Sodium Nitrite for case hardening?

Has Clive considered the conditions under which much of this technology was gathered? WWII had just ended, the Allies scoured the defeated Axis caches of documents to garner as much information as they could. You will be aware that the '4 Powers' kept their finds to themselves.

The searchers worked in closely guarded secrecy, always with the fear of the Soviets who could have taken possession of everything found in Eastern Germany, which at that time included Berlin.

I have been privileged to have seen some of the material gathered in its original form in my area of experience, before it was publicly available. Although the general direction of development was similar to that of the Allies some of the detail was novel and found later to be of value to us.

We should not run away with the thought that that Britain and America were far ahead at that time, After all the Germans might have developed 'the Bomb' first had it not been for the destruction of the heavy water plant in Norway.

JerryNotts

Muzzer, I conducted the very same experiment during my schooldays near 60 years ago, a couple of miles from home was limestone pit (marl pit) being used for landfill. We visited regularly as there was no telling what might turn up that could be incorporated into one of our "projects" & also prime rat shooting territory. Same story, brand new 50 gallon drum, stand upright, add water, tighten plug, big bonfire, retire to discreet distance behind very large rocky boulders, Albert himself is credited with saying " If i knew what I was doing, I wouldnt call it research". Ends dome, collosal explosion, as steam condenses the drum is sucked completely flat from top to bottom, end exits edgeways & climbs vertically about 300 feet then levels of & glides about 400 yards across a ploughed field, impressive! We conducted a lot of our "chemical" experiments there, as there was plenty of cover (from shrapnel) & it truly was the middle of nowhere. To get back on thread, we did Woodwork & Metalwork in those days (yes, that long ago) as we had a whole country to rebuild, some of the small hand tools I made then, screwdriver blade, small adjustable spanner, depth gauge etc had parts that where hardened with Kasenit & have survived in my toolbox to this day still in use. Bob H