The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-02-23
The Antiquity ofthe Iron Manufacture.

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The Antiquity ofthe Iron Manufacture.
Iron, the most common, as well as
the most useful Of metals, Is un-
the most ancient. Tubal
Cain, the half brother of the patri-
arch Noah, is stated to have been the
original instructor of every artificer
in brass and iron :" and though we
cannot even conjecture what the
primeval "brass" was, we know that
iron was then as now the most univer-
sally diffused of all metals; although
it must be admitted that, from the
days of Tubal Cain to those of Henry
Bessemer, the manufacture has made
considerable strides.
Chalybia, on the shores of the
Black sea, furnished the ores of the
most ancient European iron of which
we have any record and the Arun-
del marbles give distinct evidence
that its use was known at least two
centuries before the supposed period
of the Trojan war (abOut 400 years
3. C.) 1t is mentioned by Homer, in
the Iliad and elsewhere; but his de-
scriptiOns, and those of Thrasyllus
and other ancient writer's, all point
out that it was wrought iron that
was used and probably this iron was
made by welding together some high
ly ferruginors ores at q red heat.
Thus weapons and blades could be
easily fabricated without the use of
any smelling process. The Chalbes
also gave their name to steel (Chalbys.)
called by the Romans white iron :"
and four distinct qualities of steel
were known to the Greeks. The
hardening of steel by plunging int
water was certainly familiar to the
most ancient inhabitants Of Greece,
for Homer speaks of "hissing, as
water Kisses when the smith INNER
ses in it a piece of red hot iron, in
order to harden it." And case har-
dening by carbon was also done by
the same people, "the finer articles
being plunged into oil instead of
water.d But while the pedigree of
the iron manufacture is thus carried
back into the most remote periods Of
European history, we have historical
evidence and still-existing monu-
ments, of much greater antiquity,
of iron working by the Egyptians
and the ancient races of Hindostan
and China; and it il among these
only that we have any proof of the
knowledge, by the ancients, Of q cast
ing in iron. Wilkinson, the renown-
ed Egyptian explorer, states that in
the monuments in Thebes and Men,
phis, butchers are represented, sharp
ening knives on round bar of metal
attached to their aprons, and these
irons, from their "blue color must
have been steel" More convincing
evidence is afforded by the sickle
blade, discovered by the italian
traveller Belzoni, under . granite
sphinx at Karnak, as well ~ BY .
veritable cross cut saw, found by Mr..
Layard at Nimroud, now In the Brit
ish Museum. These facts certainly
show that iron manufacture, involv-
ing the application Of considerable
knowledge and skill, is at least four
thousand years old; and, beyond even
this, we have evidence that this, like
most other of the useful arts, came
from the extreme east, and is, in
India, of still greater antiquity. In
corroboration Of this view, we quote
from the Engineer the following para
graph
at is strange that of the iron
metallurgy of Asia, the mother land
of all the arts, Of India the country
where, more than twenty centuries
ago, King Porus presented to Alexan-
der the Great q wrought bar of DANA
scene steel, Just as Homer's Achilles
offered for prise at the funeral games
of Patroclus like valued mass,
whence the Greeks obtained the like
material for their wonder working
sword blades where steel dies were
employed for coinage when our own
ancestors were naked savages, less is
known than of the iron working of
any other parts OF the more or less
civilized world"
But carrying our Investigation far
Their back into time, and farther east
on the map, we find that, among our
slight knowledge Of the history of
manufactures and technical arts of
the vast empire of China, the casting
of iron is not only of immense age in
that country, but has been carried on
with great ingenuity and by processes
which our knowledge is unable to
account for. The authority quoted
above mentions "China, whence cast
iron hollow vessels now reach US. of
a combined magnitude and thinness
that we have not yet been able to
initiate, or even to imagine the pro-
cess by which they are cast, and razor
steel, said to surpass all European
steel in temper and durability of
edge"
The most noticeable Oriental monu-
ment in iron is pillar within the
precincts of mosque near Delhi, of
which our contemporary says:
"This wrought iron pillar is Is
large as the screw shaft Of one of our
first class steamships, and q forging
of the same size would be deemed q
piece of first class work for any one
of our crest steam hammer FORCES in
Europe, and yet it is more than q
thottsg,,d years old, and may be az
much as fifteen hundred. Its form is
neither that of q comic frustrum or Of
some curvilinear spindle, giving it q
very slight swell towards its mid
hight. The capital consists of an
elaborate Indian design, tho whole
of which good observers deem to havo
been carved by the chisel out Of the
solid iron. The shaft, to near the
present ground level, is beautifully
smooth and true, and presents the
character of having been "swaged,"
or, if not, Hsledge plaatshed" to Its
finished form. The lower part, for
three or four feet above the present
ground and below it, il rough and
but carelessly rounded; there appear
to be some rather large cavities in
this part of the shaft. The pillar
has been known to Europeans for
many years. The earliest printed
notice of it which the writer has seen
is in the Journal of the Asiatic So
ciety of Bengal Vol. VII, being
part OF q memoir On Autographs
and TRANSACTIONS Of Inscriptions,'
taken In eotyps BY CAPTAIN T. s.
"The dimensions of the pillar may
be appropriated from paint marks
in vertical line placed upon 1t at
distances of twelve inches apart,
which have trans erred themselves
to the photograph and been copied
in the engraving, Tho total hight
above ground Is % feet, that Of the
capital 81 feet, aud that Of tho rough
part near the ground the same. But
its depth under ground Is consider
ably greater than its hight above
ground, as q recent excavation was