So, from the moment when iron begins to be actively used, a new, qualitative turning point in development sets in, in this case we are interested in the development of Ancient Greece. I have already said that iron has important indicators.

The most important advantage of iron over bronze is that it is a cheap metal. This metal is very common. We told you that bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Copper is a fairly rare metal. Tin is an even rarer metal. But iron ores in various forms, they are quite common on earth. It is not necessary to have in mind a deposit like the Kursk magnetic anomaly or something else like that. There were very small deposits that were developed very quickly, but they provided the necessary metal in the historical period. So this metal is more democratic in its essence. Bronze has been for a very long time (and we will talk about it today), it is a metal for the nobility. Iron is a metal for the people, for the emerging civilian population.

The second point is that iron has a higher quality than bronze, and therefore it accelerated progress in various areas of production. Moreover, gradually, though not immediately, discoveries in the field of iron (the invention of steel, the invention of soldering, etc., this will only apply to the 7th-6th centuries, I repeat, not all at once), but this already gave a potential opportunity for the development of society.

And in many ways, it was the spread of iron that led to such a result in Greece that when we have this period of chaos, the period of regression ends, we will again have a new social structure restored, a new society on the territory of Greece. It will no longer resemble either Minoan Cretan Greece or Mycenaean Balkan Greece. This society will be fundamentally new. If we said that for the societies of the 3rd - 2nd millennia, the palace was the main structural element (we said that the palace is a kind of polyfunctional phenomenon and that the palace type of organization of the state and society is a normal, general historical organism, which was characteristic of for the ancient countries of the East, and in this regard, Europe with its Crete and its Balkan Greece, it basically went in line with the development of world civilization), now, in the first millennium, it will take shape, gradually take shape, it will not arise immediately, but it will take centuries , completely new societies.

Societies where the center will be a completely different phenomenon, not a palace, but a polis. The policy will now be the main structure-forming element. And that is why, in order to understand what this new phenomenon is, it is necessary, first of all, to determine what a policy is. Therefore, I will first talk about the policy, and then we will talk about the next historical period, about the period when this policy was formed on the territory of Greece.

That's just the next period, which will be discussed - this is the period of archaism (VIII - VI centuries BC), this is the era of the formation of the Greek policy.

The appearance of iron and its role in history

Technical achievements of the Ancient East

Irrigation agriculture in the civilizations of the Ancient East

Pre-scientific knowledge of primitive society

neolithic revolution

The origin of primitive art and its techniques

The evolution of housing in the primitive era

Technique and technology of the stone industry

The main contradictions and patterns in the development of science and technology

Periodization of science and technology

The role of science and technology in the history of mankind

conclusions

1. Historical and economic science took shape as an independent branch of the system of economic sciences in the 19th century. The history of economics and economic thought studies the development of economic processes, structures, institutions, activities, events and theories. The focus of her attention is the evolution of the economy, not society.

The economy is the correct (effective) management of the economy, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ represents the environment for the life of society. The structure of the economic model is formed by three basic elements: the economic basis for the development of society, economic management and optimization of the potential of the economy.

2. The main methods of the history of economics and economic thought are historical, logical, causal-genetic, structural-functional, chronological, comparative-historical, historical modeling, mathematical statistics, social psychology.

The priority functions of the history of economics and economic thought are: pragmatic, value, cultural, fundamental and ideological.

3. There are several approaches to the periodization of the history of economics and economic thought - formational, civilizational and cyclical. In accordance with periodization, the course structure is conventionally divided into five sections. The history of the formation of the market economy theory was taken as the division criterion.

Topic 2. Pre-civilizational accumulation of knowledge and development of technology

Topic 3. The development of science and technology in the civilizations of the Ancient World

4. Scientific knowledge in the ancient Eastern states:

· The origin and development of the first writing systems

· Beginning of mathematical knowledge and calendar

5. Formation of ancient science:

· ʼʼPantsʼʼ Pythagoras

· Eudoxus of Knidos and proof of the sphericity of the earth

· Heliocentric system of Aristarchus of Samos

· ʼʼHistoryʼʼ - encyclopedia of Herodotus

· Hippocratic Oath

· Anaxagoras and the infinitesimal theory

· Protagoras: ʼʼMan is the measure of all thingsʼʼ

· Plato and ʼʼLyceumʼʼ

· Aristotle and the ʼʼAcademyʼʼ

· Eratosthenes and the radius of the globe

· Steam turbine and Heron's theater of automata

· ʼʼGeometryʼʼ Euclid

· Archimedes. The birth of mechanics

· Museum of Alexandria

· Vitruvius ʼʼ10 books on architectureʼʼ

· Map of Claudius Ptolemy

· ʼʼGeographyʼʼ Strabo

6. The most important technical achievements of ancient civilization:

· Technique and war (throwing artillery, phalanx, legion)

· In vino veritas (agrotechnical innovations)

