Industrial chemistry of iron and its compounds

Abstract

The origin of the use of iron can be traced far back into the history of ancient civilisations. Certainly metallic iron was known in pre-dynastic Egypt before c. 3400 sc but the metal was exceedingly scarce and used only as beads for jewellery. Recent analysis of this iron has shown it to contain some nickel and speculation exists as to whether it was derived from meteoritic sources. Iron of seemingly terrestrial origin was also used in Mesopotamia during this time. The general use of iron in Egypt can be traced to a much later date, c. 1500 BC, and appears to have spread from the Hittites in Asia Minor who may have been the first smelters of iron in the third millenium BC. The great value of the smelting process resulted in it being kept very secret, and only when the Hittite empire fell around 1200 BC did the knowledge of smelting become dispersed and the Iron Age begin (see Childe, 1942).