[806] In regard to the hardening of iron and the quenching of it in
water, nothing, as far as I know, occurs in the Hebrew text of the
Scriptures. The passages where it seems to be mentioned are, Isaiah,
chap. xliv. ver. 12. “The smith bends the iron, works it in a fire of
coals, and forms it with the hammer; he labours on it with a strong
arm,” &c. according to the translation of Michaelis. It may indeed be
translated otherwise, but it certainly alludes to the formation of an
image of metal. The words, chap. liv. ver. 16, are still more general.
Iron, _barzel_, often occurs, and in some passages indeed steel may be
understood under this name; for example, in Ezekiel, chap. xxvii. ver.
19, _ferrum fabrefactum_, or, according to Michaelis and others, sabre
blades from Usal (Sanaa in Yemen). A pretty clear indication of steel
is given in Jeremiah, chap. xv. ver. 12: “Iron from the north,” which
is described there as the hardest. To the north of Judæa was situated
Chalybia, the ancient country of steel. It appears that the Hebrews had
no particular name for steel, which they perhaps comprehended under
the term _barzel_, or distinguished it only by the epithet Northern,
especially as the later Jews have for it no other name than אסטמא,
_istoma_, which however is nothing else than the Greek στόμωμα, and
signifies rather steeling or hardening.
_Chalamisch_ is certainly a hard kind of stone; granite or porphyry,
according to Michaelis, who treats expressly of it in Supplem. ad Lex.
Hebr. N. 740.
[807] Scutum Herculis, x. 137.
[808] Chap. xxi. ver. 11, 18, 19.
[809] Lib. xxxiv. sect. 41. p. 666. “Stricturæ vocantur hæ omnes,
quod non in aliis metallis a stringenda acie vocabulo imposito. Et
fornacum maxima differentia est; nucleus quidem ferri excoquitur in
his ad indurandam aciem; aliquæ modo ad densandas incudes, malleorumve
rostra.” According to my opinion, _stricturæ_ was the name given to
pieces of steel completely manufactured and brought to that state which
rendered them fit for commerce. At present steel comes from Biscay in
cakes, from other places in bars, and both these formerly were called
_stricturæ_, because they were employed chiefly for giving sharpness
to instruments or tools, that is, for steeling them. In speaking of
other metals, Pliny says that the finished productions at the works
were not called _stricturæ_ (this was the case, for example, with
copper), though sharpness could be given to instruments with other
metals also. The words of Pliny last quoted are read different ways,
and still remain obscure. I conjecture that he meant to say that some
steel works produced things which were entirely of steel, and that
others were employed only in steeling. I shall here remark that the
_stricturæ ferri_ remind us of the _strigiles auri_: such was the name
given to native pieces of gold, which without being smelted were used
in commerce.--Plin. xxxiii. 3. p. 616.
[810] See Vossii Etymol. and Martinii Lex. Philolog.
[811] Institut. Chimiæ, p. 252. He refers to lib. xxxiii. cap. 4.
[812] In my observations on Aristot. Auscult. Mirab. cap. 49.
[813] Diod. lib. v. cap. 33.
[814] Plut. de Garrul.
[815] De Ferro, i. p. 194. See also Watson’s Chem. Essays, i. p. 220.
Of the iron works in Japan I know nothing further than what has been
said by Thunberg in his Travels. That country possesses very little of
this metal: but the sabres made there are incomparable; without hurting
the edge one can easily cut through a nail with them; and, as the
Japanese say, cleave asunder a man at one blow. These sabres are often
sold for fifty, seventy, and even a hundred dollars.
[816] Lord Bacon seems not to have been of this opinion; see his Silva
Silvarum, cent. i. § 86. But this method of hardening was usual in
the eleventh or twelfth century; for it is described by Theophilus
Presbyter, lib. iii. cap. 19.
[817] Odyss. ix. 391.
[818] Ajax, 720.
[819] Exercitat. Plin. p. 763.
[820] Lib. xxxiv. 14, p. 666.
[821] Lib. xliv. p. 620.