· Built to last (Roman cement, Roman concrete, arches and domes, aqueducts, baths, Roman roads)

Topic 4. Science and technology in the Middle Ages

1. Technical achievements of the Arab East (VII-XII centuries):

· Arabic architecture and building technology

· Features of Arab cities of the 7th-11th centuries (Damascus, Baghdad and others)

· ʼʼMade in the Eastʼʼ: paper, glass, cotton and silk fabrics, Damascus steel, perfumes and cosmetics

2. Science of the Arab-Muslim civilization:

· Preservation and development of ancient knowledge

· Algorithm ‑ al-Khwarizmi and mathematics

· Scholar-encyclopedist al-Biruni

· Alchemy and alchemists of the Arab East

· Ibn-Sina (Avicenna) - scientist, doctor, philosopher, musician

· Astronomy and observatories of the Arab world

· Philosophy of the East - ibn-Rushd (Averroes) and Omar Khayyam

· Arab travelers, geographers and navigators (Masudi, ibn Battuta)

3. Technique and inventions of the early Middle Ages:

· Technical regression and new rise

· Greek fire

· Borrowing from nomads (horse harness, saddle, stirrups, horseshoe, horseback riding, plowing on horseback)

· Vikings - kings of the sea

· The craft of medieval civilization: traditions and innovations

· Construction and architecture of Byzantium, Western Europe and Russia

· Medieval city

· Crusades and innovations of the East

4. Science and education in medieval Europe:

· Byzantine science - grammarian Photius, Leo Mathematician and the beginning of algebra, Kozma Indikopl

· Christianity and Science (Isidore of Seville. Bede the Venerable. ʼʼAcademyʼʼ of Charlemagne. Sylvester II)

· Monk Scientist Roger Bacon

· First universities

· The Church Against the Inventors

5. Inventions and discoveries in the Renaissance (XIV-XVI centuries):

· The heyday of windmills and watermills

· Distribution of sugar cane, tea, coffee, cotton

· Revolution in military technology - the advent of gunpowder and firearms

· Mechanical watches

· Compass, caravel and great geographical discoveries

· Columbus and the agricultural revolution: corn, potatoes, tobacco, cocoa

· Geographical representations of the Middle Ages and the journey of Marco Polo

· Johannes Guttenberg and the first printed book

· Poetry of Stone – Notre Dame Cathedral

6. Renaissance Science:

· Inventor, craftsman, artist, architect, scientist - a single profession in the Renaissance

· Leonardo da Vinci, who combined science, technology and art

· Heliocentric model of the world by N. Copernicus

· The Seven Colors of the Rainbow by Francesco Mavrolico

· Infinity of the Universe by Giordano Bruno

· Political Science N. Machiavelli

· Utopia by T. Mora and T. Campanella

· Polydorus Virgil ʼʼOn the Inventors of Thingsʼʼ

· Reformation: Instead of Faith in God, Faith in Science

Topic 5. New time: scientific revolution and the birth of modern (classical) science (XVII-XIX centuries)

1. Formation of science as a form of knowledge of the surrounding world:

· The first scientific communities: the Royal Society of London and the French Royal Academy of Sciences

· Three laws of celestial mechanics by I. Kepler

· Nature explorer R. Descartes

· Telescope of Galileo Galilei

· ʼʼThe system of the worldʼʼ by I. Newton

· Inventor of logarithms D. Napier

· The Priest and the Slide Rule - W. Oughtred

· The theory of natural law by B. Spinoza, T. Hobbes and D. Locke

· Empirical (F. Bacon) and rationalistic (G. Leibniz) methods of cognition of the surrounding world

· The Social Contract and the Legal State of T. Hobbes and J. Locke

2. Technical progress in the XVII-XVIII centuries:

· Mechanization of manufacturing production (hydraulic installations)

· Innovations in metallurgy (blast furnaces, iron foundries, etc.)

· Engineers' New Tool - Theoretical Mechanics

· The emergence of instrumentation

· Mechanic and inventor of lathes A.K. Narts

· A new word in transport - stagecoach and omnibus

· Steam-atmospheric machine T. Newcomen

· The invention of the steam engine (J. Watt)

· The era of naval wars (XVII century) and the development of the navy

· Peter's reforms and the creation of a new industry in Russia

· Russia is the birthplace of combat missiles

3. The development of science in the era of European Enlightenment:

· ʼʼPrinciple of d'Alembertʼʼ (J. d'Alembert)

· Enlightenment philosophers (Voltaire, C. Montesquieu, D. Diderot, J.-J. Rousseau)

· Classical political economy (W. Petty, A. Smith, D. Ricardo)

