“Seven metals were created by light according to the number of seven planets” - one of the most important postulates of medieval alchemy was concluded in these simple verses. In antiquity and the Middle Ages, only seven metals and the same number of celestial bodies were known (the Sun, the Moon and five planets, not counting the Earth). In the opinion of the then luminaries of science, only fools and ignoramuses could not see in this the deepest philosophical regularity. A coherent alchemical theory said that gold was represented in the heavens by the Sun, silver is a typical Moon, copper is undoubtedly related to Venus, iron is personified by Mars, mercury corresponds to Mercury, tin to Jupiter, lead to Saturn. Until the 17th century, metals were designated in the literature by the corresponding symbols.

Figure 1 - Alchemical signs of metals and planets

Currently, more than 80 metals are known, most of which are used in engineering.

Since 1814, at the suggestion of the Swedish chemist Berzelius, letters have been used to designate metals.

The first metal that man learned to work with was gold. The most ancient things made of this metal were made in Egypt about 8 thousand years ago. In Europe, 6 thousand years ago, the Thracians, who lived in the territory from the Danube to the Dnieper, were the first to make jewelry and weapons from gold and bronze.

Historians distinguish three stages in the development of mankind: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

In 3 thousand BC. people began to widely use metals in their economic activities. The transition from stone to metal tools was of tremendous importance in the history of mankind. Perhaps no other discovery has led to such significant social changes.

The first metal to become widespread was copper (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Map-scheme of the territorial and chronological distribution of metals in Eurasia and North Africa

The map clearly shows the location of the oldest finds of metal products. Almost all known artifacts related to the period from the end of the 9th to the 6th millennium BC. (that is, before the culture of the Uruk type was widely spread in Mesopotamia), come from only three dozen sites scattered over a vast territory of 1 million km 2. About 230 small specimens were recovered from here, and 2/3 of them belong to two settlements of the pre-ceramic Neolithic - Chaion and Ashikli.

Constantly looking for the stones they needed, our ancestors, one must think, already in antiquity paid attention to reddish-green or greenish-gray pieces of native copper. In the cliffs of the banks and rocks, they came across copper pyrite, copper sheen and red copper ore (cuprite). At first, people used them as ordinary stones and processed them accordingly. They soon discovered that when copper was worked with a stone hammer, its hardness increased significantly, and it became suitable for making tools. Thus, the methods of cold metal working or primitive forging came into use.

Then another important discovery was made - a piece of native copper or surface rock containing metal, falling into the fire of a fire, revealed new features that were not characteristic of a stone: from strong heating, the metal melted and, cooling, acquired a new shape. If the form was made artificially, then it turned out necessary for man product. This property of copper was used by ancient craftsmen first for casting jewelry, and then for the production of copper tools. This is how metallurgy was born. Melting began to be carried out in special high-temperature furnaces, which were a slightly modified design well known to people pottery kilns (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Metal smelting in Ancient Egypt (blowing is supplied by furs sewn from animal skins)

In southeastern Anatolia, archaeologists have discovered a very ancient pre-ceramic Neolithic settlement of Chayonyu Tepesi (Figure 4), which struck with the unexpected complexity of stone architecture. Scientists found among the ruins about a hundred small pieces of copper, as well as many fragments of the copper mineral - malachite, some of which were processed into beads.

Figure 4 - Chayonyu Tepesi settlement in Eastern Anatolia: IX-VIII millennium BC The world's oldest metal was discovered here

Generally speaking, copper is a soft metal, much less hard than stone. But copper tools could be quickly and easily sharpened. (According to the observations of S.A. Semenov, when replacing a stone ax with a copper one, the cutting speed increased approximately three times.) The demand for metal tools began to grow rapidly.

People began a real "hunt" for copper ore. It turned out that it is not found everywhere. In those places where rich deposits of copper were discovered, their intensive development arose, ore and mine business appeared. As the discoveries of archaeologists show, already in antiquity the process of ore mining was staged on a large scale. For example, near Salzburg, where copper mining began around 1600 BC, the mines reached a depth of 100 m, and the total length of the drifts extending from each mine was several kilometers.

