Metallurgy for the

Non Metallurgist
Lesson 1
A History of Metals
October 02, 2008

Richard Boswell, P.E.

Mechanical Engineer
Blacksmith

A History of Metals

Upon completion of the lesson, we will be

able to:
Summarize the history of metallurgy from ancient
to modern times.
Define metal, ore, alloy, refining and smelting.
Outline the relative availability of specific metals.

Our Reference
Document for this
class
ASM Course 0135
Lesson 1

Terminology

Metal a mineral or compound naturally occurring near the Earth

surface and is sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions
surrounded by a cloud of delocalized electrons. An element that
readily loses electrons to form positive ions (cations) and forms
metallic bonds between other metal atoms

Ore a volume of rock containing components or minerals that

have economic value

Alloy combination of metals by melting (naturally or intended)

Refining selective removal of metal from ore

Smelting extracting metal from ore by heating

4

History of Metals

What is a metal?
Opaque, lustrous element that is a good conductor
of electricity and heat and a good reflector of light
when polished.
Crystalline in the solid state
Solid at ambient temperatures
o

Except for Mercury

Polished low alloy steel showing light reflection

History of Metals

Ancient Metals
Most metals naturally occur as minerals or
compounds
Ancient man used Gold, Silver or Copper because
they naturally existed in the form of metals
Copper ore reduction from copper sulfides
(covellite and malachite) began between 4000 and
3000 B.C.
Two important ancient discoveries..
o

Metal could be obtained from ores by heating

Strength could be increased by hammering

History of Metals

Bronze Age
Addition of tin to copper to form bronze
o

~ 88% Cu -12% Sn

By 3000 B. C. ancient metallurgists had learned to

intentionally mix ores of copper and tin to produce
bronze, similar to todays composition.

Metals of Antiquity
The metals upon which civilization was based. These seven metals
were:
(1) Gold 6000 BC
(2) Copper 4200 BC
(3) Silver 4000 BC
(4) Lead 3500 BC
(5) Tin -1750 BC
(6) Iron, smelted -1500 BC
(7) Mercury 750 BC
These metals were known to the Mesopotamians, Egyptians,
Greeks and the Romans. Of the seven metals, five can be found
in their native states, e.g., gold, silver, copper, iron (from
meteors) and mercury.

T
I
M
E
L
I
N
E

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Time-Life
Books
Emergence of
Man
The
Metalsmiths
1974
Fifth Century B.C.
Smiths forging
sickle at La Tene
in Lower Austria
11

Smiths
forge at
La Tene in
Lower
Austria
was used
2500
years ago

12

Celtic tools from

La Tene were used
2500 years ago

13

Technology Distribution Part 1

Celtic Iron Age technology is commonly considered to begin around 1000 B.C. and
lasting through 100 A.D. in Celtic Britain and ended with the arrival of Roman
influence.

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The Advent of Iron in Celtic Briton

The use of iron had amazing repercussions.

First, it changed trade and fostered local
independence.
Trade was essential during the Bronze Age,
for not every area was naturally endowed
with the necessary ores to make bronze.
Iron, on the other hand, was relatively cheap
and available almost everywhere.

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And then..more technology distribution

.and removal

Roman influence shaped the world until

the Barbarian invasions changed it again,
and again

Goths
Huns
Vandals
Viking
(Crusades)
Mongols

In England the Viking Age began

dramatically on January 6, 793 when
Norsemen destroyed the abbey on
Lindisfarne, a center of learning famous
across the continent.

The Vikings who invaded western and

eastern Europe were chiefly from
Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also
settled the Faroe Islands, Iceland,
Greenland and (briefly) North America.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/bog_iron.htm

16

Old World
Metal Centers
date to 9500
B.C. and were
either sources
or
manufacturing
sites.

17

King Tut
funeral
mask of
beaten
gold.
1343 B.C.

18

Gold,
Silver, and
Electrum
(natural
alloy of
gold and
silver)

19

Multicolored Copper
Components of Bronze (Copper and Tin)

20

Iron,
a metal for the
Masses is
second most
common metal.
Early sources
were meteoric
forms before
smelting
mastered in
1200 B.C.
21

Smelting is Extraction of Metal from Ore

Smelting is Extraction of Metal from Ore

Gold already pure in nature and not extracted

Silver and Lead 4000 B.C.
Tin 3000 B.C.
Iron 2700 B.C.

