper
(n.) The process of giving the requisite degree of hardness or softness to a substance, as iron and steel; especially, the process of giving to steel the degree of hardness required for various purposes, consisting usually in first plunging the article, when heated to redness, in cold water or other liquid, to give an excess of hardness, and then reheating it gradually until the hardness is reduced or drawn down to the degree required, as indicated by the color produced on a polished portion, or by the burning of oil.
Typist: Melville
Examples
- In _annealing_ and _tempering_, electricity has also been employed as a means of heating (see patent to Shaw, No. 211,938, February 4, 1879). Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- The plate is then taken to be Harveyized by cementation, hardening, and tempering, as seen in Figs. 260, 261, and 262. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Showing a shaft weighing about 33,000 pounds being taken from the vertical heating furnace and suspended over the oil-tank preparatory to being lowered for tempering. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Welding by Electricity, and Tempering and Annealing. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
Editor: Solomon