The ancient miners had to solve all the problems that modern miners face: strengthening the vaults, ventilation, lighting, lifting the mined ore up the mountain. The galleries were reinforced with wooden supports. The mined ore was smelted nearby in low clay furnaces with thick walls. Similar centers of metallurgy existed in other places (Figures 5.6).

Figure 5 - Ancient mines

Figure 6 - Tools of ancient miners

At the end of 3 thousand BC. ancient masters began to use the properties of alloys, the first of which was bronze. The discovery of bronze should have been prompted by an accident, inevitable in the mass production of copper. Some grades of copper ores contain an insignificant (up to 2%) admixture of tin. Smelting such ore, the craftsmen noticed that the copper obtained from it is much harder than usual. Tin ore could get into copper-smelting furnaces for another reason. Be that as it may, observations of the properties of ores led to the development of the value of tin, which they began to add to copper, forming an artificial alloy - bronze. When heated with tin, copper melted better and was easier to cast, as it became more fluid. Bronze tools were harder than copper ones, sharpened well and easily. Bronze metallurgy has made it possible to increase labor productivity several times in all branches of human activity (Figure 7).

The production of tools itself has become much simpler: instead of long and hard work to upholster and grind stone, people filled ready-made forms liquid metal and obtained results that their predecessors never even dreamed of. The casting technique has been gradually improved. At first, casting was carried out in open clay or sand molds, which were simply a depression. They were replaced by open forms carved from stone that could be reused. However, the big disadvantage of open molds was that only flat products were obtained in them. They were not suitable for casting products of complex shape. The way out was found when closed detachable molds were invented. Before casting, the two halves of the mold were tightly connected to each other. Molten bronze was then poured through the hole. When the metal cooled and solidified, the mold was dismantled and the finished product was obtained.

Figure 7 - Bronze tools

This method made it possible to cast products of complex shape, but it was not suitable for figured casting. But even this difficulty was overcome when the closed form was invented. With this casting method, an exact model of the future product was first molded from wax. Then it was coated with clay and fired in a kiln.

The wax melted and evaporated, and the clay took an exact cast of the model. Bronze was poured into the void thus formed. When it cooled down, the mold was broken. Thanks to all these operations, the craftsmen were able to cast even hollow objects of a very complex shape. Gradually, new techniques for working with metals were discovered, such as drawing, riveting, soldering and welding, which supplemented the already known forging and casting (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - Golden hat of the Celtic priest

Perhaps the largest metal casting was made by Japanese craftsmen. It was 1200 years ago. It weighs 437 tons and represents the Buddha in a pose of appeasement. The height of the sculpture together with the pedestal is 22 m. The length of one arm is 5 m. Four people could freely dance on an open palm. We add that the famous ancient Greek statue - the Colossus of Rhodes - 36 m high and weighed 12 tons. It was cast in the 3rd century. BC e.

With the development of metallurgy, bronze products began to displace stone products everywhere. But do not think that it happened very quickly. Non-ferrous metal ores were not available everywhere. Moreover, tin was much less common than copper. Metals had to be transported over long distances. The cost of metal instruments remained high. All this prevented their wide distribution. Bronze could not completely replace stone tools. It turned out that only iron could do it.

In addition to copper and bronze, other metals were widely used.

Beads and pendants found in Asia Minor during the excavations of Chatal-Khuyuk and seals and figurines found in Yarym-Tepe (Northern Mesopotamia) are considered the oldest products made of lead. These finds date back to the 6th millennium BC. The first iron rarities, which are small kritz found in Chatal-Hyuk, also date back to the same time. The oldest silver products found in Iran and Anatolia. In Iran, they were found in the town of Tepe-Sialk: these are buttons dating back to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC. In Anatolia, in Beydzhesultan, found silver ring dated to the end of the same millennium.