Requires a very hot fire

Technology borrowed from Ceramic/Pottery Crafts?
Charcoal for fuel
Air is blown into the fire
22

Common Issues
These seven metals: gold, silver, copper, lead, tin,
mercury and iron, and the alloys bronze and electrum
were the starting point of metallurgy and even in this
simple, historic account we find some of the basic
problems of process metallurgy. The problems are:

The ores must be found, separated and sized before

use. The ores must be reacted under a controlled
temperature and gas atmosphere.
The liquid metal must be collected and cast into a
desired shape.
The metal must be worked to achieve desired final
properties and shape.
23

History of Discovery
Before 1700 there were 12
metals in common use:

Gold
Silver
Copper
Lead
Mercury
Iron
Tin
Platinum
Antimony
Bismuth
Zinc
Arsenic

12 Metals Discovered in 18th

Century:

Before 1805 all metals were reduced by either carbon or hydrogen

1735 Cobalt
1751 Nickel
1774 Manganese
1781 Molybdenum
1782 Tellurium
1783 Tungsten
1789 Uranium
1789 Zirconium
1791 Titanium
1794 Yttrium
1797 Berylium
1797 Chromium
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42 METALS DISCOVERED IN 19th

CENTURY

1801 Niobium
1802 Tantalum
1803 Iridium,
Palladium, Rhodium
1807 Potassium,
Sodium
1808 Boron, Barium,
Calcium, Magnesium,
Strontium
1814 Cerium
1817 Lithium,
Cadmium, Selenium
1823 Silicon
1827 Aluminum
1828 Thorium
1830 Vanadium
1839 Lanthanum

1843 Erbium, Terbium

1844 Ruthenium
1860 Cesium, Rubidium
1861 Thallium
1863 Indium
1875 Gallium
1878-1885 Holmium, Thulium,
Scandium, Samarium,
Gadalinium,Praseodynium,
Neodynium, Dysprosium
1886 Germanium
1898 Polonium, Radium
1899 Actinium

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20 METALS DISCOVERED IN 20th

CENTURY

1901 Europium
1907 Lutetium
1917 Protactinium
1923 Hafnium
1924 Rhenium
1937 Technetium
1939 Francium
1945 Promethium
1940-61Transuranium
elements
Neptunium
Plutonium
Curium
Americum
Berkelium

Californium
Einsteinium
Fermium
Mendelevium
Nobelium
Lawrencium

26

Civilizations and Eras defined by their

Material Technology

Stone Age
Copper Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Dark Ages
Medieval Ages
Modern Metal
Age consists of
many overlapping
Technical Ages
after 1300

Age of Steel
Petroleum Age
Industrial Age
Age of Flight
Space Age -Sputnik
Nuclear Age
Computer Age
Composite Material Age
Nano Tech Age
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Green Age ?

Design Technology Change form

Compression to Tension

With the Industrial Revolution in the

19th century, truss systems of
wrought iron were developed for
larger bridges, but iron did not have
the tensile strength to support large
loads. With the advent of steel,
which has a high tensile strength,
much larger bridges were built,
many using the ideas of Gustave
Eiffel.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the

International Exhibition of Paris of
1889
Riveted lattice wind resistant design

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever

railway bridge over the Firth of
Forth in the east of Scotland
opened in 1890
28

Technologies Fade Away

Blacksmith
Essential skills for 12,000 years
Industrial Age made the skill obsolete around 1930
Smiths migrated into towns and were absorbed by other
industries such as large industrial forge shops and auto
repair garages

Metallurgy and Materials

Essential skills for 500 years
Tomorrow? Will Green Age and composite materials render
metallurgy obsolete?

Will natural and/or man-made disaster erase todays

centers of learning and manufacture?
29

Georgius Agricola (1494-1555)

Georg Bauer, better known by the Latin version of his name Georgius Agricola,
is considered the founder of geology as a discipline.

He died in 1555, one year before the posthumous publication of De Re

Metallica, his greatest work.

De Re Metallica (Latin for On the Nature of Metals (Minerals)) is a book

cataloging the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals,
published in 1556.

The publication was delayed until the completion of the extensive and detailed
woodcuts.

