88 Analyses of Ancient Alloys. 



which is best adapted for cutting-instruments ; whilst others 

 shape it into instruments of common use, such as hammers 

 and anvils ; but that seasoning is the most important and 

 delicate part of the operation. " It is a remarkable fact that, 

 in the treatment of this mineral, the metal in melting is at 

 first as liquid as the most limpid water, but becomes spongy 

 in getting cold.'' * 



From the extracts already quoted, it will be seen that the 

 information which has come down to us relative to the me- 

 tallurgy of the early ages, is both vague and, to some extent, 

 uncertain ; as those who describe the materials and methods 

 employed, have themselves acquired their information from 

 others, and were therefore more subject to commit errors, 

 than if practically acquainted with the subject of which they 

 treated. This circumstance has induced me to believe that 

 a careful analytical examination of such productions of the 

 early metallurgists, as have been discovered in different lo- 

 calities, would not be without interest, and I have therefore 

 undertaken the following series of analyses. 



II. Analyses of Ancient Alloys. 



A. 



Coins struck prior to the Christian Era. 



Commerce in remote antiquity, was carried on by means of the 

 mere exchange of commodities ; and it is remarkable, that through- 

 out the more ancient books of Scripture, as well as in the poems of 

 Homer, no passage occurs from which it can be inferred, that 

 stamped money was then in circulation, although mention is re- 

 peatedly made of purchases being effected through the medium of 

 the metals, which, for that purpose, were estimated by the balance. 

 Herodotus (I, 94) speaks of the Lydians as the first who coined gold 

 and silver into money. The Parian Chronicle, however, ascribes 

 the origin of coined money to the iEginetans under Phidon, King of 

 Argos, who reigned 896 years before the Christian era.f ^lian, 



* Iron in Pliny's time was doubtless made by tiie direct, or Catalan process, 

 and the spongy appearance above described must have arisen, not from its cool- 

 ing, as he seems to suppose, but from combustion of the combined carbon, and 

 the consequent conversion of the compound into malleable iron. 



t This chronicle, as it is called, consists of a series of Greek inscriptions 

 cut in Parian marble. It was discovered in the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century in the island of Pharos, one of the Oyclades, and was bought and 

 brought to England by the celebrated Thomas, Earl of Arundel. It is proved 