In prehistoric times, gold was obtained from placers by washing. It came out in the form of sand and nuggets. Then gold refining (removal of impurities, separation of silver) began to be used, in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. In the 13th-14th centuries, they learned to use nitric acid to separate gold and silver. And in the 19th century, the amalgamation process was developed (although it was known in antiquity, there is no evidence that it was used to extract gold from sands and ores).

Silver was mined from galena, along with lead. Then, after centuries, they began to be smelted together (approximately by the 3rd millennium BC in Asia Minor), and this became widespread even after 1500-2000 years.

Around 640 BC e. began to mint coins in Asia Minor, and around 575 BC. e. - in Athens. In fact, this is the beginning of stamping production.

Tin was once smelted in simple shaft furnaces, after which it was purified by special oxidizing processes. Now in metallurgy, tin is obtained by processing ores according to complex integrated schemes.

Well, mercury was produced by roasting ore in heaps, in which it condensed on cold objects. Then ceramic vessels (retorts) appeared, which were replaced by iron ones. And with the growing demand for mercury, they began to receive it in special furnaces.

Iron was known in China as early as 2357 BC. e., and in Egypt - in 2800 BC. e., although as early as 1600 BC. e. iron was looked upon as a curiosity. The “Iron Age” in Europe began around 1000 BC. e., when the art of iron smelting penetrated into the states of the Mediterranean from the Scythians of the Black Sea.

The use of iron began much earlier than its production. Sometimes they found pieces of a grayish-black metal, which, reforged into a dagger or spearhead, gave a weapon more durable and ductile than bronze, and held a sharp blade longer. The difficulty was that this metal was found only by accident. Now we can say that it was meteoric iron. Since iron meteorites are an iron-nickel alloy, it can be assumed that the quality of individual unique daggers, for example, could compete with modern consumer goods. However, the same uniqueness led to the fact that such weapons ended up not on the battlefield, but in the treasury of the next ruler.

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 very name of the people comes from the Greek word Χ?λυβας (“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. replaced bronze in 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.

At first, only small quantities of iron were received, and over the course of several centuries it cost sometimes forty times more than silver. The iron trade restored the prosperity of Assyria. The way was opened for new conquests (Figure 9).

Figure 9 - Furnace for iron smelting among the ancient Persians

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 damask steel, but due to the complexity of manufacturing and the lack of necessary materials in much 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 workpiece in half, resulting in an excellent weapon material called Damascus, from which, in particular, the famous Japanese katanas were made.

(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 was 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 the origin of German and English titles gland. 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.

As you know, the main material from which primitive people made tools was stone. No wonder the hundreds of thousands of years that have passed between the appearance of man on earth and the emergence of the first civilizations are called the Stone Age. But in 5-6 millennia BC. e. people discovered metal.

Most likely, at first, a person treated metal in the same way as a stone. He found, for example, copper nuggets and tried to process them in the same way as a stone, that is, with the help of upholstery, grinding, squeezing flakes, etc. But the difference between stone and copper quickly became clear. Perhaps, even initially, people decided that there would be no sense in metal nuggets, especially since copper was quite soft, and the tools that were made from it quickly failed. Who came up with the idea of ​​melting copper? Now we will never know the answer to this question. Most likely, everything happened by accident. An annoyed person threw a pebble, which seemed to him unsuitable for making an ax or an arrowhead, into the fire, and then was surprised to notice that the pebble spread out in a shiny puddle, and after the fire burned out, it froze. Then it took only a little thought - and the idea of ​​melting was discovered. On the territory of modern Serbia, a copper ax was found, created 5,500 years before the birth of Christ.

True, copper, of course, was inferior in many respects even to stone. As mentioned above, copper is too soft a metal. Its main advantage was fusibility, which made it possible to make a wide variety of objects from copper, but in terms of strength and sharpness, it left much to be desired. Of course, before the discovery, for example, of Zlatoust steel (Article "Russian Bulat from Zlatoust"), several more millennia should have passed. After all, technologies were created gradually, at first - insecure, timid steps, by trial and countless mistakes. Copper was soon replaced by bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. True, tin, unlike copper, is not found everywhere. It is not for nothing that in ancient times Britain was called the "Tin Islands" - many peoples equipped trading expeditions there for tin.