He describes the method of breaking hard rocks using fire-setting, which

involved making a fire against a rock-face, and then quenching the rock with
water to induce cracking by thermal shock.

In 1912, the first English translation of De Re Metallica was privately published

in London by subscription. The translators were Herbert Hoover, a mining
engineer (and later President of the United States), and his wife, Lou Henry
Hoover, a geologist and Latinist.
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Bronze Age Weapons

31

Coins

Romans exported coin technology to

Celtic Britton.
Currency evolved from two basic
innovations: the use of counters to
assure that shipments arrived with the
same goods that were shipped, and
later with the use of silver ingots to
represent stored value in the form of
grain.
Both of these developments had
occurred by 2000 BC.
Originally money was a form of
receipting grain stored in temple
granaries in ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia.

A Roman denarius, a standardized

silver coin.

KINGS of Lydia Electrum coin.

Early 6th century BC.

Gold 20-stater of Eucratides I ( reigned 171145 BC),

the largest gold coin ever minted in Antiquity
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Celtic Metal Art

La Tne culture developed and

flourished during the late Iron
Age (from 450 BCE to the
Roman conquest in the 1st
century BCE) in eastern France,
Switzerland, Austria, southwest
Germany, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Hungary.

Celtic art in the Middle Ages

was practiced by the Celtic
speaking people of Ireland and
Britain in the 800 year period
from the Roman withdrawal
from Britain in the 5th century,
to the establishment of
Romanesque art in the 12th
century

33

Bronze nails, found in

Egypt, have been dated
3400 BC.

Nails

In 1959 during excavation

of the legionary fortress at
Inchtuthil near Dunkeld,
archaeologists uncovered a
singularly remarkable haul
of a single kind of Roman
artifact from around 83 - 87
AD.
Roman nail

Located in a twelve foot

deep pit below the beaten
earth floor of the workshop
- the Fabrica- was a
remarkable hoard of nails,
over eight hundred
thousand in number, many
in a remarkable state of
preservation.
Pig iron was commonly
imported into Roman Britain
from iron producing areas
of the empire- notably lower
Germany- in small man
hand-able billets.

found in Wales
19th Century "Square" Nails

An original 7" (180mm) long Roman nail found in Scotland

Replica of the hand made nails found on board the 'Mary Rose Tudor flag ship of Henry VIII built in 1509

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Viking Swords and Utensils

Viking Age is the

term denoting the
years from about 700
to 1066 in European
history.
Viking society was
based on agriculture
and trade with other
peoples.
They acquired
technology from
around the world.
Metal crafts in
Scandinavia were of
a very high standard
as regards the
execution and craft
skills.
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History of Metals

Iron Smelting
Iron production began in Anatolia in 2000 B.C.
Iron production well established by 1000 B.C.
Widely available sources of charcoal (from wood)
and iron ore caused iron production to spread
widely (in China) by 500 B.C.
Intentional reduction of iron oxide ore using
charcoal (from wood) was widespread in Egypt by
1500 B. C.
Egyptians were tempering iron by 900 B.C.

36

History of Metals

Iron Smelting
Requires higher temperatures than for lead.
Involves oxide reduction using carbon in the form
of charcoal or coke to reduce iron oxide to iron,
forming carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
o

Carbon serves two purposes

Reduction agent
Fuel
Early furnaces used either natural draft air or forced air.

37

History of Metals

Iron smelting (hearth processes)

Early iron process were variations of closed-pit
or hearth furnaces:
Used charcoal embedded in iron ore to reduce ore
to iron.
Incorporated various air blowing techniques to
make a hot fire.
o

Natural draft and forced draft.

38

Revolutionary Furnace
-1200 B.C. for Egyptian
copper smelting in
Timna in the Negev
Desert

39

Making Charcoal recent technology

method

Air flow in and out of the mud encased pile was controlled and
limited for a slow oxygen starved burn to refine the wood into high
carbon charcoal.

40

History of Metals

Iron Smelting (hearth processes)

Early product of smelting was wrought iron.
o

Soft, spongy, ductile, low carbon, malleable.

If carbon absorbed, the iron was somewhat harder

than low carbon wrought iron.
Quenching to form a hard iron discovered early.

41

History of Metals

Iron smelting (hearth processes)

In all furnaces iron oxide was reduced to iron.
Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide formed.
Product was sponge iron.
o

High in carbon, silicon, phosphorous, manganese.