· A. Celsius scale

· M.V. Lomonosov - the titan of Russian science

· B. Pascal's summing machine

· ʼʼLeiden jarʼʼ by P. Muschenbrook

Topic 6. The era of the industrial revolution

1. The main patterns of development of science and technology in the XVIII-XIX centuries:

· Europe on the threshold of the industrial revolution

· England - ʼʼworkshop of the worldʼʼ

· Formation of the factory production system

· Redistribution of the world and the creation of colonial systems

· Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution: New Social Classes (Industrialists and Workers)

· Urbanization and industrial cities

· Fundamental change in the links between science and production

· The emergence of technology as a science of production

2. Industrial revolution: from manufactory to machine production (second half of the 18th - late 19th centuries):

· Mechanization of the textile industry (ʼʼFlying shuttleʼʼ Kay. Distaff ʼʼJennyʼʼ. ʼʼWater-machineʼʼ Arkwright. ʼʼMule-machineʼʼ Crompton. Jacquard loom)

· The steamboat is an invention of Robert Fulton

· Steam Locomotive - R. Trevithick and J. Stephenson

· Beginning of the steel age: use of hard coal, Bessmer converter, open hearth furnace

· A new word in military technology: breech-loading rifle, new explosives (pyroxylin and nitroglycerin), rifled artillery pieces, Krupp guns

3. Classical science (XVIII-XIX centuries):

· Formation of classical technical sciences (applied mechanics, heat engineering, electrical engineering)

· The Paris Polytechnic School as a prototype of the scientific education of engineers

· Discoveries in the field of electricity and electromagnetism (B. Franklin, A. Volta͵ M. Faraday, J. Maxwell)

· Isaac Newton and ʼʼBeginnings…ʼʼ

· Atomistics by J. Dalton

· A. Lavoisier and the law of conservation of matter

· Robert Boyle and his role in the development of chemistry as a science

· D. I. Mendeleev and the periodic system of elements

· Systematization of species: Linnaeus and Buffon

· Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species

· Pasteur and bacteriology - the beginning of scientific medicine

· G. Mendel and the birth of genetics

Topic 7. Science and technology at the end of the 19th - the first half of the 20th centuries.

1. The level of development and achievements in technology in the late XIX - early XX centuries:

· General electrification of production and life

· Dynamos, electric motors and power plants

· Internal combustion engines

· New artificial materials (celluloid, carbolite, rayon, synthetic rubber, dyes)

· New building materials: Portland cement, reinforced concrete, iron and steel structures (Crystal Palace, Eiffel Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, US skyscrapers)

· Changing urban planning strategies with the condition of development of transport and new requirements for the quality of life (water supply, sewerage, electric lighting)

· Railways as a Key to Development: Berlin-Baghdad Highway, Trans-Siberian Railway

· Steam locomotive, locomotive-compound, electric locomotive

· Automotive meters and their offspring: Benz and Daimler cars

· H. Ford conveyor

· Steel giants in the struggle for the sea: ships made of metal, increasing the size of ships, transatlantic liners

· ʼʼTitanicʼʼ - a symbol of the era

· The first ships and the emergence of specialized ships (tankers, icebreakers)

· Airships, airplanes, planes (Mozhaisky's plane, the Wright brothers, Farman and Blerio, Sikorsky's planes)

· Theoretical astronautics (Tsiolkovsky)

· Telephone (Yuz and Edison)

· The invention of radio (Popov and Marconi)

· Development of photography

· The emergence of cinema

· The birth of television

2. The formation of ʼʼNon-classical scienceʼʼ and the revolution in natural science:

· Science is the driving force of social progress

· Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine (1895 ᴦ.) as an indicator of the basic directions and achievements of science

· The discovery of radioactivity - M. Skladowska-Curie and E. Rutherford

· Quantum theory of M. Planck and N. Bohr

· A. Einstein's theory of relativity

· Noosphere - the teaching of V.I. Vernadsky

· ʼʼPavlov's dogʼʼ ‑ physiology of higher nervous activity (I.P. Pavlov)

· Ecology: emergence, development, outlook

· N. Wiener and the Creation of Cybernetics

· Computing: the creation of computers and the emergence of personal computers

· Nuclear physics - fission of the atomic nucleus and the use of atomic energy for military and peaceful purposes

· The age of plastics

· Science and technology for medicine: electrocardiography, artificial heart and kidney, antibiotics, transplantation

3. The role of science and technology in world wars:

· The role of technical means in the First World War

· ʼʼInfernal Mowersʼʼ ‑ Maxim machine gun

· Battleships and dreadnoughts

· Torpedoes and destroyers

· Submarine warfare: submarines

· War in the air: airships and aviation

· Chemical weapons at the front

· Tank - steel argument on the battlefield

· The war of machines - the superiority of military equipment as a guarantee of victory in World War II

· A new word in aviation: strategic bombing, jet aviation

· ʼʼWeapon of retaliationʼʼ: the development of rocket technology

· Naval Warfare According to New Rules: Aircraft Carrier and Submarine

· Creation of nuclear weapons

The appearance of iron and its role in history - the concept and types. Classification and features of the category "The appearance of iron and its role in history" 2017, 2018.

