You are on page 1of 68

Metallurgy for the

Non Metallurgist

Lesson 1
A History of Metals
October 02, 2008

Richard Boswell, P.E.


Mechanical Engineer
Blacksmith

1
A History of Metals

Upon completion of the lesson, we will be


able to:
Summarize the history of metallurgy from ancient
to modern times.
Define metal, ore, alloy, refining and smelting.
Outline the relative availability of specific metals.

2
Our Reference
Document for this
class

ASM Course 0135


Lesson 1

3
Terminology
Metal a mineral or compound naturally occurring near the Earth
surface and is sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions
surrounded by a cloud of delocalized electrons. An element that
readily loses electrons to form positive ions (cations) and forms
metallic bonds between other metal atoms

Ore a volume of rock containing components or minerals that


have economic value

Alloy combination of metals by melting (naturally or intended)

Refining selective removal of metal from ore

Smelting extracting metal from ore by heating

4
History of Metals

What is a metal?
Opaque, lustrous element that is a good conductor
of electricity and heat and a good reflector of light
when polished.
Crystalline in the solid state
Solid at ambient temperatures
o Except for Mercury

5
Polished low alloy steel showing light reflection
History of Metals
Ancient Metals
Most metals naturally occur as minerals or
compounds
Ancient man used Gold, Silver or Copper because
they naturally existed in the form of metals
Copper ore reduction from copper sulfides
(covellite and malachite) began between 4000 and
3000 B.C.
Two important ancient discoveries..
o Metal could be obtained from ores by heating

o Strength could be increased by hammering

7
History of Metals

Bronze Age
Addition of tin to copper to form bronze
o ~ 88% Cu -12% Sn
By 3000 B. C. ancient metallurgists had learned to
intentionally mix ores of copper and tin to produce
bronze, similar to todays composition.

8
Metals of Antiquity

The metals upon which civilization was based. These seven metals
were:
(1) Gold 6000 BC
(2) Copper 4200 BC
(3) Silver 4000 BC
(4) Lead 3500 BC
(5) Tin -1750 BC
(6) Iron, smelted -1500 BC
(7) Mercury 750 BC

These metals were known to the Mesopotamians, Egyptians,


Greeks and the Romans. Of the seven metals, five can be found
in their native states, e.g., gold, silver, copper, iron (from
meteors) and mercury.

9
T
I
M
E
L
I
N
E

10
Time-Life
Books
Emergence of
Man

The
Metalsmiths
1974

Fifth Century B.C.


Smiths forging
sickle at La Tene
in Lower Austria
11
Smiths
forge at
La Tene in
Lower
Austria
was used
2500
years ago

12
Celtic tools from
La Tene were used
2500 years ago

13
Technology Distribution Part 1

Celtic Iron Age technology is commonly considered to begin around 1000 B.C. and
14
lasting through 100 A.D. in Celtic Britain and ended with the arrival of Roman
influence.
The Advent of Iron in Celtic Briton

The use of iron had amazing repercussions.


First, it changed trade and fostered local
independence.
Trade was essential during the Bronze Age,
for not every area was naturally endowed
with the necessary ores to make bronze.
Iron, on the other hand, was relatively cheap
and available almost everywhere.

15
And then..more technology distribution
.and removal
Roman influence shaped the world until
the Barbarian invasions changed it again,
and again
Goths
Huns
Vandals
Viking
(Crusades)
Mongols

In England the Viking Age began


dramatically on January 6, 793 when
Norsemen destroyed the abbey on
Lindisfarne, a center of learning famous
across the continent.

The Vikings who invaded western and


eastern Europe were chiefly from
Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also
settled the Faroe Islands, Iceland,
Greenland and (briefly) North America.

http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/bog_iron.htm

16
Old World
Metal Centers
date to 9500
B.C. and were
either sources
or
manufacturing
sites.

17
King Tut
funeral
mask of
beaten
gold.

1343 B.C.

18
Gold,
Silver, and
Electrum
(natural
alloy of
gold and
silver)

19
Multicolored Copper
Components of Bronze (Copper and Tin)

20
Iron,
a metal for the
Masses is
second most
common metal.

Early sources
were meteoric
forms before
smelting
mastered in
1200 B.C.
21
Smelting is Extraction of Metal from Ore