Copper and bronze became the basis of ancient Greek civilization. In the Iliad and the Odyssey we constantly read that the Greeks and Trojans were dressed in copper and bronze armor and used bronze weapons. Yes, in ancient times, metallurgy largely served the military. They often plowed the land in the old fashioned way, with a wooden plow, and, for example, gutters could be made of wood or clay, but the fighters entered the battlefield in strong metal armor. However, bronze as a material for weapons had one serious drawback: it was too heavy. Therefore, over time, a person learned to smelt and process steel.

Iron has been known since the Bronze Age on Earth. However, raw iron, obtained as a result of processing at a low temperature, was too soft. Meteoritic iron was more popular, but it was very rare, it could only be found by chance. However, meteoritic iron weapons were expensive, and it was very prestigious to have them. The Egyptians called daggers forged from meteorites that fell from the sky Heavenly.

It is generally accepted that iron processing was widespread among the Hittites living in the Middle East. They are about 1200 BC. e. learned to smelt real steel. For a while, Middle Eastern powers became incredibly powerful, the Hittites defied Rome itself, and the Philistines, mentioned in the Bible, owned vast territories in the modern Arabian Peninsula. But soon their technological advantage faded, because steelmaking technology, as it turned out, was not so difficult to borrow. The main problem was the creation of furnaces in which it was possible to reach the temperature at which iron turned into steel. When the neighboring peoples learned to build such melting furnaces, steel production began literally throughout Europe. Of course, much depended on raw materials. After all, only relatively recently people have learned to enrich the raw materials with additional substances that give steel new properties. For example, the Romans mocked the Celts, because many of the Celtic tribes had such bad steel that their swords bent in battle, and the warriors had to run back to the back row to straighten the blade. But the Romans bowed before the products of gunsmiths from India. And among some Celtic tribes, steel was not inferior to the famous Damascus. (Article "Damascus steel: myths and reality")

But, in any case, humanity entered the Iron Age, and it could no longer be stopped. Even the widest spread of plastics that occurred in the twentieth century could not displace metal from most areas of human activity.

Metal is all around us. But no one knows where and when metallurgy was born. Modern historians believe that one and a half thousand years ago. And this despite the fact that in the Southern and Middle Urals they were smelted in full 5 or more thousand years ago. These are the melting furnaces of Arkaim and other ancient cities, these are the Chud mines, whose age is 3-7 millennium BC.

Historians came up with a version that once some metal-containing stones accidentally fell into the fire of a primitive man, melted there, and so metallurgy accidentally appeared. And practically on line all over the planet at the same time.

At the same time, t of an open fire flame is about 700 degrees, and 300 degrees more is needed to smelt copper. For copper smelting, in addition to temperature, it is also necessary to free oxides from excess oxygen. Otherwise, the ore will either only char, but not melt, or it will oxidize excessively and turn into such a powdery substance unsuitable for making high-quality tools. As you know, an open flame is an oxidizing process and it is impossible to rid the ore of excess oxygen in this way.

Historians divide the historical process into stone, bronze and iron ages. This classification was invented in 1816, and was proposed by the Danish businessman and philanthropist Christian Jørgen Thomsens, who was a complete amateur in archeology and at his leisure studied the antiquities at his disposal. Historians took this amateurish notion as a dogma, which is still hammered into the heads of schoolchildren. In 1876, at the world congress, the concept of the copper or copper-stone age was also inserted into this classification.

Bronze is obtained as a result of an alloy of copper with tin as the main alloying component, and alloys with aluminum, silicon, lead and other components also belong to tin. So tin can be different, and ancient people in the III millennium BC. Apparently, they studied chemistry well at school. Well, is it bullshit? To this, historians answer that the ancients received tin using a different technology, not like now, they did not deal with the alloy of metals, but immediately received tin from such a special ore. Immediately melted down and immediately received bronze. "It's impossible!" - say metallurgists, even first-year students of the specialized faculty. "Everything is possible with us!" historians answer.

