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Κυριακή 7 Δεκεμβρίου 2008

Ιron was invented in Euboia!


I have listed the sources that state that iron was invented in Euboia, that is, at the Heraion and that mention Euboia as a famous metallurgic center. Here, I must call attention to a line of Aischylos that mention an Euboic sword called autotektonos. It may be a sword of steel. The term autotektonos maybe compared with the term autokhoónos that occurs in Homer. In the funeral games for Patroklos, Achilles offers a great ball of iron as a prize to the hero that will throw it the greatest distance; the narrative indicates that to lift the object at all is already a feat. Achilles states that the object would be of use to the holder of a large estate, who will be able to provide all the iron needed by his farmers and shepherds for five years. The object is called solon autokhoónon literally “self-poured lump.” Some interpreters have understood that it is a matter of meteoric iron which is “self-smelted.” But the Hellenistic scholar Aristarchos never doubted that melted metal is mentioned, since he observed that it must be a matter of copper in spite of the words of Homer, because iron cannot be melted. Paul Mazon translates: un bloc de fer brut; this translation is rather indefinite, but at least does not contain an error. The glosses to the passage explain that autokhoónos means as the metal comes from the smelting. It would seem, therefore, that the prize offered by Achilles is a bloom of iron as it is formed in the furnace. In substance both autokhoónos and autotektonos may have referred to metal in its usual first state of production. The usual practice of ancient times, followed up to modern times, was to produce a bloom in a low-temperature furnace and then break it up, separating the pieces of wrought iron from those of steel and cast iron. The practice of classical times, followed up to the Renaissance, was to discard all the pieces that were not wrought iron. It would seem that in some areas of Greece at some time the pieces of steel were utilized. A bloom found in the ruins of the Roman Corstopitum near Corbridge, on the Tyne was analyzed and found to be composed of parts that are steel. It may be suspected that the ancient metallurgy was always based on the low-temperature furnace producing a bloom; but at first the furnace was operated so as to produce as much as possible cast iron and steel. It may be conjectured that the first parts of the bloom to be utilized were these of steel; then development took two opposite directions, that of utilizing wrought iron and that of converting cast iron into steel.

ΠΗΓΗ: http://www.metrum.org/measures/castiron.htm

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