THE ART OF FOUNDING IN BRASS COPPER AND BRONZE. 413" 



ings of any great size could be obtained except with much difficulty. Still it shows 

 that the methods adopted for getting an intense heat were similar to ours, viz ^ 

 by bellows or blowing. 



Ordinary bellows are said to have been invented by Anacharsis the Scythian, 

 but that must have been long subsequent to this period. Very little can be dis- 

 covered to illustrate the means employed in metallurgical operations from the 

 objects found in the excavated tombs, or from the paintings beyond the use of 

 the blowpipe and the forceps, and the concentration of heat by raising cheeks of 

 metal round three sides of the fire in which the crucibles were placed. Homer 

 notices' "that the Egyptians and other Asian workmen excel in the manufacture 

 of arms, rich vases, and other objects inlaid and ornamented with metal." Herod- 

 otus and Helanius both say, " the Egyptians drank out of bronze goblets " We 

 find that statues, musical instruments, implements of all kinds, adzes, axes and 

 chisels, articles of furniture, bedsteads and footstools, and many other domestic 

 utensils were all m^de of bronze. Also biers, on which bodies were placed 

 after death. The Egyptian vases are numerous and to be noticed for beauty of 

 form and the design ornamenting them, as well as for the superior quality of the 

 material. Those used in the service of the temples were especially beautiful. One 

 found by Mr. Salt had an elastic spring. to the cover, and the nicety with which 

 it is fitted exhibits evidence of great skill in the workmanship. 



The sistrum was/ar excelletue, the sacred musical instrument, and was usually 

 of bronze or brass, sometimes inlaid with silver. One now in the British Museum 

 is entirely of bronze, having a hollow handle closed by a movable cover of the 

 same metal. The cymbals, or clappers, which when struck together emitted a 

 sharp metallic sound, were of mixed metal, probably copper and silver, and in 

 shape much resembling those of modern times. 



It is not known at what times the ancient Egyptians began to cast statues 

 and other objects in bronze, or how long the use of beaten copper preceded the 

 art of casting. Many bronzes, however, have been found of a very early period. 

 A cylinder with the name of Papi, of the sixth dynasty, has every appearance of 

 being cast, and other bronze implements of the same age bear still stronger evi- 

 dence of having come from a mould, all of which date more than 2,000 years 

 before our era. The Egyptians, too, appear to have possessed the secret of giv- 

 ing to their cast bronze blades a certain degree of elasticity, as in the dagger now 

 in the Berlin Museum, which probably depends for this property on the just pro- 

 portions of the peculiar alloys used in its manufacture, as well as on its mode of 

 having been hammered. Another remarkable feature in this bronze is the resist- 

 ance it has offered to the effect of the atmosphere, continuing smooth and bright 

 though buried for ages, and since exposed to the damp of the European climate. 

 It may be said that the Egyptians had not any mines of tin wherewith to produce 

 the bronze alloy. It is true that the mountainous districts of Egypt, between the 

 Nile and the Red Sea, produced iron and copper only. Copper was also found 

 in Arabia Petrsa, which district was known to them, and even now amongst the 

 heaps of refuse there we come upon the tubes used in the smelting apparatus. 



