Electrical steels are critical components of magnetic cores used in applications ranging from large rotating machines, including energy generating equipment, and transformers to small instrument transformers and harmonic filters. Presented over two volumes, this comprehensive handbook provides full coverage of the state-of-the-art in electrical steels. Volume 1 covers the fundamentals and basic concepts of electrical steels. Topics covered include soft magnetic materials; basic magnetic concepts; magnetic domains, energy minimisation and magnetostriction; methods of observing magnetic domains in electrical steels; electromagnetic induction; fundamentals of a.c. signals; losses and eddy currents in soft magnetic materials; rotational magnetisation and losses; anisotropy of iron and its alloys; magnetic circuits; the effect of mechanical stress on loss, permeability and magnetostriction; magnetic measurements on electrical steels; background to modern electrical steels; production of electrical steels; amorphous and nano-crystalline soft magnetic materials; nickel-iron, cobalt-iron and aluminium-iron alloys; consolidated iron powder and ferrite cores; and temperature and irradiation dependence of magnetic and mechanical properties of soft magnetic materials. The companion Volume 2 describes performance and outlines applications.