BOOK IX.

421

He is able to complete this work sometimes in eight hours, sometimes in ten,and again sometimes in twelve. In order that the heat of the fire should notbum his face, he covers it entirely with a cap, in which, however, there areholes through which he may see and breathe. At the side of the hearth is abar which he raises as often as is necessary, when the bellows blow too violenta blast, or when he adds more ore and charcoal. He also uses the barto draw off the slags, or to open or close the gates of the sluice, throughwhich the waters flow down on to the wheel which turns the axle that com-presses the bellows. In this sensible way, iron is melted out and a massweighing two or three centumpondia may be made, providing the iron orewas rich. When this is done the master opens the slag-vent with the tapping-bar, and when all has run out he allows the iron mass to cool. Afterwardhe and his assistant stir the iron with the bar, and then in order to chip offthe slags which had until then adhered to it, and to condense and flatten it,they take it down from the furnace to the floor, and beat it with large woodenmallets having slender handles five feet long. Thereupon it is immediately

sufficient for their needs, from hematite. Copper alone would not be a very serviceable metalto primitive man, and he early made the advance to bronze ; this latter metal requires threemetallurgical operations, and presents immeasurably greater difficulties than iron. It is,as Professor Gowland has demonstrated (Presidential Address, Inst, of Metals, London, 1912)quite possible to make bronze from melting stanniferous copper ores, yet such combinedoccurrence at the surface is rare, and, so far as known, the copper sources from which Asia Minorand Egypt obtained their supply do not contain tin. It seems to us, therefore, that in mostcases the separate fusions of different ores and their subsequent re-melting were required tomake bronze. The arguments advanced by the archaeologists bear mostly upon the factthat, had iron been known, its superiority would have caused the primitive races to adopt it,and we should not find such an abundance of bronze tools. As to this, it may be said thatbronze weapons and tools are plentiful enough in Egyptian, Mycenaean, and early Greekremains, long after iron was demonstrably well known. There has been a good dealpronounced by etymologists on the history of iron and copper, for instance, by Max Muller,(Lectures on the Science of Language, Vol. 11, p. 255, London, 1864), and many others, butthe amazing lack of metallurgical knowledge nullifies practically all their conclusions. Theoldest Egyptian texts extant, dating 3500 b.c., refer to iron, and there is in the BritishMuseum a piece of iron found in the Pyramid of Kephron (3700 b.c.) under conditions indicatingits co-incident origin. There is exhibited also a fragment of oxidized iron lately found byProfessor Petrie and placed as of the VI Dynasty (b.c. 3200). Despite this evidence of anearly knowledge of iron, there is almost a total absence of Egyptian iron objects for a longperiod subsequent to that time, which in a measure confirms the view of its disappearancerather than that of ignorance of it. Many writers have assumed that the Ancients must havehad some superior art of hardening copper or bronze, because the cutting of the gigantic stone-work of the time could not have been done with that alloy as we know it; no such hardeningappears among the bronze tools found, and it seems to us that the argument is strongerthat the oldest Egyptian stoneworkers employed mostly iron tools, and that. these haveoxidized out of existence. The reasons for preferring copper alloys to iron for decorativeobjects were equally strong in ancient times as in the present day, and accounts sufficientlyfor these articles, and, therefore, iron would be devoted to more humble objects less likely tohe preserved. Further, the Egyptians at a later date had some prejudices against iron forsacred purposes, and the media of preservation of most metal objects were not open to iron.We know practically nothing of very early Egyptian metallurgy, but in the time of Thotmesfff- (1500 b.c.) bellows were used upon the forge.

Of literary evidences the earliest is in the Shoo King among the Tribute of Yii (2500B -C. ?). Iron is frequently mentioned in the Bible, but it is doubtful if any of the earlyreferences apply to steel. There is scarcely a Greek or Latin author who does not mentioniron in some connection, and of the earliest, none are so suggestive from a metallurgical pointof view as Homer, by whom “ laboured ” mass (wrought-iron ?) is often referred to. As, forinstance, in the Odyssey (1., 234) Pallas in the guise of Mentes, says according to Pope :

“ Freighted with iron from my native land* steer my voyage to the Brutian strand,

” To gain by commerce for the laboured mass“ A just proportion of refulgent brass.”