ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 35 



mechanical knowledge. The Romans, though they did not com- 

 monly use such large stones in their own constructions^ carried oft" the 

 largest obelisks from Egypt and erected them at Rome, where more 

 are now to be found than remain in Egypt. 



It has sometimes been questioned whether the Egyptians had a 

 knowledge of steel. It seems unreasonable to deny them this knowl- 

 edge. Iron was known at the earliest times of which we have any 

 record. It is often mentioned in the Bible, and in Homer; it is 

 shown in the early paintings on the walls of the tombs at Thebes ; it 

 has been found in quantity in the ruined palaces of Assyria; and in 

 the inscriptions of that country fetters are spoken of as having been 

 made of iron, which is also so mentioned in connection with other 

 metals as to lead to the supposition that it was regarded as a base 

 and common metal. The quality of iron which is now made by the 

 native races of Africa and India is that which is known as wrought- 

 iron. Dr. Percy says the extraction of good malleable iron, directly 

 from the ore, " requires a degree of skill very far inferior to that 

 which is implied in the manufacture of bronze." The supply of iron 

 in India as early as the fourth and fifth centuries seems to have been 

 unlimited. In the temples of Orissa iron was used in large masses as 

 beams or girders in roof-work in the thirteenth century, and India 

 well repaid any advantage which she may have derived from the 

 early civilized communities of the West if she were the first to sup- 

 ply them with iron and steel. If we look still farther to the East, 

 China had probably knowledge of the use of metals as soon as India, 

 and, moreover, had a boundless store of iron and coal. A great 

 future is undoubtedly in store for that country ; but can the race who 

 now dwell there develop its resources, or must they await the aid of 

 an Aryan race? The art of extracting metals from the ore was prac- 

 tised at a very early date in this country. The Romans worked iron 

 extensively in the Weald of Kent, as we assume from the large heaps 

 of slag containing Roman coins which still remain there. Coal, which 

 was used for ordinary purposes in England as early as the ninth 

 century, does not appear to have been largely used for iron-smelting 

 until the eighteenth century, though a 23atent was granted for smelt- 

 ing iron with coal in the year 1611. The use of charcoal for that pur- 

 pose was not given up until the beginning of this century, since which 

 period an enormous increase in the mining and metallurgical indus- 

 tries has taken place ; the quantity of coal raised in the United King- 

 dom in 1873 having amounted to 127,000,000 tons, and the quantity 

 of pig-iron to upward of 6,500,000 tons. 



The early building energy of the world was chiefly spent on the 

 erection of tombs, temples, and palaces. While in Egypt, as we have 

 seen, the art of building in stone had 5,000 years ago reached the 

 greatest perfection, so in Mesopotamia the art of building with brick, 

 the only available material in that country, was in an equally ad- 



