On the Origin and Discovert/ of Iron. 163 



The general use of hardened copper, by the ancients, for 

 edge tools, and warUke instruments, does not jireckide the 

 supposition that iron was then comparatively ])lentiful, but 

 confined to the ruder arts of life. The knowledge as well 

 as the mixtures of copper, tin and zinc, seem to have been 

 amongst die first discoveries of the metallurgist. Instruments 

 fabricated Irom these alloys, recommended by the use of ages, 

 the perfection of the art, the splendour and }iolish of their sur- 

 faces, not easily injured by time or weatlier, would not soon 

 be laid aside or superseded by the invention of simple iron, 

 inferior in edge and in polish, at all times easily injured by 

 rust, and ui the early stages of its manufacture converted with 

 difficulty into forms that required proportion or elegance. 



Other reasons may be adduced to show why iron may have 

 existed, and did not supersede the use of copper and brass in 

 the art of war, or for general purposes. Og, king of Bashan, 

 had his bedstead made of iron, which shows that the metal 

 was known at an early period in Palestine ; and some of the 

 kings of Canaan had chariots made of iron. Many ages af- 

 terwards warlike instruments, requiring edge, continued to be 

 formed from a hardened modification of copper, or tin and 

 copper. Tlie first cori-ect idea we receive from history of the 

 importance of steel in the arts, is from the account of the pre- 

 sent made by Porus to Alexander of 10 lbs. of Indian steel; 

 a present which we are bound to consider was the most valu- 

 able that Porus cooild bestow, and the most acceptable that 

 Alexander (at that time overwhelmed with the spoils of the 

 East) could receive. This transaction on the banks of the 

 Hydaspes must have taken place at least 800 years after iron 

 was in use in Palestine, and affiards a strong presum])tion that 

 steel, if not then altogether unknown to the artificers in Alex- 

 ander's army, was an article exceedingly rare. The same ob- 

 servation will equally apply to India at the same time. No- 

 thing in the estimation of Porus, in his extensive dominions, 

 was more rare or valuable than a gift of steel. If we contrast 

 the native manufacture of steel in India at that time with its 

 present abundance and cost of production, we must inter that 

 the progress oi' this art has not been stationai-y in India since 

 the days of Alexander. We learn from Dr. Buchanan's ac- 

 count of iron-making at one particular station in India, tliat a 

 man's labour for one day is nearly equivalent to the value of 

 two pounds of iron ; and in another account, the value of 

 one pound of wook, or Indian steel, is stated to be equal in 

 value to six jwunds of iron ; so that the labour of a man for 

 three days will at the present time purchase one pound of such 

 sleel as Porus deemed his higliest gift, and which the con- 



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