696 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Bronze, the alloy of copper and tin was the Egyptian's tool-steel, 

 his cast and wrought iron — in short, all that iron and steel are to the 

 American. Just when he discovered the effect of tin on copper there is 

 no means of knowing, but certain it is that many centuries have passed 

 since he came into the possession of the secret. 



The presence of flint tools only, in the deserted mining camp in 

 Wadi Maghara can not be used as an argument that bronze and iron 

 tools were not then in use, for they are mentioned in inscriptions, pic- 

 tured in paintings and sculptures and are found in tombs belonging 

 to a period many centuries before the abandonment of the mines. In the 

 time of Herodotus the Egyptians used both stone and metal cutting 

 instruments. The use of bronze is mentioned in inscriptions antedating 

 the Great Pyramids. Of the work of the first three dynasties, Eawlin- 

 son says : ' A metallurgy of no small merit must have formed and hard- 

 ened the implements whereby materials such as those employed by the 

 Egyptian builders and sculptors were worked with ease and freedom.' 



Possibly the oldest piece of cast bronze whose age has been estab- 

 lished is a knob from the scepter of Papi, a Pharaoh of the sixth 

 dynasty (about 2500 B.C.). This and other bronzes of very great an- 

 tiquity are in the British Museum. The Posno collection in the Louvre 

 contains two statues which are believed by Perrot and Chapiez to date 

 from the close of the Old Empire or the beginning of the Middle Empire 

 (about 2300-2000 B.C.), but Erman says they are 'archaistic works of 

 the twenty-sixth dynasty (about 650-525 B.C.). They are light, hollow 

 and cast in one piece. The eyes and eyebrows were made of precious 

 stones inlaid in the bronze. The technical skill and workmanship 

 displayed are said to be extraordinary. A hollow cast statue of Ramses 

 II., of excellent design and skilful workmanship, dates from about 

 1300 B.C. 



In the inscriptions, several kinds of bronze are spoken of again and 

 again, as, for example, ' bronze,' ' bronze in the combination of six ' 

 and ' black bronze.' These varieties contain the constituent metals in 

 different proportions. A very common bronze, used for a variety of 

 purposes, contains copper 85 per cent., tin 15 per cent.; another com- 

 mon bronze has the composition: copper 88 per cent., tin 12 per cent. 

 A bronze used for weapons and cutting instruments is found by analysis 

 to contain copper 94 per cent., tin 5.9 per cent, and iron .1 per cent. 

 Without the iron, this would be the softest of the three, but the iron 

 probably compensates for the lower percentage of tin. It is evident 

 that the use to which the alloy was to be put determined the proportion 

 in which the metals should be combined. This fact supports the belief 

 that from very early times the metal workers used metallic tin in the 

 manufacture of bronze, and, therefore, that they were familiar with the 

 separation of tin from its ores. Bronze weapons of the composition 

 mentioned above, were so skilfully tempered that, after the lapse of 



