Barium "baryta", from Greek βαρύς ("barys"), meaning "heavy." "Baric" is the adjectival form of barium. Barium was identified as a new element in 1774, but not reduced to a metal until 1808 with the advent of electrolysis. Barium has few industrial applications. Historically, it was used as a getter for vacuum tubes and in oxide form as the emissive coating on indirectly heated cathodes. It is a component of YBCO (high-temperature superconductors) and electroceramics, and is added to steel and cast iron to reduce the size of carbon grains within the microstructure. Barium compounds are added to fireworks to impart a
Non-metallic inclusions allows the elimination of most natural and foreign inclusions from the metal. However its general content in different steels can vary between wide limits and has a big influence on the metal properties. Non-metallic inclusions, the presence of which defines purity of steel, are classified by chemical and mineralogical content, by stability and by origin. By chemical content non-metallic inclusions are divided into the following groups: The majority of inclusions in metals are oxides and sulfides since the content of phosphorus is very small. Silicates are very detrimental to steels, especially if it has to undergo heat treatment at a