s not
preclude the supposition that iron was then comparatively plentiful,
though it is probable that it was confined to the ruder arts of life.
A knowledge of the mixture of copper, tin, and zinc, seems to have been
among the first discoveries of the metallurgist. Instruments
fabricated from these alloys, recommended by the use of ages, the
perfection of the art, the splendour and polish of their surfaces, not
easily injured by time and weather, would not soon be superseded by the
invention of simple iron, inferior in edge and polish, at all times
easily injured by rust, and in the early stages of its manufacture
converted with difficulty into forms that required proportion or
elegance."--(Papers on Iron and Steel, 365-6.) By some secret method
that has been lost, perhaps because no longer needed since the
invention of steel, the ancients manufactured bronze tools capable of
taking a fine edge. In our own time, Chantrey the sculptor, in his
reverence for classic metallurgy, had a bronze razor made with which he
martyred himself in shaving; but none were found so hardy and devoted
as to follow his example.

[5] It may be mentioned in passing, that while Zinc is fusible at 3
degrees of Wedgwood's pyrometer, Silver at 22 degrees, Copper at 27
degrees, and Gold at 32 degrees, Cast Iron is only fusible at 130
degrees. Tin (one of the constituents of the ancient bronze) and Lead
are fusible at much lower degrees than zinc.

[6] The Romans named the other metals after the gods. Thus Quicksilver
was called Mercury, Lead Saturn, Tin Jupiter, Copper Venus, Silver
Luna, and so on; and our own language has received a colouring from the
Roman nomenclature, which it continues to retain.

[7] I. Samuel xiii. 19, 20.

[8] II. Kings xxiv. 16.

[9] Papers on Iron and Steel, 363-4.

[10] Dr. Livingstone brought with him to England a piece of the Zambesi
iron, which he sent to a skilled Birmingham blacksmith to test. The
result was, that he pronounced the metal as strongly resembling Swedish
or Russian; both of which kinds are smelted with charcoal. The African
iron was found "highly carbonized," and "when chilled it possessed the
properties of steel."

[11] HOLINSHED, i. 517. Iron was also the currency of the Spartans,
but it has been used as such in much more recent times. Adam Smith, in
his Wealth of Nations (Book I. ch. 4, published in 1776), says, "there
is at this day a village in Scotland where it is not uncommon,