408 Era witen Brass was used [Dec. 



4. When Ceesar landed in Britain, all the nations of Europe 

 enjoyed the advantages which arise from the use of steel ; and 

 the britons had iron works of their own. It is probable too that 

 the Egyptians or Phoenicians had made mercantile voyages to 

 their country, more than sixteen centuries before that time 

 That it was known to the Phoenicians in the time of Homer, his 

 accounts of amber and tin are unquestionable evidence. And 

 there can be no doubt, but that the Greeks and Romans fre- 

 quented it commonly ever after the destruction of Carthage, if 

 not sooner: Pliny indeed says, this country was in his time, 

 " Clara Graecis nostrisque monumentis," and he wrote before 

 the Romans were extensively settled in the country.* And 

 besides their knowledge of iron, and their long intercourse with 

 foreign and civilized nations, their old estabhshed tin trade is a 

 proof that they had been accustomed to work in mines for 

 numerous ages ; and there is no account that implements of 

 bronze are more abundantly found in the old mines and rubbish 

 heaps of the tin districts, than in those parts of the country 

 which are destitute of all sorts of mines. 



5. If xoX^yjyij cnOYipsii signify welding of iron, then we have a 

 proof that malleable iron was in use at the time of Alyattes, 

 king of Lydia.f Perhaps the different sorts of iron which Pliny 

 calls Strictiircdj received their name from their being malleable, 

 ** a stringendo acie," from binding the edge, i. e. from having the 

 property of welding, *^ quod non in ahis metaUis.'' The sen- 

 tence, " mollior complexus (i.e. ferri) in nostro orbe," probably 

 alludes to the same property. But though two pieces of com- 

 mon iron, or a piece of iron and steel, by using siHceous sand, 

 imite at a white heat more readily than two pieces of steel ; yet 

 very highly cemented steel may be readily and very perfectly 

 welded by using finely powdered potter's clay instead of sand : 

 and the ancients were acquainted with this process, as appears 

 from Pliny, for in describmg the solders used for different sorts 

 of metals he says, " argilla ferro.'' 



Conclusions respecting Bronze, Brass, S^c, 



1. Before the flood, Tubal-Cain (i. e. the possessor of the 

 earth), was '' an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." 



• Plautus, in A. 1). 43, wa.s the first of the Romans after Caesar, who came into Bri- 

 tain as an invader, and Pliny died 3b years after that time. 



-f Alyattes, a king of I^ydia, who died 562 years before Christ, made an offering at 

 Delphi of " a silver cup, with a stand for it, made of iron welded together. It was as 

 worthy of observation as any of the things at Delphi. It was the work of Glaucus the 

 Chian who first of all found out the metho<l of welding iron." (ai^piH xiKKricrn) " The 

 joinings of this stand were not made with clasps or rivets, but welding was the only fast- 

 ening. In form it nearly resembles a tower rising from a broader base into a narrow 

 top. Its sides are not wholly continuous, but consist of transverse zones of iron, like 

 the steps in a ladder. Straiji^ht and ductile plates of iron diverge from the top of each 

 bar to the extremity." This stand was the only offering, made by the Lydian kings, 

 which remained at Delphi in the time of Pausanias. (Herod, Clio. 25. Pans. Phoc 

 c. xvi. sec. I ) 



