Excerpt from Alloy Steels Nickel steel is used to a large extent in the construction of high-grade machinery, and can be purchased in the open market in almost any percentages of nickel up to 35 percent, and with the carbon component varying between 0.10 and 1.00 percent. Nickel was added to carbon steel as the result of investigations which were started for the purpose of overcoming the "sudden rupture" that is inherent in all carbon steel. This property or tendency of carbon steel to rupture is the subject of numerous investigations by the railroads of the country at the present time, owing to the many accidents that have occurred in the past few years due to broken rails. Nickel added to steel largely overcomes this tendency, and nickel steel is used successfully for parts of machinery that have to withstand severe shocks and torsion, such as the crankshafts and connecting-rods of internal combustion engines, propeller shafts, automobile axles, and other parts of a similar...