Smelting is Extraction of Metal from Ore


Gold already pure in nature and not extracted
Silver and Lead 4000 B.C.
Tin 3000 B.C.
Iron 2700 B.C.
Requires a very hot fire
Technology borrowed from Ceramic/Pottery Crafts?
Charcoal for fuel
Air is blown into the fire

22
Common Issues
These seven metals: gold, silver, copper, lead, tin,
mercury and iron, and the alloys bronze and electrum
were the starting point of metallurgy and even in this
simple, historic account we find some of the basic
problems of process metallurgy. The problems are:

The ores must be found, separated and sized before


use. The ores must be reacted under a controlled
temperature and gas atmosphere.
The liquid metal must be collected and cast into a
desired shape.
The metal must be worked to achieve desired final
properties and shape.

23
History of Discovery
Before 1700 there were 12 12 Metals Discovered in 18th
metals in common use: Century:

Gold 1735 Cobalt


Silver 1751 Nickel
Copper
Lead 1774 Manganese
Mercury 1781 Molybdenum
Iron 1782 Tellurium
Tin 1783 Tungsten
Platinum
1789 Uranium
Antimony
Bismuth 1789 Zirconium
Zinc 1791 Titanium
Arsenic 1794 Yttrium
1797 Berylium
1797 Chromium
Before 1805 all metals were reduced by either carbon or hydrogen 24
42 METALS DISCOVERED IN 19th
CENTURY
1801 Niobium
1802 Tantalum 1843 Erbium, Terbium
1803 Iridium, 1844 Ruthenium
Palladium, Rhodium 1860 Cesium, Rubidium
1807 Potassium, 1861 Thallium
Sodium 1863 Indium
1808 Boron, Barium, 1875 Gallium
Calcium, Magnesium, 1878-1885 Holmium, Thulium,
Strontium Scandium, Samarium,
1814 Cerium Gadalinium,Praseodynium,
1817 Lithium, Neodynium, Dysprosium
Cadmium, Selenium 1886 Germanium
1823 Silicon 1898 Polonium, Radium
1827 Aluminum 1899 Actinium
1828 Thorium
1830 Vanadium
1839 Lanthanum 25
20 METALS DISCOVERED IN 20th
CENTURY
1901 Europium Californium
1907 Lutetium Einsteinium
1917 Protactinium Fermium
1923 Hafnium Mendelevium
1924 Rhenium Nobelium
1937 Technetium Lawrencium
1939 Francium
1945 Promethium
1940-61Transuranium
elements
Neptunium
Plutonium
Curium
Americum
Berkelium 26
Civilizations and Eras defined by their
Material Technology
Stone Age Age of Steel
Copper Age
Petroleum Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age Industrial Age
Dark Ages Age of Flight
Medieval Ages Space Age -Sputnik
Modern Metal
Nuclear Age
Age consists of Computer Age
many over-
lapping Composite Material Age
Technical Ages Nano Tech Age
after 1300 27
Green Age ?
Design Technology Change form
Compression to Tension
With the Industrial Revolution in the
19th century, truss systems of
wrought iron were developed for
larger bridges, but iron did not have
the tensile strength to support large
loads. With the advent of steel,
which has a high tensile strength,
much larger bridges were built,
many using the ideas of Gustave
Eiffel.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the


International Exhibition of Paris of
1889
Riveted lattice wind resistant design

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever


railway bridge over the Firth of
Forth in the east of Scotland
opened in 1890

28
Technologies Fade Away
Blacksmith
Essential skills for 12,000 years
Industrial Age made the skill obsolete around 1930
Smiths migrated into towns and were absorbed by other
industries such as large industrial forge shops and auto
repair garages

Metallurgy and Materials


Essential skills for 500 years
Tomorrow? Will Green Age and composite materials render
metallurgy obsolete?

Will natural and/or man-made disaster erase todays


centers of learning and manufacture?