[822] [There can be no question that the hardening or tempering effect
produced by the sudden immersion of heated steel in fluids has no
relation to the quality of the fluid, save as regards its conducting
power of heat. The more suddenly the heat is abstracted from the metal,
the greater is the amount of hardness and brittleness. Mercury has been
found superior to any other fluid for this purpose, undoubtedly because
it is so good a conductor of heat.]
[823] Le Vite de Pittori. Bologna, 1681, 4to, i. p. 11.
[824] Some account of this artist is given in J. C. Bulengeri de
Pictura, lib. ii. cap. 7, in Gronovii Thesaurus Antiq. Græc. ix. p.
875. On the other hand, Sturm says, in that part of the Ritterplatzes
which relates to architecture, p. 18: “An archduke at Florence
discovered again the art of working porphyry, but suffered it to die
with him in the year 1556.”
[825] Florillo Gesch. der Zeichnenden Künste, 8vo, i. p. 461.
[826] Art de convertir le Fer en Acier, p. 245.
[827] Stephanus de Urbibus, under the word Λακεδαίμων, p. 413.
[828] Clemens Alexandr. in Pædagog. ii. p. 161, edit. Cologne, 1688,
fol. says, speaking of luxury, “One can cut meat without having Indian
iron.”
[829] Philos. Transact. 1795, ii. p. 322.
[830] [The manner in which iron ore is smelted and converted into wootz
or Indian steel, by the natives at the present day, is probably the
very same that was practised by them at the time of the invasion of
Alexander; and it is a uniform process, from the Himalaya Mountains to
Cape Comorin. The furnace or bloomery in which the ore is smelted, is
from four to five feet high; it is somewhat pear-shaped, being about
two feet wide at bottom and one foot at top; it is built entirely of
clay, so that a couple of men may finish its erection in a few hours,
and have it ready for use the next day. There is an opening in front
about a foot or more in height, which is built up with clay at the
commencement, and broken down at the end, of each smelting operation.
The bellows are usually made of a goat’s skin, which has been stripped
from the animal without ripping open the part covering the belly. The
apertures at the legs are tied up, and a nozzle of bamboo is fastened
in the opening formed by the neck. The orifice of the tail is enlarged
and distended by two slips of bamboo. These are grasped in the hand,
and kept close together in making the stroke for the blast; in the
returning stroke they are separated to admit the air. By working
a bellows of this kind with each hand, making alternate strokes,
a tolerably uniform blast is produced. The bamboo nozzles of the
bellows are inserted into tubes of clay, which pass into the furnace
at the bottom corners of the temporary wall in front. The furnace is
filled with charcoal, and a lighted coal being introduced before the
nozzles, the mass in the interior is soon kindled. As soon as this is
accomplished, a small portion of the ore, previously moistened with
water, to prevent it from running through the charcoal, but without
any flux whatever, is laid on the top of the coals, and covered with
charcoal to fill up the furnace. In this manner ore and fuel are
supplied, and the bellows are urged for three or four hours, when the
process is stopped, and the temporary wall in front broken down; the
bloom is removed with a pair of tongs from the bottom of the furnace.
In converting the iron into steel, the natives cut it into pieces to
enable it to pack better in the crucible, which is formed of refractory
clay, mixed with a large quantity of charred husk of rice. It is seldom
charged with more than a pound of iron, which is put in with a proper
weight of dried wood, chopped small, and both are covered with one or
two green leaves; the proportions being in general ten parts of iron
to one of wood and leaves. The mouth of the crucible is then stopped
with a handful of tempered clay, rammed in very closely, to exclude the
air. As soon as the clay plugs of the crucibles are dry, from twenty
to twenty-four of them are built up in the form of an arch in a small
blast furnace; they are kept covered with charcoal, and subjected to
heat urged by a blast for about two hours and a half, when the process
is considered to be complete. The crucibles being now taken out of
the furnace and allowed to cool, are broken, and the steel is found
in the form of a cake, rounded by the bottom of the crucible.--Ure’s
Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures, art. STEEL.]