In 1974, a terracotta army was found in China. This is approximately 200 BC. Interestingly, this army was armed with high-carbon steel arrows with chrome-plated tips. And in Europe, metal chrome plating began only in the 19th century. The Chinese believe (according to legend) that this knowledge was given to them by a deity with a human head and a dragon's body. Why not? Lemurian Reploids lived on our planet, they were creatures with a high level of intelligence.

Then the technology migrated to Japan, where they made samurai swords. In Japan, local metal-containing raw materials contained molybdenum, its melting point is known to be 2610 degrees. It is one of the most refractory metals on earth. It turns out interesting. A country where people walk around in dressing gowns and slates, sleep on the floor in paper houses, eat raw fish, do not know navigation. But at the same time, they have high-tech furnaces capable of melting an iron-molybdenum alloy. Paradox. Historians cannot explain this. As well as many other things. So it is necessary to act as always - to ignore. Samurai swords were made according to this scheme. First, blanks were made from primary raw materials - metal poles, then they were placed for 80 years in swamp silt, where the acidic swamp environment corroded sulfur and phosphorus, which reduced the quality of the metal. After 80 years, the workpiece fell into the forge, where it was repeatedly folded and reforged, thus making multilayer metal, the number of layers reached a thousand. Moreover, in the process of reforging, additional purification of the metal took place. In addition, samurai swords are two-metal. The core consists of high carbon steel, which is placed between two plates of low carbon iron. During the hardening process, the sword was bent and the desired shape was achieved.

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The technologies of ancient India are also very interesting. In the north of India in Punjab, at least two thousand years before the new era, a composite material was made on an industrial scale - damask steel. So the Aryans from Arkaim had already reached India by this time. Damask blades had fantastic properties. They were bent by 120 degrees, practically did not blunt, were self-sharpening. In the air, such a sword could cut a silk scarf. Information has been preserved that some warriors girded themselves with swords as belts.

At the same time, the swords were also light. The technology for the production of damask steel was similar to Japanese, but had a number of differences. Primary preparations were also placed in an aggressive environment, but not in acidic sludge, as in Japan, but in slightly saline solutions. As a result, the iron had to rust. After that, this workpiece was sent to the forge, repeatedly forged, and the oxides lined up in a complex structure, which gave the internal elasticity of the material. At the same time, the metal in the forging process was also repeatedly folded. But if Japanese metallurgists did it in layers, then Indian technology meant that the metal should be kneaded like dough.

And most importantly, if Japanese swords were two-metal, then damask steel was made immediately from a variety of steel options with different percentages of carbon. And when they kneaded among themselves, the layers were mixed, and after hardening it was visible on the blade.

The Hindus traded with the Hittites, who lived in what is now Syria, who distributed their products throughout the Mediterranean. And from there, the steel went further to Europe, where it was called Damascus steel. The Hittites themselves did not produce Damascus steel, but made weapons from blanks.

Then the secret of Damascus steel was lost, many fakes appeared, which could not be restored for many centuries. This was achieved by our countryman Pavel Petrovich Anosov, who in the 1840s received damask steel in Zlatoust. According to Indian legends, the secret of damask steel was passed on by eight immortal saints who descended from the mountains of Punjab in sparkling robes.

In the center of Delhi stands an interesting column made of pure iron. Studies have shown that its underground part is still subject to corrosion in some areas. In the 70s of the last century, a group of scientists from Los Alamos University. took an analysis and to their surprise found that the column was covered with a micron layer of silicone film. Over the centuries, this film has collapsed in some places in the underground part, and it was there that corrosion arose. At the same time, the age of the column is still not known, and the inscription that has been preserved on it is in SANSCRIT, which was spoken by the Aryans who came from the north and which is very similar to Russian.

