NLMK Group

30
Panorama WORLD OF METALS
Iron as the Core
Metal of Civilization
26 Iron
Fe
3d 6 4s 2
55,847
American researcher Lewis Henry Morgan, one of the founding fathers of the evolution theory, wrote
that “when the barbarian, advancing step by step, had discovered the native metals, and learned to
melt them in the crucible and to cast them in moulds; when he had … produced bronze; and, finally,
when by a still greater effort of thought he had invented the furnace, and produced iron from the ore,
nine tenths of the battle for civilization was gained.”
Magnetite,
one of the sources
for industrial iron
production
In 1856 the English
inventor Henry
Bessemer proposed to
use a converter for
making steel
It has been said that iron is a
metal more precious than gold.
The ancient Hittites, who were
the first to produce iron from sea
sand, traded one measure of iron
for 160 measures of gold. It was
only natural that given its steep
price the ‘Hittite metal’ was used to
manufacture sacred objects, jewelry,
and, in very rare cases, armaments,
like iron daggers and sabres, which
were presented to rulers and
powerful lords.
The Hittite method of producing
iron was borrowed by the Greeks.
They improved the production of
iron tools and armaments, which
helped them to conquer half of
the world as they knew it. But the
true era of iron began in Ancient
Rome. The Romans had made the
metallurgy of iron into one of the
pillars of their civilization. In Rome
the iron-workers and blacksmiths
who made weapons were part of
the army. When they enrolled in
the military service they would be
branded; they were not allowed to
leave for long the places where the
mines or smithies were located;
upon retirement they received the
same honors as military servicemen.
Notwithstanding the scale of iron
production in the Roman Empire
the Romans failed to win the fame
of being the most skilled weapons
makers. In those times the best
weapons-grade steel was produced
along the Ganges River. Ancient
Persian merchants even had a saying
of ‘it’s silly, like travelling to India
to sell steel’, which was a reflection
on its quality. Obviously, they
were referring to what is known
as the famous Damascus steel, an
ancient grade of extra strong steel.
The secret for its production was
lost in the Middle Ages and then
rediscovered in the XIX th century by
the renowned Russian metallurgist
P. Anosov.
One of the most significant
discoveries in the metallurgy of steel
happened in the middle of the first
millennium B.C. in China. Primitive
crucibles made of bloomery iron
were used for smelting a new
variety of high-carbon iron alloy, the