If sponge iron kept in contact with the charcoal, it

would absorb carbon
o

Good or bad?

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History of Metals

Iron Smelting
Modern basic reduced iron is termed pig iron.
o

Contains significant quantities of carbon, sulfur and

phosphorus.
Carbon = 3.5% - 4.25%
Silicon = 1.25% - 1.25%
Manganese = 0.90% - 2.50%
Sulfur = 0.04% - 0.04%
Iron = Balance

43

History of Metals

Pig iron vs. wrought iron

Wrought iron is ductile
Pig iron is brittle
o

What element causes the difference?

44

Laminating Iron without melting it

1000 B.C.

45

Laminating Iron without melting it

1000 B.C.

46

Afgan Silversmith
using historic
technology today

47

Iranian
Coppersmith
using historic
technology
today

48

Afgan Iron
Making
using
historic
technology
today for
plowshares

49

Goldworking in
ancient America
2000 years
before Columbus

50

Peru was a
center of
metal
working for
Copper and
Gold using
hammered
sheets before
the Aztecs

51

Medieval Smithing in Europe

52

German
Smithing
shown in
1500 A.D.
woodcuts
from
"De Re
Metallicus"
by Agricola

53

Smithing in 1500's, from a Flemish woodcut

54

From "the Boy's Book

of Trades", 1888

55

Colonial Firearms and Artillery

56

Colonial
Kitchen Tools
and all
Hardware for
the Home,
Barn, and
Equipment

57

Colonial Smithing at Sturbridge Village

58

Colonial Smithing at Williamsburg

59

Colonial Smelting Furnace West Virginia

Small, workable iron veins were
discovered in many areas of West
Virginia, and small furnaces were set
up at these spots for smelting the ore
and manufacturing bar iron for the
pioneer blacksmiths.
Start of Operation: 1836
Blowout: 1847
Daily Tonnage: 4 tons
Built By: Leonard Lamb
for Tassey & Bissel
Stack: ?
Blast: Cold
Type: Charcoal
Located in Cooper's Rock State
Forest just east of Morgantown, West
Virginia

60

Blast Furnace Operation

From 1760 to the 1880s,

charcoal fires heated to
temperatures of up to 3,000
degrees with the aid of
water- or steam-powered
fans converted locally
mined ore into iron in at
least 25 locations. Most of
the state's iron furnaces
were found in the
northeastern counties,
where veins containing iron
nodules are relatively
common.

West Virginia's handful of

furnace operators decided
the effort of building
furnaces and producing the
charcoal and ore needed to
make iron was a better
bargain than paying the
high cost of freighting bar
iron or pig iron from existing
furnaces east of the Blue
Ridge.

West Virginia iron was used to make everything

from stoves to nails and any number of tools,
cooking utensils and household items that could
be produced by pioneer blacksmiths.

West Virginia furnaces were also credited with

producing the cannonballs used by Commodore
Oliver H. Perry to defeat a squadron of six
British vessels in the Battle of Lake Erie during
the War of 1812.

61

Tannehill Ironworks near Birmingham

before Civil War
Trees on the hillsides were felled to be made
into charcoal that fed the huge blast furnaces.
Roupes Creek and a mighty steam engine
powered the blowing machines to heat the
fires that melted ore to be formed into "pigs" of
iron which, in turn, formed the tools of war for
the Confederacy. At the height of production
Tannehill could turn out 22 tons of iron a day.
The iron was cast into ordnance, skillets, pots
and ovens for the Southern army.
On March 31, 1865, it all ended in fire and
destruction. Three companies of the Eighth
Iowa Cavalry swept through the area as a part
of Union General James H. Wilson's raid on
Alabama war industry sites. Smoke rose from
the charred remains of the ironworks and
cabins that housed 500 workers. At day's end
the furnaces were no longer operational, and
the foundry, tannery, gristmill, and tax-in-kind
warehouse were in ruins.
62

Tannehill Museum

63

Steel Making begins in Birmingham 1897

64

Sloss Furnaces
fueled by Coal
in Birmingham,
Alabama

65

Sloss Furnaces
once fueled by
Coal are silent
today

66

Vulcan
on Red Mountain in
Birmingham

67

Blacksmithing Survives and Thrives

www.habairon.org

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