162 On the Origin and Discovery oj' Iron. 



give to that which was the effect of accident, a more unerring re- 

 sult These attempts would at first be confined within the pre- 

 cincts of the wood or forest that furnislied both the fuel and the 

 ore. Some time would be necessary to determine what particular 

 stone afforded tlie ponderous result; and wlien the superior 

 weight of the ore led to a conclusion in its favour, many fruitless 

 attempts would be made to place it under circumstances simi- 

 lar to those in which the discovery was first made. If the soil 

 afforded ores of different colours and qualities, much time would 

 be lost in assigning to each its respective share of merit or de- 

 merit, qualities would be imputed, and inferences drawn, that 

 merely I'csulted from the imperfection of the attempts. If the 

 ores were oxides of iron, and suddenly exposed to a high tem- 

 pei'ature, the whole would be converted into a heavy black 

 glass, and thrown aside as containing no metal. Those ores, 

 on the contrarj-, would obtain a decided preference, that con- 

 tained little earthy niatter, and the iron but little in the state 

 of oxide. But it would soon be discovered that these ores, 

 without a violent and continued heat, would come out from the 

 fire but little changed, except upon their surfaces, and inca- 

 pable of being converted into any form. 



Ages might pass away, and the fact itself only be known by 

 tradition, when a new accident, in more skilful hands, led to 

 new and more successful attempts. During a period of labo- 

 rious perseverance, it would be discovered that not only high 

 temperature was necessary, but that the ore thus heated 

 should not be directly exposed to the action of that air which 

 was the source of the temperature : this would lead to the 

 practice of keeping the ore surrounded as much as possible 

 with fuel while the process of its conversion into iron was 

 going forward. The chaixoal fire for this purpose would be 

 found inconvenient and expensive : hence would arise the first 

 attempts at a furnace. In the present time the manufacture 

 of iron is not only associated with bellows, but with blowing- 

 machines of the most powerful construction; but it is exceed- 

 ingly probable that bellows existed, and might have been used 

 for the purpose of forging iron, long befoi'e they were applied 

 to its manufacture from the ores. 



Iron, long alter its discovery, was most probably applied 

 solely to agricultural purposes ; and it was not until the dis- 

 covery of a regular method of converting it into steel, or of 

 producing steel from its ores, that it advanced its high claim 

 upon the consideration of mankind; and in our days so 

 powerfully has the justice of this claim been advocated, that 

 the mastery of this metal may be safely acknowledged as a test 

 of the highest advancement of civilization among nations. 



The 



