How are new alloys researched?

[KeenBlade]

In The Well of Ascension, Vin has a metallurgist researching possible alloys of aluminum, and it's stated that they go through numerous alloys before discovering duralumin. In The Alloy of Law, they've since discovered several other metals and it's implied they're still researching more.

 

What kind of process is involved here? I'm no chemist, but there are surely a vast number of potential alloys for any given metal. How do they know what metals to add or remove in which concentrations?

Edited July 3, 2015 by KeenBlade

[Battah'elin]

All Allomantic metals have the ability to hold Feruchemical charge. Feruchemists can tell if a metal can hold charge or not by touch. Of course, since Feruchemists are hidden during Classical Scadrial, research is more difficult, although metallurgists know that each Pulling metal is pure and has one alloy to create a Pushing metal. They probably just have a mistborn burn a very slight quantity and hope they don't get metal sickness?

[Colours]

I suspect that back in the Final Empire, a lot of this research was privately funded by noble houses and tested on their own mistborn in hopes of giving them an edge in a fight, much like what Vin did in order to discover duralumin. The knowledge about things like aluminium was officially restricted, yes, but I would be surprised if none of the noble families found out about it through experimentation. Most likely, they simply kept it a secret within the family - or even just within their own generation, if they didn't trust their own offspring not to stab them in the back.

[Oudeis]

Also, by Alloy of Law, allomantically speaking, they've only discovered one new alloy; Bendalloy. All six other alloys; steel, pewter, brass, bronze, electrum, and duralumin existed in Hero of Ages. No on in-universe has yet mentioned nicrosil.

 

That said, they are in the ars arcanum, and their feruchemical properties are known. I concur with Battah. They prolly found Ferrings (or maybe even an entire feruchemist?) to test until someone got bendalloy to work. Sazed mentioned additional metals to Spook in his letter, so it's entirely possible there were clues or suggestions.

[Guest]

I seem to recall in the HoA letter to Spook that a sample of a new metal was left along with the books (what is referred to in AoL as the "Words of Founding")

I'm guessing that must have been Chromium or Bendalloy, and then Spook purified/mixed it and attempted to Burn the result.

Beyond that, unless you have a Full Mistborn/Full Feruchemist, I don't see any good way to experiment until Mechanical Allomancy gets developed.

Edit: Cadmium, not Chromium.

Edited July 3, 2015 by LabRat

[natc]

Just burn it and hope you don't die, I guess.

[VindicationKnight]

The Lord Ruler also knew more than anyone else and was obviously the first one to introduce people to Allomancy on a large scale. It's likely the majority of the common metals were introduced by him, and that he might have 'guided' development of metallurgy towards his own ends, encouraging developments he liked and burying the secrets of metals he wanted left alone.

 

One of the most knowledgeable Allomantic scholars we saw from the Final Empire was Yomen who knew a bunch about the significance of 16 and the existence of Seers. Given how close Allomancy and Ministry doctrine were linked I suspect most Allomantic research took place under the scrutiny of the Ministry, and by extension, the Lord Ruler.