Ragnar,
I hear you on the use of steel as a Conductor of Electricity.
We had a situation over here, where we installed a whole heap of Designer 12V Halogens on this big, cumbersome frame to light a shop display.
We had 3 Xformers to supply the current and when we turned the thing on, the light at the start of the series was bright, but the rest of them got dimmer as the system progressed down the stainless steel rods.
One thing that you have to realise about steel manufacture, is the fact that a big part of Steel is Nickel and a certain amount of Chromium, to give it it's Tensile strength.
But, what are the elements of a heater made of?. [Linked Image]