An alloy is a combination of metals or metals combined with one or more other elements. For example, combining the metallic elements gold and copper produces red gold and silver becomes white gold, silver combined with copper produces sterling silver. Elemental iron, combined with non-metallic carbon or silicon, produces alloys called steel or silicon steel; the resulting mixture forms a substance with properties that differ from those of the pure metals, such as increased strength or hardness. Unlike other substances that may contain metallic bases but do not behave as metals, such as aluminium oxide, beryllium aluminium silicate or sodium chloride, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility and luster. Alloys are used in a wide variety of applications, from the steel alloys, used in everything from buildings to automobiles to surgical tools, to exotic titanium-alloys used in the aerospace industry, to beryllium-copper alloys for non-sparking tools.

In some cases, a combination of metals may reduce the overall cost of the material while preserving important properties. In other cases, the combination of metals imparts synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength. Examples of alloys are steel, brass, duralumin and amalgams. An alloy may be a mixture of metallic phases. Intermetallic compounds are alloys with a defined crystal structure. Zintl phases are sometimes considered alloys depending on bond types. Alloys are defined by a metallic bonding character; the alloy constituents are measured by mass percentage for practical applications, in atomic fraction for basic science studies. Alloys are classified as substitutional or interstitial alloys, depending on the atomic arrangement that forms the alloy, they can be heterogeneous or intermetallic. An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements, which forms an impure substance that retains the characteristics of a metal. An alloy is distinct from an impure metal in that, with an alloy, the added elements are well controlled to produce desirable properties, while impure metals such as wrought iron are less controlled, but are considered useful.

Alloys are made by mixing two or more elements, at least one of, a metal. This is called the primary metal or the base metal, the name of this metal may be the name of the alloy; the other constituents may or may not be metals but, when mixed with the molten base, they will be soluble and dissolve into the mixture. The mechanical properties of alloys will be quite different from those of its individual constituents. A metal, very soft, such as aluminium, can be altered by alloying it with another soft metal, such as copper. Although both metals are soft and ductile, the resulting aluminium alloy will have much greater strength. Adding a small amount of non-metallic carbon to iron trades its great ductility for the greater strength of an alloy called steel. Due to its very-high strength, but still substantial toughness, its ability to be altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most useful and common alloys in modern use. By adding chromium to steel, its resistance to corrosion can be enhanced, creating stainless steel, while adding silicon will alter its electrical characteristics, producing silicon steel.

Like oil and water, a molten metal may not always mix with another element. For example, pure iron is completely insoluble with copper; when the constituents are soluble, each will have a saturation point, beyond which no more of the constituent can be added. Iron, for example, can hold a maximum of 6.67% carbon. Although the elements of an alloy must be soluble in the liquid state, they may not always be soluble in the solid state. If the metals remain soluble when solid, the alloy forms a solid solution, becoming a homogeneous structure consisting of identical crystals, called a phase. If as the mixture cools the constituents become insoluble, they may separate to form two or more different types of crystals, creating a heterogeneous microstructure of different phases, some with more of one constituent than the other. However, in other alloys, the insoluble elements may not separate until after crystallization occurs. If cooled quickly, they first crystallize as a homogeneous phase, but they are supersaturated with the secondary constituents.

As time passes, the atoms of these supersaturated alloys can separate from the crystal lattice, becoming more stable, forming a second phase that serves to reinforce the crystals internally. Some alloys, such as electrum—an alloy of silver and gold—occur naturally. Meteorites are sometimes made of occurring alloys of iron and nickel, but are not native to the Earth. One of the first alloys made by humans was bronze, a mixture of the metals tin and copper. Bronze was an useful alloy to the ancients, because it is much stronger and harder than either of its components. Steel was another common alloy. However, in ancient times, it could only be created as an accidental byproduct from the heating of iron ore in fires during the manufacture of iron. Other ancient alloys include pewter and pig iron. In the modern age, steel can

The Battle of Kaiyuan was a conflict between the Later Jin and Ming dynasty in the summer of 1619. Following the victory at the Battle of Sarhu, Nurhaci continued the attack on Ming by assaulting the city of Kaiyuan; the Jin attack occurred during a heavy downpour. Ming dispatched a small relief contingent of 100 men, but they were intercepted by a Jin force and suffered 32 casualties; the Jin army besieged Kaiyuan and attacked Ma Lin's outer defenses, strengthened in preference to a safer position on the walls. However the strategy ended badly for Ma Lin; as too many men were outside, there weren't enough men to man the walls. As imminent defeat became apparent, the Censor Zheng Zhifan fled; the walls were breached and the fighting continued inside the city for three days before it was pacified. Meanwhile, another relief contingent had been dispatched from Tieling, but was intercepted by a Jin force and repulsed. Ma Lin was executed. Swope, The Military Collapse of China's Ming Dynasty, Routledge Wakeman, The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China, 1, University of California Press

