The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1873-11-20

Though defeated in their main object.
Their labors were not all lost, for they laid
the foundation. of modern chemistry,
which has given Us not only gold, but
many blessings which gold could nev-
er buy while the elements were unsub-
dued. All honor to the pale and wrinkled
men who watched their midnight fires
with such sublime patience, until the FIRE
Of life went out. Coevsl with the earli-
est historical records the simplest princi-
pies OF chemistry had not dawned, I'M
tll the vague hallucination of making
gold, which prompted men to undertake
investigation fruitful of chemical. deduc-
lions, to be marshalled into a.sGi-nce heIe-
Sftsf MetaIlurgy, then, may Justly 10y
claim to be considered he fountain souI oe
of chemistry.
But before chemistry was, or the al
chemist lived, We had iron and steeI-for
we read of both in" the Scripture. And
there Is good reason to believe that ante
Nor to the earliest historical record of the
Greeks, iron and steel, and the processes
OF manufacturing them. were known in
China ard HIudostan -r.
The discovery of steel is lost IN an
tquity and Is mingled with that of iron.
The first indications are found In Genesis,
Nv, D, which, according to- Moses, had
been taught to men by Tubal Cain, who
was "an instructor of every arti6cer in
brass and iron," and who lived $3.50
years before Christ. job says that "iron
Is taken out of the earth." Job xviii p
And II Deuteronomy iii, IL we find that
Og, King of Bersham, possessed an iron
bedstead, which shows to what degres of
perfection the art of forging had arrived.
= The art of; extracting, refining and
working. iron and steel was dIffused from
Egypt over all parts of Arabia II was
known of old, that the mountainous
parts of Palestine were rich in iron mines,
thus IN deuteronomy, viii, 8, it was said,
with some appearance of truth, to the Is
raeiltes, on the eve of entering that land,
that its stones were iron. III e
instruments made of steel were used
for cutting stones, deuteronomy xvii, 81.
and for committing murder, plumbers
xxIv, 16), Duetile iron was employed
for a great many uses, even nails were
made out ef it, Judges iV, 2l). And ST.
sera, Captain of Jabin's army, had nine
hundredochariots of iron, Judges ", 13).
AT that epoch the workers of iron and
steel-the blacksmiths-Gi Kings "a, IA;
Jeremiah xUY, /, and xxx, ., were i'm
portant persoRages, whom kings took with
them on their journeys, as we see when
1cholRklm, King of Judah, left Jerusa-
We shall not now inquire what were
the iron ores treated by aneients; this i'm
portant question will subsequently re-
celve due attention. In proportion as Ro-
man civilization took the place of Gre
cla2, so was the use of iren and steel ex-
tended. Before the historical era, and up
to Herodotus, bronze had been quite ex-
cluslvely the material from which Weap-
ons were made. Under the Romans iron
and steel had been put to more uses. and
took the place of copper In many cases.
J. The art of forging iron and steel infers
the employment of the hammer and an
vii. Thus it is likely that these two sim
pie Implements were known to Tubal-
Cain. The first notice of these tools is
found Isaiah Al, Z, and chapters Xiv and
xii, when he says, $50 the carpenter en-
couraged the goldsmith, and he that
smootheth with the hammer him that
smote the anvil, saying, 1t is ready for
the soldering, and he fastened it with
nails, that it should not be moved" 1t is
probable that the bellows were employed
mole recently. The word used IN the
metallurgy of the Hebrews to express the
action of blowing is popheb. Behold,
l have created the smith that bLolDeth
the Goals IN the fire, and bringeth forth
an instrument for his work" (Isaiah xiv,
l6). Jeremiah has even made name OF
that word, to indicate a blowing appa-
rstus, Jeremiah vi, 29) ,s1-..f .aGl
About this time, when Moses was lead
ing the Hebrews across the deserts of
Arabia, the cities of Tyre. and Sidon
were founded by, Egyptian colonies on
the shores'of tie Mediterranean Sea. The
metal workers OF Sarepta were construct
ed near the boundary of the country of
Azara, and afterwards acquired a great
celebrity. 1t is amid this tribe Of AZars
was everybody was a miner, and where
the mines of Carmel were situated, (Prof
Wlttemb, 1922. .l---F led
The use of iron and steel had been
known all over the East for a long time,
and these metals he'd been employed for
various purposes, when Lyeurgus pro-
scribed gold and silver and made the coins
of iron. The CIazomenians, according to
Aristotle, used iron for the same purpose.
So likewise did the Britons and the By
zantians. $50 -.l a -I1l /
The Hebrews had nothing which could
properly be called furnace, but they
made hole in the ground, filed it with
ore and charcoal and promoted the COM
bustlon With their breath first, and after
wards with fans made of large tree leaves.
The first indications of a regular mode oi
working are to be found in Egypt, where
the Jews, during their servitude, were
obliged to work in the forges of that
country, deuteronomy iv, 20).
In our yourneying down the stream OF
time, 10 the twelfth century, we find out
the first idea of a blast-furnace, and OF
the use of raw metal, (pig metal, the
knowledge of which had been SO long q
time delayed, only by the feeble power Of
the blast apparatus. 81 -.---
Among the Greeks and Romans the
bellows were made of leather; they were
moved by men or animals. Hydraulic
wheels only came into use about the six
teenth century for pumping In the mines,
and movers of stamping mills, and other
apparatus appertaining to blast furnaces.
The art Of casting raw metal into
moulds is an invention relatively modern,
and all indications point to that inVen-
ton as having taken place in France, near
the Rhine. In 1409, there was in the
Valley of Massevaux, besween- Riem-
bach and Oberbruek, q blast-furnaee fol-
smelling iron. Mushett (papers on iron
and steel, p. 387), goes back only to 1910
A D., to find indications of the manufae-
ture of raw iron IN the Forest Dean, En-
gland. The oldest fact known IN England
In relation to the moulding of raw iron is
in the year l547, when a Frenohman
named Pierre Band, established in that
country, was smelling cast-iron pieces fol
the English navy, (Worthies of England
by Fuller, 1852 a..-. a
Eastern countries were far il advance
of Europe in the manufacture of steel
In 1913 Biscay was supplying the English
market with that commodity. Germany
and France were the first to cement iron
which was introduced at Newcastle on,
the-Tyne long before it was known II
Sheffield, the present center of that fabri
cation The working of cast-steel was in
troduced into England only IN ITO, b.
Mr.. Huntsman and was for q long tim
kept a secret, the particulars of which W
gave in our last. More anon.