. The Iron and steel magazine. heard of an elephant making an umbrella?There is not an authenticated instance in the history of theworld of an animal lower than man inventing and making atool or implement to aid his natural powers. By instinct — apropensity existing prior to experience and independent of in-struction—the beaver builds his dam, the bee his honevcomb. * The Canadian Engineer, July, 1905. This article is copyrighted in the United States and is reproducedhere through the special permission of Mr. Samuel Groves, editor of TheCanadian Engineer. 194 The Iron and Steel Magazine and th
. The Iron and steel magazine. heard of an elephant making an umbrella?There is not an authenticated instance in the history of theworld of an animal lower than man inventing and making atool or implement to aid his natural powers. By instinct — apropensity existing prior to experience and independent of in-struction—the beaver builds his dam, the bee his honevcomb. * The Canadian Engineer, July, 1905. This article is copyrighted in the United States and is reproducedhere through the special permission of Mr. Samuel Groves, editor of TheCanadian Engineer. 194 The Iron and Steel Magazine and the robin his nest, just as they did at the earliest dawn ofcivilization. The cave, tent, cabin, cottage, house and palaceindicate the progress made by the human race. By mansunique power of invention the desert has been made to blossomas the rose. The earliest records of prehistoric times show Palaeolithicman dwelling in hillside caverns, supplementing his naturalpowers by making stone arrowheads and spear points to protect. Fig. I. A Family of the Stone Age him from the great carnivora, or to kill wild deer for food, andshaping stone hatchets, knives and for cutting up theflesh and breaking the bones. Hence this first period of mansexistence has been called the St ONE Agk Then came the discovery of copper, which was hammeredinto ornaments and x^arious articles of domestic use, but was too Descriptive Metallurgy of Iron and Steel 195 soft for fine-edged tools and weapons of defense. It was found,however, that by mixing the ores of oxidized copper and tintogether, and melting them over a hot charcoal fire, a newmetallic allov resulted, which could be poured as a liquid intomolds, making castings of all shapes and sizes, having any degreeof hardness; in fact, a mixture of two parts copper and one oftin makes an alloy so hard that it cannot be cut by ordinary toolsteel. It was further discovered that if the bronze was madered hot, then siiddenly plunged into cold water
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectiron, bookyear1898