What was in the carpenter's box? Ordinary iron tools: axe, saw, hammer, nails.

Two centuries later, the heroes of another famous novel - five Americans - landed on another desert island. They managed not only to survive on the island, but also to create more or less normal living conditions for themselves, which would definitely not have been possible if the omniscient engineer Cyrus Smith (note that in English "smith" means "blacksmith") could not find on mysterious island of iron ore and make iron tools. Otherwise, Jules Verne would again have to rescue his heroes with the help of the famous Captain Nemo.

As you can see, even adventure literature cannot do without iron. This metal occupies an extremely important place in human life.

The figures reflecting the annual level of steel production largely determine the economic strength of the country.

The development of ferrous metallurgy - iron metallurgy - was given paramount importance by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Even before the October Revolution, in 1913, in the article "Iron in the Peasant Economy", he wrote: "Regarding iron - ... one of the foundations, one might say, of civilization - the backwardness and savagery of Russia are especially great." Indeed, in that year, and 1913 was considered in tsarist Russia the year of industrial growth, only 3.6 million tons of steel were smelted in a vast country with a population of 150 million. Now this is the average annual productivity of an average smelter. Today Russia confidently holds the first place in the world in iron and steel smelting. In 1975, 141 million tons of steel were smelted in our country, and 148 million tons in 1980. World steel production has already approached the milestone of 700 million tons. A lot of steel (data for 1980) is smelted by Japan - 111.5 million tons, USA - 100.8 million tons, countries of the Common Market - 128.6, including Germany - 44.1 million tons.

The total share of developing countries is 56.8 million tons, including Brazil - 15.4, and India - 9.4 million tons (the rest are less).

Beginning of the Iron Age

The use of iron by primitive people

There was a time when iron on earth was valued much more than gold. The Soviet historian G. Areshyan studied the influence of iron on the ancient culture of the Mediterranean countries. He gives the following proportion: 1: 160: 1280: 6400. This is the ratio of the cost of copper, silver, gold and iron among the ancient Hittites. As Homer testifies in the Odyssey, the winner of the games arranged by Achilles was rewarded with a piece of gold and a piece of iron. Iron was equally necessary for both the warrior and the plowman, and practical need, as you know, is the best engine of production and technical progress.

The term "Iron Age" was introduced into science in the middle of the 19th century. Danish archaeologist K. Yu. Thomsen. "Official" boundaries of this period of human history: from IX-VII centuries. BC. when iron metallurgy began to develop among many peoples and tribes of Europe and Asia, and until the time when a class society and state arose among these tribes. But if the epochs are named according to the main material of the tools, then, obviously, the Iron Age continues today.

How did our distant ancestors get iron? First, the so-called cheese-making method. Cheese kilns were arranged right on the ground, usually on the slopes of ravines and ditches. They looked like pipes. This pipe was filled with charcoal and iron ore. Coal was lit, and the wind blowing into the slope of the ravine kept the coal burning.

Iron ore was reduced, and a soft cry was obtained - iron with slag inclusions. Such iron is called welding; it contained some carbon and impurities transferred from the ore. The hammer was forged, pieces of slag fell off, and under the hammer there was iron, pierced with slag threads. Various tools were forged from it.

The age of wrought iron was long, but people of antiquity and the early Middle Ages were also familiar with other iron. The famous Damascus steel (or damask steel) was made in the East back in the time of Aristotle (4th century BC). But the technology of its production, as well as the process of making damask blades, was kept secret for many centuries.

The process of steel production is essentially reduced to burning out impurities from cast iron, to oxidizing them with atmospheric oxygen. What metallurgists do may seem nonsense to an ordinary chemist: first they reduce iron oxide, while saturating the metal with carbon, silicon, manganese (iron production), and then they try to burn them out. The most annoying thing is that the chemist is absolutely right: metallurgists use an obviously ridiculous method. But they didn't have anything else.

The main metallurgical redistribution - the production of steel from cast iron - arose in the 14th century. Steel was then obtained in bloomery forges. Cast iron was placed on a bed of charcoal above the air lance. During the combustion of coal, the cast iron melted and dripped down in drops, passing through a zone richer in oxygen - past the tuyere. Here, iron was partially freed from carbon and almost completely from silicon and manganese. Then it ended up at the bottom of the hearth, covered with a layer of ferruginous slag left over from the previous smelting. The slag gradually oxidized the carbon that was still in the metal, causing the melting point of the metal to rise and it to thicken. The resulting soft ingot was lifted up with a crowbar. In the zone above the tuyere, it was remelted again, while some part of the carbon contained in the iron was oxidized. When, after remelting, a 50-100-kilogram krieg formed at the bottom of the hearth, it was removed from the hearth and immediately sent for forging, the purpose of which was not only to compact the metal, but also to squeeze out liquid slags from it.

