[ 44-8 ] 



XCI. Sketch of a Course of Lectures on MetaUurgt/ ,- deli- 

 vered at the London Institution, Februciry 1823. By John 

 Taylor, Esq. Treasurer of the Geological Society. 



[Concluded from p. 374.] 

 Lecture III. 



IN the last lecture it was inferred from the language of the 

 earliest poets, that several of the metals were operated 

 upon by means not very dissimilar from those now in use. 

 Steel had even an appropriate name among the Romans, di- 

 stino-uishino- it from iron, and this name was said to be derived 

 fron^ that of a people distinguished for their skill in the ma- 

 nagement of their iron mines. The discovery of this prepara- 

 tion of the metal would argue considerable advancement in 

 knowledge of this sort. 



We find some of the earliest specimens of weapons to be 

 made of an alloy of copper with tin, wliich forms a metal al- 

 most as hard as steel, without however possessing the other 

 valuable properties of the latter. There would be great pro- 

 bability in this being made before steel, and being applied to 

 similar uses ; but we are not without evidence on this head, as 

 Hesiod expressly says, that in the early ages the arms and in- 

 struments of the primitive heroes were composed entirely of 

 brass. 



Lucretius also, speaking of the weapons of the ancients, 

 says that the use of brass was known before that of iron. 



"The Phoenicians, a people derived from die Canaanites, 

 and whose existence as a separate nation ceased 6 or 700 years 

 before Christ, were famous for many arts, such as weaving fine 

 linen, making glass, and particularly are recorded as having 

 extraordinary skill in working the metals. Their fame was 

 hioh for taste, design, and ingenious invention, and their com- 

 merce so extended by their industry and knowledge, that their 

 ships even reached this country, and visited Cornwall for the 

 tin which they purchased there. 



After the Phoenicians, we find the arts which they possessed 

 principally in the hands of the Egyptians, and that a consi- 

 derable quantity of real chemical knowledge which the pos- 

 session of such arts would indicate, became mixed up, accord- 

 ing to the custom of the country, with fable and hypothesis, 

 and passed chiefly into the hands of their priests. 



This seems to have been the case even in the time of Pliny: 

 it was, however, communicated probably to the Alexandrian 

 Greeks, among the famous mysteries of the time ; and as the 



complicated 