29
Georgius Agricola (1494-1555)
Georg Bauer, better known by the Latin version of his name Georgius Agricola,
is considered the founder of geology as a discipline.
He died in 1555, one year before the posthumous publication of De Re
Metallica, his greatest work.
De Re Metallica (Latin for On the Nature of Metals (Minerals)) is a book
cataloging the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals,
published in 1556.
The publication was delayed until the completion of the extensive and detailed
woodcuts.
He describes the method of breaking hard rocks using fire-setting, which
involved making a fire against a rock-face, and then quenching the rock with
water to induce cracking by thermal shock.
In 1912, the first English translation of De Re Metallica was privately published
in London by subscription. The translators were Herbert Hoover, a mining
engineer (and later President of the United States), and his wife, Lou Henry
Hoover, a geologist and Latinist.
30
Bronze Age Weapons

31
Coins
Romans exported coin technology to
Celtic Britton.
Currency evolved from two basic A Roman denarius, a standardized
innovations: the use of counters to silver coin.

assure that shipments arrived with the


same goods that were shipped, and
later with the use of silver ingots to
represent stored value in the form of
grain. KINGS of Lydia Electrum coin.
Both of these developments had Early 6th century BC.

occurred by 2000 BC.


Originally money was a form of
receipting grain stored in temple
granaries in ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
Gold 20-stater of Eucratides I ( reigned 171145 BC),
the largest gold coin ever minted in Antiquity 32
Celtic Metal Art

La Tne culture developed and


flourished during the late Iron
Age (from 450 BCE to the
Roman conquest in the 1st
century BCE) in eastern France,
Switzerland, Austria, southwest
Germany, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Hungary.

Celtic art in the Middle Ages


was practiced by the Celtic
speaking people of Ireland and
Britain in the 800 year period
from the Roman withdrawal
from Britain in the 5th century,
to the establishment of
Romanesque art in the 12th
century

33
Bronze nails, found in
Egypt, have been dated
3400 BC. Nails
In 1959 during excavation
of the legionary fortress at
Inchtuthil near Dunkeld,
archaeologists uncovered a
singularly remarkable haul
of a single kind of Roman
artifact from around 83 - 87
AD.
Roman nail
Located in a twelve foot found in Wales
deep pit below the beaten 19th Century "Square" Nails
earth floor of the workshop
- the Fabrica- was a
remarkable hoard of nails,
over eight hundred
thousand in number, many
in a remarkable state of An original 7" (180mm) long Roman nail found in Scotland
preservation.

Pig iron was commonly


imported into Roman Britain
from iron producing areas Replica of the hand made nails found on board the 'Mary Rose -
of the empire- notably lower Tudor flag ship of Henry VIII built in 1509
Germany- in small man
hand-able billets.
34
Viking Swords and Utensils
Viking Age is the
term denoting the
years from about 700
to 1066 in European
history.
Viking society was
based on agriculture
and trade with other
peoples.
They acquired
technology from
around the world.
Metal crafts in
Scandinavia were of
a very high standard
as regards the
execution and craft
skills.

35
History of Metals

Iron Smelting
Iron production began in Anatolia in 2000 B.C.
Iron production well established by 1000 B.C.
Widely available sources of charcoal (from wood)
and iron ore caused iron production to spread
widely (in China) by 500 B.C.
Intentional reduction of iron oxide ore using
charcoal (from wood) was widespread in Egypt by
1500 B. C.
Egyptians were tempering iron by 900 B.C.

36
History of Metals

Iron Smelting
Requires higher temperatures than for lead.
Involves oxide reduction using carbon in the form
of charcoal or coke to reduce iron oxide to iron,
forming carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
o Carbon serves two purposes
Reduction agent

Fuel

o Early furnaces used either natural draft air or forced air.

37
History of Metals

Iron smelting (hearth processes)


Early iron process were variations of closed-pit
or hearth furnaces:
Used charcoal embedded in iron ore to reduce ore
to iron.
Incorporated various air blowing techniques to
make a hot fire.
o Natural draft and forced draft.

38
Revolutionary Furnace
-1200 B.C. for Egyptian
copper smelting in
Timna in the Negev
Desert

39
Making Charcoal recent technology
method

Air flow in and out of the mud encased pile was controlled and
limited for a slow oxygen starved burn to refine the wood into high 40
carbon charcoal.
History of Metals

Iron Smelting (hearth processes)


Early product of smelting was wrought iron.
o Soft, spongy, ductile, low carbon, malleable.
If carbon absorbed, the iron was somewhat harder
than low carbon wrought iron.
Quenching to form a hard iron discovered early.