The most advanced iron-making unit of the past was the puddling oven, invented by the Englishman Henry Cort at the end of the 18th century. (By the way, he also invented the rolling of shaped iron on rolls with gauges cut into them. A red-hot strip of metal, passing through the gauges, took their shape.)

Kort's puddling oven was loaded with cast iron, and its bottom (bottom) and walls were lined with iron ore. They were renewed after each melting. Hot gases from the furnace melted the iron, and then the oxygen in the air and the oxygen contained in the ore oxidized the impurities. The puddler standing by the stove was stirring the bath with an iron stick, on which crystals formed, forming an iron spit, were deposited.

After the invention of the puddling furnace, nothing new appeared in this area of ​​ferrous metallurgy for a long time, except for the crucible method for producing high-quality steel developed by the Englishman Gunstman. But the crucibles were inefficient, and the development of industry and transport required more and more steel.

Martin and Converter

Henry Bessemer was a mechanic, in addition, without a formal education. He invented what he had to: a machine for canceling stamps, a rifled cannon, various mechanical devices. He also visited metallurgical plants, watched the work of puddlers. Bessemer had the idea to transfer this heavy "hot" work to compressed air. After many trials, in 1856 he patented a method for the production of steel by blowing air through liquid iron, located in a converter - a pear-shaped vessel made of sheet iron, lined with quartz refractory from the inside.

A refractory bottom with many holes serves to supply the blast. The converter has a device for rotation within 300°. Before starting work, the converter is placed “on its back”, cast iron is poured into it, blast is blown, and only then the converter is placed vertically. Air oxygen oxidizes iron to FeO. The latter dissolves in cast iron and oxidizes carbon, silicon, manganese ... Slags are formed from oxides of iron, manganese and silicon. This process is carried out until the carbon is completely burnt out.

Then the converter is again placed "on its back", the blast is turned off, the calculated amount of ferromanganese is introduced into the metal - for deoxidation. This results in high quality steel. The method of converting pig iron became the first method of mass production of cast steel.

The redistribution in the Bessemer converter, as it turned out later, also had disadvantages. In particular, harmful impurities - sulfur and phosphorus - were not removed from cast iron. Therefore, for processing in the converter, mainly cast iron free of sulfur and phosphorus was used. They later learned to get rid of sulfur (partially, of course), by adding manganese-rich "mirror" cast iron to liquid steel, and later ferromanganese.

With phosphorus, which was not removed in the blast-furnace process and was not bound by manganese, the situation was more complicated. Some ores, such as Lorraine, which are rich in phosphorus, remained unsuitable for steel production. The solution was found by the English chemist S. D. Thomas, who proposed to bind phosphorus with lime. The Thomas converter, unlike the Bessemer one, was lined with burnt dolomite, not silica. Lime was added to cast iron during blowing. A lime-phosphorous slag was formed, which was easily separated from the steel. Subsequently, this slag was even used as a fertilizer.

The biggest revolution in steelmaking took place in 1865, when father and son - Pierre and Emile Martin - used a regenerative gas furnace built according to the drawings of W. Siemens to produce steel. In it, thanks to the heating of gas and air, in special chambers with a refractory nozzle, such a high temperature was reached that the steel in the furnace bath no longer passed into a pasty, as in a puddling furnace, but into a liquid state. It could be poured into ladles and molds, made into ingots and rolled into rails, beams, building profiles, sheets... And all this on a huge scale! In addition, it became possible to use the huge quantities of scrap iron accumulated over many years in metallurgical and machine-building plants.

The latter circumstance played a very important role in the development of the new process. At the beginning of the XX century. open-hearth furnaces almost completely replaced the Bessemer and Thomas converters, which, although they consumed scrap, were in very small quantities.

Converter production could become a historical rarity, the same as puddling, if not for oxygen blasting. The idea of ​​removing nitrogen from the air, which is not involved in the process, and blowing pig iron with oxygen alone, occurred to many prominent metallurgists of the past; especially in the 19th century. Russian metallurgist D.K. Chernov and Swede R. Ackerman wrote about this. But at that time oxygen was too expensive. Only in the 30s and 40s of the last century, when cheap industrial methods for obtaining oxygen from air were introduced, metallurgists were able to use oxygen in steelmaking. Of course, in open-hearth furnaces. Attempts to blow oxygen through the cast iron in the converters were not successful: such a high temperature developed that the bottoms of the apparatus burned through. In the open-hearth furnace, everything was simpler: oxygen was given both to the torch to increase the temperature of the flame, and to the bath (into liquid metal) to burn out impurities. This made it possible to greatly increase the productivity of open-hearth furnaces, but at the same time raised the temperature in them so much that refractories began to melt. Therefore, here too, oxygen was used in moderate quantities.

