4 ms·

Who first decided to melt the rocks and get the iron?

defrost 3y ago
Somebody watching lava flows, slag, and wondering if they can recreate that heat. Metal work also started with softer easier to melt metals from much purer near surface veins and worked outwards toward harder less pure more deeply buried metals.
- pi-e-sigma 3y ago
  I think metal work started with gold. It naturally occurs in a 'ready for use' form of nuggets. You don't need to melt anything and nuggets are very soft and easy to form into any desirable shape. Most likely it's initial use was the jewelry because shiny!
  - defrost 3y ago
    Significant metal working and mining appears to have started at least 7,000 BCE with copper and lead - both (once) appear in surface | near surface deposits that can be chased back and are relatively easy to smash out and cold work when (near) 'pure'. Ready to work gold nuggets are what they are and are rarer to find. Metal work evolved with mining, chasing surface veins back, and this started in a significant way for first lead|copper, then tin, then other metals. There's a recognised pre Bronze "Copper Age", then Bronze, then Iron. Gold is shiny, beyond that it has a limited utility until the age of electronics; it's a bit soft for weapons or armour, a bit rare for sealing pipes, a bit non reactive for easy chemisty^H Alchemy, etc. Lot's of fun for decorations.
narag 3y ago
The moment men learned to make fire, be sure there was some guy there that put everything to the fire to see what happened. How do I know? I would have been that guy.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  We seem to have something in common!
- dgfitz 3y ago
  I recently had to “fix” my company-appointed laptop by opening it up and re-seating the battery. A co-worker made a comment: you’re not a software engineer, you’re a computer engineer. To which I replied: nah, I was just a kid who really liked taking things apart so I could learn how they worked.
otabdeveloper4 3y ago
The temperature required to melt iron ore is quite a bit more than anything you can get out of a conventional fire.
- defrost 3y ago
  This is why people char coal and make bloomery furnaces from clay | mud | etc.
  - otabdeveloper4 3y ago
    Yeah, but this is all firmly in the realm of "engineering", and not "throw stuff into the fire for the lols".
    - defrost 3y ago
      Sure; 4,500 year old "engineering" that evolved from playing around with fire and melting more and more things with higher and higher melting points. Who, aside from yourself, actually mentioned "throw stuff into the fire for the lols". ?
      - ramon156 3y ago
        > The moment men learned to make fire, be sure there was some guy there that put everything to the fire to see what happened.
  - tame3902 3y ago
    Nitpick: Bloomeries generally don't melt iron. They are just hot enough to reduce iron oxide to iron. Melting iron is a relatively young technology. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery): "Inside the furnace, carbon monoxide from the incomplete combustion of the charcoal reduces the iron oxides in the ore to metallic iron without melting the ore; this allows the bloomery to operate at lower temperatures than the melting temperature of the ore." and "As a bloomery's size is increased, the iron ore is exposed to burning charcoal for a longer time. When combined with the strong air blast required to penetrate the large ore and charcoal stack, this may cause part of the iron to melt and become saturated with carbon in the process, producing unforgeable pig iron, which requires oxidation to be reduced into cast iron, steel, and iron. This pig iron was considered a waste product detracting from the largest bloomeries' yield, and early blast furnaces, identical in construction, but dedicated to the production of molten iron, were not built until the 14th century."

Somebody watching lava flows, slag, and wondering if they can recreate that heat. Metal work also started with softer easier to melt metals from much purer near surface veins and worked outwards toward harder less pure more deeply buried metals.

pi-e-sigma 3y ago
I think metal work started with gold. It naturally occurs in a 'ready for use' form of nuggets. You don't need to melt anything and nuggets are very soft and easy to form into any desirable shape. Most likely it's initial use was the jewelry because shiny!
- defrost 3y ago
  Significant metal working and mining appears to have started at least 7,000 BCE with copper and lead - both (once) appear in surface | near surface deposits that can be chased back and are relatively easy to smash out and cold work when (near) 'pure'. Ready to work gold nuggets are what they are and are rarer to find. Metal work evolved with mining, chasing surface veins back, and this started in a significant way for first lead|copper, then tin, then other metals. There's a recognised pre Bronze "Copper Age", then Bronze, then Iron. Gold is shiny, beyond that it has a limited utility until the age of electronics; it's a bit soft for weapons or armour, a bit rare for sealing pipes, a bit non reactive for easy chemisty^H Alchemy, etc. Lot's of fun for decorations.

narag 3y ago

The moment men learned to make fire, be sure there was some guy there that put everything to the fire to see what happened. How do I know? I would have been that guy.

WalterBright 3y ago
We seem to have something in common!
dgfitz 3y ago
I recently had to “fix” my company-appointed laptop by opening it up and re-seating the battery. A co-worker made a comment: you’re not a software engineer, you’re a computer engineer. To which I replied: nah, I was just a kid who really liked taking things apart so I could learn how they worked.

otabdeveloper4 3y ago

The temperature required to melt iron ore is quite a bit more than anything you can get out of a conventional fire.

defrost 3y ago
This is why people char coal and make bloomery furnaces from clay | mud | etc.
- otabdeveloper4 3y ago
  Yeah, but this is all firmly in the realm of "engineering", and not "throw stuff into the fire for the lols".
  - defrost 3y ago
    Sure; 4,500 year old "engineering" that evolved from playing around with fire and melting more and more things with higher and higher melting points. Who, aside from yourself, actually mentioned "throw stuff into the fire for the lols". ?
    - ramon156 3y ago
      > The moment men learned to make fire, be sure there was some guy there that put everything to the fire to see what happened.
- tame3902 3y ago
  Nitpick: Bloomeries generally don't melt iron. They are just hot enough to reduce iron oxide to iron. Melting iron is a relatively young technology. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery): "Inside the furnace, carbon monoxide from the incomplete combustion of the charcoal reduces the iron oxides in the ore to metallic iron without melting the ore; this allows the bloomery to operate at lower temperatures than the melting temperature of the ore." and "As a bloomery's size is increased, the iron ore is exposed to burning charcoal for a longer time. When combined with the strong air blast required to penetrate the large ore and charcoal stack, this may cause part of the iron to melt and become saturated with carbon in the process, producing unforgeable pig iron, which requires oxidation to be reduced into cast iron, steel, and iron. This pig iron was considered a waste product detracting from the largest bloomeries' yield, and early blast furnaces, identical in construction, but dedicated to the production of molten iron, were not built until the 14th century."