41
History of Metals

Iron smelting (hearth processes)


In all furnaces iron oxide was reduced to iron.
Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide formed.
Product was sponge iron.
o High in carbon, silicon, phosphorous, manganese.
If sponge iron kept in contact with the charcoal, it
would absorb carbon
o Good or bad?

42
History of Metals

Iron Smelting
Modern basic reduced iron is termed pig iron.
o Contains significant quantities of carbon, sulfur and
phosphorus.
Carbon = 3.5% - 4.25%

Silicon = 1.25% - 1.25%

Manganese = 0.90% - 2.50%

Sulfur = 0.04% - 0.04%

Iron = Balance

43
History of Metals

Pig iron vs. wrought iron


Wrought iron is ductile
Pig iron is brittle
o What element causes the difference?

44
Laminating Iron without melting it
1000 B.C.

45
Laminating Iron without melting it
1000 B.C.

46
Afgan Silversmith
using historic
technology today

47
Iranian
Coppersmith
using historic
technology
today

48
Afgan Iron
Making
using
historic
technology
today for
plowshares

49
Goldworking in
ancient America
2000 years
before Columbus

50
Peru was a
center of
metal
working for
Copper and
Gold using
hammered
sheets before
the Aztecs

51
Medieval Smithing in Europe

52
German
Smithing
shown in
1500 A.D.
woodcuts
from
"De Re
Metallicus"
by Agricola

53
Smithing in 1500's, from a Flemish woodcut

54
From "the Boy's Book
of Trades", 1888

55
Colonial Firearms and Artillery

56
Colonial
Kitchen Tools
and all
Hardware for
the Home,
Barn, and
Equipment

57
Colonial Smithing at Sturbridge Village

58
Colonial Smithing at Williamsburg

59
Colonial Smelting Furnace West Virginia
Small, workable iron veins were
discovered in many areas of West
Virginia, and small furnaces were set
up at these spots for smelting the ore
and manufacturing bar iron for the
pioneer blacksmiths.

Start of Operation: 1836


Blowout: 1847
Daily Tonnage: 4 tons
Built By: Leonard Lamb
for Tassey & Bissel
Stack: ?
Blast: Cold
Type: Charcoal

Located in Cooper's Rock State


Forest just east of Morgantown, West
Virginia 60
Blast Furnace Operation
From 1760 to the 1880s,
charcoal fires heated to
temperatures of up to 3,000
degrees with the aid of
water- or steam-powered
fans converted locally
mined ore into iron in at
least 25 locations. Most of
the state's iron furnaces
were found in the
northeastern counties,
where veins containing iron
nodules are relatively
common.

West Virginia's handful of


furnace operators decided
the effort of building West Virginia iron was used to make everything
furnaces and producing the from stoves to nails and any number of tools,
charcoal and ore needed to cooking utensils and household items that could
make iron was a better be produced by pioneer blacksmiths.
bargain than paying the
high cost of freighting bar
iron or pig iron from existing West Virginia furnaces were also credited with
furnaces east of the Blue producing the cannonballs used by Commodore
Ridge. Oliver H. Perry to defeat a squadron of six
British vessels in the Battle of Lake Erie during 61
the War of 1812.
Tannehill Ironworks near Birmingham
before Civil War
Trees on the hillsides were felled to be made
into charcoal that fed the huge blast furnaces.
Roupes Creek and a mighty steam engine
powered the blowing machines to heat the
fires that melted ore to be formed into "pigs" of
iron which, in turn, formed the tools of war for
the Confederacy. At the height of production
Tannehill could turn out 22 tons of iron a day.
The iron was cast into ordnance, skillets, pots
and ovens for the Southern army.

On March 31, 1865, it all ended in fire and


destruction. Three companies of the Eighth
Iowa Cavalry swept through the area as a part
of Union General James H. Wilson's raid on
Alabama war industry sites. Smoke rose from
the charred remains of the ironworks and
cabins that housed 500 workers. At day's end
the furnaces were no longer operational, and
the foundry, tannery, gristmill, and tax-in-kind
warehouse were in ruins.

62
Tannehill Museum

63
Steel Making begins in Birmingham 1897

64
Sloss Furnaces
fueled by Coal
in Birmingham,
Alabama

65
Sloss Furnaces
once fueled by
Coal are silent
today

66
Vulcan
on Red Mountain in
Birmingham

67
Blacksmithing Survives and Thrives
www.habairon.org

68

You might also like