In 1952, in the Austrian city of Linz, the Fest plant for the first time began to use a new method of steel production - oxygen-converter. Cast iron was poured into a converter, the bottom of which had no holes for blowing, it was deaf. Oxygen was supplied to the surface of liquid iron. The burnout of impurities created such a high temperature that the liquid metal had to be cooled by adding iron ore and scrap to the converter. And in fairly large quantities. Converters reappeared in metallurgical plants. The new method of steel production began to spread rapidly in all industrialized countries. Now it is considered one of the most promising in steelmaking.

The advantages of the converter are that it takes up less space than an open-hearth furnace, its construction is much cheaper, and its productivity is higher. However, at first, only low-carbon mild steels were smelted in converters. In subsequent years, a process was developed for smelting high-carbon and alloy steels in a converter.

Iron English. Iron, French Fer, German. Eisen) is one of the seven metals of antiquity. It is very likely that man became acquainted with iron of meteoric origin earlier than with other metals. Meteoritic iron is usually easy to distinguish from terrestrial iron, since it almost always contains from 5 to 30% nickel, most often - 7-8%. Since ancient times, iron has been obtained from ores found almost everywhere. The most common ores are hematite (Fe 2 O 3,), brown iron ore (2Fe 2 O 3, ZH 2 O) and its varieties (bog ore, siderite, or spar iron FeCO,), magnetite (Fe 3 0 4) and some others. . All these ores, when heated with coal, are easily reduced at a relatively low temperature starting from 500 o C. The resulting metal had the form of a viscous spongy mass, which was then processed at 700-800 o With repeated forging.

The etymology of the names of iron in ancient languages ​​quite clearly reflects the history of our ancestors' acquaintance with this metal. Many ancient peoples undoubtedly became acquainted with it as with metal that fell from the sky, that is, as with meteoric iron. So, in ancient Egypt, iron was called bi-ni-pet (benipet, Coptic - benipe), which literally means heavenly ore, or heavenly metal. During the era of the first dynasties of Ur in Mesopotamia, iron was called an-bar (heavenly iron). The Ebers Papyrus (earlier 1500 BC) contains two references to iron; in one case, it is spoken of as a metal from the city of Kezi (Upper Egypt), in another, as a metal of heavenly manufacture (artpet). The ancient Greek name for iron, as well as the North Caucasian one, zido, is associated with the oldest word that has survived in the Latin language, sidereus (starry from Sidus - star, luminary). In ancient and modern Armenian, iron is called yerkat, which means dripping (falling) from the sky. The fact that ancient people used iron of meteorite origin at first is also evidenced by the myths common among some peoples about gods or demons who dropped iron objects and tools from the sky - plows, axes, etc. It is also interesting that by the time of the discovery of America, the Indians and the Eskimos of North America were not familiar with the methods of obtaining iron from ores, but they knew how to process meteoric iron.

In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the seven metals known then were compared with the seven planets, which symbolized the connection between metals and celestial bodies and the celestial origin of metals. Such a comparison became common over 2000 years ago and is constantly found in literature until the 19th century. In the II century. n. e. iron was compared with Mercury and was called mercury, but later it began to be compared with Mars and called Mars (Mars), which, in particular, emphasized the external similarity of the reddish color of Mars with red iron ores.

However, some peoples did not associate the name of iron with the heavenly origin of the metal. So, among the Slavic peoples, iron is called according to a "functional" attribute. Russian iron (South Slavic zalizo, Polish zelaso, Lithuanian gelesis, etc.) has the root "lez" or "cut" (from the word lezo - blade). Such word formation directly indicates the function of objects made of iron - cutting tools and weapons. The prefix "same" seems to be a softening of the more ancient "ze" or "for"; it was preserved in its original form among many Slavic peoples (among the Czechs - zelezo). The old German philologists - representatives of the theory of the Indo-European, or, as they called it, the Indo-Germanic proto-language - sought to derive Slavic names from German and Sanskrit roots. For example, Fik compares the word iron with the Sanskrit ghalgha (molten metal, from ghal, to blaze). But this is hardly true: after all, the smelting of iron was inaccessible to ancient people. With the Sanskrit ghalgha one can rather compare the Greek name for copper, but not the Slavic word for iron. The functional feature in the names of iron is also reflected in other languages. So, in Latin, along with the usual name of steel (chalybs), derived from the name of the Khalib tribe that lived on the southern coast of the Black Sea, the name acies was used, literally meaning a blade or point. This word corresponds exactly to the ancient Greek used in the same sense. Let us mention in a few words about the origin of the German and English names for iron. Philologists generally accept that the German word Eisen is of Celtic origin, as is the English Iron. Both terms reflect the Celtic names of the rivers (Isarno, Isarkos, Eisack), which then transformed (isarn, eisarn) and turned into Eisen. There are, however, other points of view. Some philologists derive the German Eisen from the Celtic isara meaning "strong, strong". There are also theories that Eisen comes from ayas or aes (copper) and also from Eis (ice), etc. The Old English name for iron (before 1150) is iren; it was used along with isern and isen and passed into the Middle Ages. Modern Iron came into use after 1630. Note that Ruland's "Alchemical Lexicon" (1612) gives the word Iris, meaning "rainbow" and consonant with Iron, as one of the old names for iron.

