Page 33 - Best of STIL 2018 English

ice-age era” (Holocene) into the copper, bronze and iron ages. In other words, an entire period of human history is named after the material used to make steel, and, strictly speaking, we are still living in this period today. Iron and steel accelerated the speed of progress and became synonymous with the advanced development of a civilization – de- velopments in which these materials played a key role. And this was not only true during the dark ages, but also increasingly as part of industrializa- tion from the 18th and 19th centuries onwards.
These developments, however, were by no means concurrent across the globe and did not proceed at the same pace. The Chinese learned to smelt and cast iron as far back as 2,500 years ago, mastering iron casting some 2,000 years earlier than Europe- ans. The 1,600-year-old Ashoka Pillar in India still puzzles researchers to this day: It simply refuses to rust. The over seven-meter tall and six-and-a-half ton iron pillar was cast with almost pure iron and is cloaked in a protective coating which prevents corrosion of any kind. It’s unclear how this rust protection was created and whether it was by accident or design. There is no doubt that there is high proportion of phosphorus in the pillar’s iron, which could be responsible for preventing cor- rosion thanks to its reaction with the oxygen and humidity in the air. The size and production of the column alone pay testament to the craftsmanship of ancient Indian smiths in producing and pro- cessing iron – the column was clearly forged from multiple hollows.
Steel was produced as a product of coincidence by the charcoal in the bloomery
People have been smelting iron for 5,000 years in Mesopotamia, while this tradition only dates back around 2,700 years in Europe. The bloomery pro- cess has been well known in this context since that era: Crushed iron ore was heated in a clay or stone furnace using wood or charcoal. Forgeable steel of varying carbon content was created when the iron combined with the carbon from the charcoal in the bloomery.
Differeent civilizations have long been familiar with steel and its uses, such as the Hittites in Asia Minor, for instance, working with the material from around 1500 BC. Many cultures in West Af- rica also understood how to produce high-carbon steel. The myths of the Buhaya people, who lived in today’s Tanzania, also indicate the use of iron before our time.
Metal became essential for the modernization and expansion of civilization – as well as for suc- cessful military campaigns. A Roman legion need- ed more than 30 tons of pig iron in order to equip each of the 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers with a helmet, armor and a gladius. This short sword was clearly a superior weapon at the time. The Greek historian Polybios chronicled the Romans’ battles in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC in Gaul and reported that
Several Nordic legends tell the story of Wayland the Smith. In most of them, he is believed to have learned his craft from dwarfs.
Gaulish fighters had to bend their swords back into shape after every blow during combat to be able to fight again.
And it was not just on the battlefield where iron production supplied tools that were harder than their copper or bronze predecessors – it was also essential for tools used to clear forests and estab- lish agriculture. Construction and transport sys- tems also benefited thanks to nails, wheel spokes, horse shoes, chisels for stone working and much more besides.
As the reduced iron from the bloomery was combined with slag and had inclusions, early European blacksmiths worked the material with
The hammer, anvil and tongues have been the typical tools of a black- smith for many centuries.
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Photos: alamy, adobestock© Volodymyr Kaushan