Charles Harvey Bradley Jr. was an American businessman. He was the fourth and youngest child of Charles H. Bradley Sr. of Dubuque, Iowa, a founder of Bradley Brothers Cigars which made the famous Baroness and Bradley brands of cigars, Katherine Elderkin Wetherbee Bradley of Wabasha, Minnesota. After attending grade school in Dubuque, Charles Harvey Bradley entered Thacher Preparatory School in Ojai Valley, California in 1912. In 1915 he transferred to Phillips Academy, Massachusetts. After graduating from Andover in 1917 he entered Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut in the fall of that year. On the advice of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt he and six close friends from Yale, one being Roosevelt’s nephew, Sheffield Cowles, left the college after mid year exams and enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 1918. After training at Parris Island, SC, earning the designation of Sharpshooter, Harve became a Private in the 80th Company, 6th Regiment, Second Marines, he fought in France in the battles of Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry and was wounded for the second time on July 19, 1918 in the battle of Soissons.

Here, his left hip was shattered by shrapnel. After lying on the battle field for nearly 18 hours, he was rescued and spent two months recovering at Base Hospital 27 in Angers, before returning to a hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, his entire division was decorated for bravery by the French government. Harve reentered Yale in the middle of 1919. In spite of his war injury, he was on the 150-pound Yale Crew, he was elected to Skull and Bones. He graduated with the class of 1921 with an A. B. degree. During the summer of 1919 while visiting Culver, Indiana, he met Carolyn Coffin of Indianapolis, daughter of Charles E Coffin, prominent real estate developer and banker, whom he married in January 1922, they spent a two-month honeymoon in Europe, during which they visited the French battlefields where he had fought. After his marriage, Harve moved to Indianapolis and worked first for the Fletcher Trust Company until 1924 serving as cashier of the Sixteenth Street Branch Bank, a subsidiary of the Fletcher Trust Company.

In 1924 he was employed by W. J. Holiday & Company, Steel Distributors, he became Secretary, Treasurer of the company in 1927 and President in 1932. He was President of Monarch Steel Company, cold drawers of steel bars, a subsidiary of W. J. Holiday & Company. Soon after the United States entered World War II Harve was appointed chief of the Steel Recovery Program. Materials Branch, Steel Division War Production Board and moved to Pittsburgh in July 1942, he set the pattern and directed the course of that branch for eight months, returning to Indianapolis in 1943. He was appointed the Civilian Defense Director for Indianapolis and served in that capacity for six months. Harve remained President of W. J. Holiday & Company until the company was sold to Jones and Laughlin Steel Company in 1954, he served as Chairman of the Advisory Board in the warehouse division from 1955 to 1960.. He became President of the Shorewood Corporation in 1960, but left in 1962 to become Chairman of the Executive Committee and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of P.

R. Mallory & Co. Inc. In 1964 he became Chairman of the Board of this company. During his career, he was a director of P. R. Mallory International, the Ransburg Electrocoating Corporation, the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, the Indiana National Bank, Bell Telephone Company, the Indiana Gas & Water Company, Monarch Steel Company, Employers Association of Indiana, American Steel Warehouse Association, he was on the board of directors of the Illinois Central Industries and the Illinois Central Railroad. Bradley was a President of the Indiana Chamber of the United Fund. During his lifetime his memberships included: Yale Alumni Board, Redevelopment Commission of Indiana and National American Legion, Navy league, Service Club of Indianapolis, University Club of Indianapolis, Columbia Club, Indianapolis Athletic Club, Woodstock Country Club, Draft Board of Appeals, N. R. A. Labor Board, he was a founder of the Service Club, composed of U. S. Marine Corps veterans of World Wars I and II, his hobbies included photography.

He long enjoyed taking and developing his own photographs. For many years he piloted his own single engine planes beginning with a Navion and ending with a Beechcraft Bonanza which he owned at the time of his death, he was a member of the Sportsman’s Pilot Association and the Quiet Birdmen a flying association. He never lost his love of horse back riding and the West which he had developed as a schoolboy in Ojai, California. During their fifty-year marriage, he and his wife had seven grandchildren. Charles Harvey Bradley died of a sudden massive heart attack in Indianapolis at the age of 73