The Latin name Ferrum, which has become international, is adopted by the Romanesque peoples. It is probably related to the Greek-Latin fars (to be hard), which comes from the Sanskrit bhars (to harden). It is also possible to compare with ferreus, meaning "insensitive, inflexible, strong, hard, heavy" among ancient writers, as well as with ferre (to wear). Alchemists along with Ferrum yno consumed many other names, for example Iris, Sarsar, Phaulec, Minera and others.

Iron products made of meteoric iron have been found in burials dating back to very ancient times (4th - 5th millennium BC) in Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, the Iron Age in Egypt began only in the 12th century. BC e., and in other countries even later. In ancient Russian literature, the word iron appears in the most ancient monuments (since the 11th century) under the names of iron, iron, iron.

Iron alloys

It is more or less well known that the material commonly called iron, even in the simplest case, is an alloy of iron itself, as a chemical element, with carbon. At a carbon concentration of less than 0.3%, a soft ductile refractory metal is obtained, behind which the name of its main ingredient, iron, is assigned. An idea of ​​the iron that our ancestors dealt with can now be obtained by examining the mechanical properties of the nail.

At a carbon concentration greater than 0.3% but less than 2.14%, the alloy is called steel. In its original form, steel is similar in its properties to iron, but, unlike it, it can be hardened - with sudden cooling, steel acquires greater hardness - a remarkable advantage, however, almost completely negated by brittleness acquired during the same hardening.

Finally, at a carbon concentration above 2.14%, we get cast iron. Brittle, fusible, well suited for casting, but not amenable to forging, metal.

The first step in the emerging ferrous metallurgy was to obtain iron by reducing it from oxide. The ore was mixed with charcoal and put into the furnace. At the high temperature created by burning coal, carbon began to combine not only with atmospheric oxygen, but also with that which was associated with iron atoms.

After the burning of coal in the furnace, the so-called kritz remained - a lump of substance with an admixture of reduced iron. The kritsa was then reheated and subjected to forging, knocking iron out of the slag. For a long time in iron metallurgy, it was forging that was the main element of the technological process, and, moreover, it was the last thing associated with shaping the product. The material itself was forged.

Steel was made from finished iron by carburizing the latter. At high temperatures and lack of oxygen, carbon, not having time to oxidize, impregnated iron. The more carbon there was, the harder the steel was after hardening.

As you can see, none of the alloys listed above has such a property as elasticity. An iron alloy can acquire this quality only if a clear crystalline structure appears in it, which occurs, for example, in the process of solidification from the melt. The problem of the ancient metallurgists was that they could not melt iron. To do this, you need to heat it up to 1540 degrees, while the technologies of antiquity made it possible to reach temperatures of 1000-1300 degrees. Until the middle of the 19th century, it was considered possible to melt only cast iron to a liquid state, since the fusibility of iron alloys increases with increasing carbon concentration.

Thus, neither iron nor steel by themselves were suitable for making weapons. Tools and tools made of pure iron were too soft, and those made of pure steel were too brittle. Therefore, in order to make, for example, a sword, it was necessary to make a sandwich from two iron plates, between which a steel plate was laid. When sharpening, soft iron was ground and a steel cutting edge appeared.

Such weapons, welded from several layers with different mechanical properties, were called welded. The common disadvantages of this technology were the excessive massiveness and insufficient strength of the products. The welded sword could not spring, as a result of which it inevitably broke or bent when it hit an insurmountable obstacle.

The lack of elasticity did not exhaust the shortcomings of welded weapons. In addition to the shortcomings mentioned, it, for example, could not be properly sharpened. Iron could be given any sharpness (although it was grinded at a terrible speed), but the soft cutting edge of iron was dulled almost instantly. Steel did not want to sharpen - the cutting edge crumbled. There is a complete analogy with pencils here - it is easy to make a soft lead very sharp, but it will immediately become dull, and you won’t bring it to a hard lead - it will break ten times. So, razors had to be made of iron and re-sharpened daily.

In general, welded weapons did not exceed the sharpness of a table knife. This circumstance alone required to make it massive enough to give satisfactory cutting properties.

The only measure that allowed to achieve a combination of sharpness and hardness within the framework of welding technology was the hardening of the product after its sharpening. This method became applicable if the steel cutting edge was welded simply to an iron butt, and was not enclosed in a “sandwich” of iron. Or, blades could be hardened after sharpening, in which the iron core was bound on the outside with steel.

The disadvantage of this method was that sharpening was possible only once. When a steel blade became serrated and blunted, the entire blade had to be reforged.

