724 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
and beams plated with copper and strengthened with iron I built up its gates." 
The huge stones of the bridge built by his daughter, Nitocris, were held together 
by bands of iron fixed in place by molten lead. 
The Book of Job, which relates to a patriarchal period between Abraham 
and Moses, contains frequent references to iron, even to "bars of iron," "barbed 
irons," "the iron weapon," and "the bow of steel." In the 28th chapter and 
2d verse it is declared that "iron is taken out of the earth." In the 19th chapter 
and 24th verse the "iron pen," which could be used to engrave upon a rock, 
is mentioned. Job is supposed to have lived in the northern part of Arabia, in 
the Land of Uz, which was separated from Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham 
was born, by the Euphrates. Iron ore of remarkable richness is still found be- 
tween the Euphrates and the Tigris. 
Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt fifteen or sixteen hundred 
years before the Christian era. In the story of their wanderings iron is frequently 
mentioned. In Leviticus, vii. 9, the frying-pan is mentioned. When the Israel- 
ites under Moses spoiled the Midianites they took from them iron and other 
metals ; when they smote Og, the King of Bashan, they found with him an iron 
bedstead. Canaan, the Land of Promise, was described by Moses in Deuteron 
omy, viii. 9, as "a land whose stones are iron." Iron is still made in the Le- 
banon Mountains. In Deuteronomy, xxvii. 5, 6, and in Joshua, viii. 31, the 
use of iron tools in building an altar of " whole stones " to the Lord is prohibited, 
which shows that, not only did the Israelites in the days of Moses have a knowl- 
edge of iron tools that would cut stone, but that the Egyptians must have pos- 
sessed the same knowledge. After the Israelites came into possession of Canaan 
iron is frequently mentioned in their history, some of the earliest references 
being to chariots of iron, which the Canaanites used in their wars with them, 
and which were probably armed with iron scythes. Chariots of the same kind 
were doubtless used by the Egyptians. Frequent mention is made of agricultural 
implements and tools of iron, and of iron weapons of war. In the description of 
the armor of Goliath it is said that ' ' his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels 
of iron." Axes and saws and harrows of iron are mentioned in the reign of 
David, and axes and hammers and tools of iron in the reign of Solomon. Isaiah 
also speaks of harrows of iron. Daniel says that " iron breaketh in pieces and 
subdueth all things." When David, about a thousand years before Christ, made 
preparations for the building of the temple he " prepared iron in abundance for 
the nails for the doors of the gates and for the joinings; " and in his instructions 
to Solomon concerning it he said that he had prepared "brass and iron without 
weight," and that of gold, silver, brass, and iron " there is no number." 
It would appear that the Israelites in the early part of their history were not 
skilled in the manufacture or manipulation of iron, but were greatly dependent 
upon their neighbors for iron itself and for the skill to fashion it. In the reign 
of Saul, because of the oppression of the Philistines, " there was no smith found 
throughout all the land of Israel ; but all the Israelites went down to the PhiHs- 
tines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mat- 