Nevertheless, it was the development of welding technology - despite all its shortcomings - that made a real revolution in all spheres of human activity and led to a huge increase in productive forces. Welded guns were quite functional and, moreover, publicly available. It was only with their spread that stone tools were finally supplanted, and the age of metal began.

Iron tools decisively expanded the practical possibilities of man. It became possible, for example, to build houses cut from logs - after all, an iron ax felled a tree not three times like a copper one, but 10 times faster than a stone one. Hewn stone construction also became widespread. Naturally, it was also used in the Bronze Age, but the large consumption of a relatively soft and expensive metal strongly limited such experiments. The possibilities of farmers have also expanded significantly.

For the first time, the peoples of Anatolia learned to process iron. The ancient Greek tradition considered the people of Khalibs to be the discoverer of iron, for whom the stable expression "father of iron" was used in literature, and the name of the people itself comes from the Greek word Χάλυβας ("iron").

The Iron Revolution began at the turn of the 1st millennium BC. e. in Assyria. From the 8th century BC e welded iron quickly began to spread in Europe, in the III century BC. e. displaced bronze in China and Gaul, appeared in Germany in the 2nd century AD, and in the 6th century AD it was already widely used in Scandinavia and among the tribes living on the territory of the future Russia. In Japan, the Iron Age came only in the 8th century AD.

Metallurgists were able to see liquid iron only in the 19th century, however, even at the dawn of iron metallurgy - at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC - Indian craftsmen managed to solve the problem of obtaining elastic steel without melting iron. Such steel was called bulat, but due to the complexity of manufacturing and the lack of necessary materials in most of the world, this steel remained an Indian secret for a long time.

A more technological way to obtain elastic steel, which did not require either especially pure ore, or graphite, or special furnaces, was found in China in the 2nd century AD. Steel was reforged many times, with each forging folding the blank in half, resulting in an excellent weapon material called Damascus, from which, in particular, the famous Japanese katanas were made.

First of all, it must be said that until the 18th century, inclusive, coal was practically not used in metallurgy - due to the high content of impurities harmful to the quality of the product, primarily sulfur. From the 11th century in China and from the 17th century in England, coal, however, began to be used in puddling furnaces for annealing cast iron, but this made it possible to achieve only a small saving in charcoal - most of the fuel was spent on smelting, where it was impossible to exclude contact between coal and ore .

The consumption of fuel in metallurgy was already enormous at that time - the blast furnace devoured a cartload of coal per hour. Charcoal has become a strategic resource. It was the abundance of wood in Sweden itself and Finland, which belongs to it, that allowed the Swedes to expand production on such a scale. The British, who had fewer forests (and even those were reserved for the needs of the fleet), were forced to buy iron in Sweden until they learned how to use coal.

Metal processing

The very first form of organizing the production of iron products were amateur blacksmiths. Ordinary peasants, who, in their free time from cultivating the land, traded in such a craft. The blacksmith of this sort himself found "ore" (a rusty swamp or red sand), burned coal himself, smelted iron himself, forged it himself, processed it himself.

The skill of the master at this stage was naturally limited to forging products of the simplest form. His tools consisted of bellows, a stone hammer and anvil, and a grindstone. Iron tools were made with the help of stone ones.

If there were ore deposits suitable for mining nearby, then the whole village could be engaged in the production of iron, but this was possible only if there was a stable opportunity for profitable marketing of products, which practically could not be in barbarian conditions.

If, for example, for a tribe of 1000 people there were a dozen iron producers, each of whom would build a couple of cheese furnaces in a year, then their labors ensured the concentration of iron products of only about 200 grams per capita. And not in a year, but in general.

This figure, of course, is very approximate, but the fact is that, by producing iron in this way, it has never been possible to fully cover all the needs for the simplest weapons and the most necessary tools at its expense. Axes continued to be made from stone, nails and plows from wood. Metal armor remained inaccessible even to the leaders.

The most primitive tribes of the Britons, Germans and Slavs at the beginning of our era had this level of opportunity. The Balts and Finns fought off the crusaders with stone and bone weapons - and this already turned out to be the XII-XIII centuries. All these peoples, of course, already knew how to make iron, but they could not yet obtain it in the required quantity.

The next stage in the development of ferrous metallurgy was professional blacksmiths, who still smelted metal themselves, but other men were more often sent to extract iron sand and burn coal - in exchange in kind. At this stage, the blacksmith usually already had a hammer assistant and a forge somehow equipped.

With the advent of blacksmiths, the concentration of iron products increased four to five times. Now every peasant household could be provided with a personal knife and axe. The quality of products also increased. Blacksmiths were professionals, as a rule, they knew the technique of welding and could draw wire. In principle, such a craftsman could also get Damascus, if he knew how, but the production of Damascus weapons required such an amount of iron that it could not yet be mass-produced.