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The ancient metallurgists still had the technology of obtaining gold. The fact is that natural gold is very heavily polluted and it must be cleaned, otherwise products from it will not work - they will crumble. Handicraft methods can purify gold by no more than 70%. To date, the most famous effective method, it gives a cleaning of 99.7%. This is electrolysis. But even he does not give 100% cleaning.

Historians who have accepted the division into stone, etc. centuries, of course, they did not know chemistry. Chemically pure copper can also be obtained by electrolysis.

Egypt has soils very rich in iron. But for some reason they did not have metallurgy in ancient times. The Egyptians bought iron from the Hittites and it was considered Ancient Egypt precious metal. The Egyptians produced a huge amount of gold. One Cretan king wrote: "There is a lot of gold in that country, it is like dust, share it with us." During the time of Ramses, about 50 tons of gold were mined annually in Egypt. And this is the artisanal way? Here's something else that's interesting. Nowadays, gold is not mined in Egypt at all! Because the gold deposits there are now unknown. And where they mined gold in antiquity is not known. According to some manuscripts, part of the gold was not extracted from the rock, but was produced using the technologies of the god Thoth. So it was alchemy. The very word "alchemy" goes back to the Arabic "el kimi", that is, "science from the country of Kemi" - Egyptian science. This is the very science of the god Thoth, which made it possible to make gold from mercury.

For a long time it was assumed that alchemy is a pseudoscience, it was believed that the chemical elements are one and indivisible and cannot be transformed into each other. This is the scientific paradigm. But meanwhile, uranium as a result of radionuclide decay turns into lead. Even at the dawn of the twentieth century, Rutherford proved the possibility of chemical transmutation of metals. In 1941, two physicists at Harvard produced gold from mercury using the np reaction. Mercury nuclei were bombarded with fast neutrons (n), the nucleus absorbed them and emitted a proton (p), hence the np reaction. In 1913, a method was proposed by irradiating alpha and beta particles to obtain gold from lead, mercury and thallium.

Thus, in the twentieth century, the alchemical science, which was owned by the ancient Egyptians, was proven. In the 1970s, the Egyptians invited British chemists to examine the gold artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamen in order to determine the rocks from which the metal was obtained. The results were unexpected. In some artifacts, gold turned out to be purified up to 99.9%, which proves the use of electrolysis in ancient Egypt. Some artifacts consisted of 100% pure gold and were weakly radioactive, indicating the use of a nuclear reaction to transmute metals. These artifacts contradict the fictional history of mankind, and are now in storerooms and, of course, are not advertised. "This (and much more) cannot be, because it can never be!" - the main motto of history.

The impossible metallurgy of the ancients destroys the paradigm of is-tori-i.

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In the Subpolar Urals, a Russian geological exploration expedition in the early 90s discovered mysterious tungsten springs of unknown origin. t melting 3000 degrees. They searched for gold, sifted the sand and found it. At first, it was assumed that this was nothing more than fragments of rocket technology or an aircraft. But it turned out that the probability of this is zero. And radio-carbon analysis gave a sensational result. The finds are several HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS old. With a strong increase on the springs, the inscriptions "ROTOR", "FROM RUSSIA YAR", "HAND YAR", "CHURCH YAR" were found. Such is the nanotechnology of the ancient protorus 100 thousand years ago.

Seven "prehistoric metals" Author: Kozhina A. Lecturer: Kudryavtseva NV Stone Age Copper Age Bronze Age Iron Age Already in ancient times, seven metals were known to man: gold, copper, silver, tin, lead, iron, mercury. These metals can be called "prehistoric", since they were used by man even before the invention of writing. The clock in the history of mankind began to count time faster when metals entered his life and, most importantly, their “Contents” 1. “The King of Metals” 2. “Some Light Heavy Stones” 3. “Silver in Medicine” 4. “Living Silver” 5. "Iron" 6. "Copper" 7. "Tin" 8. "Lead" "King of metals" "Oh, if only it could be completely banished from life!" Pliny the Elder Its shimmering brilliance aroused human greed, beckoned countless adventurers into the distance, and became the cause of bloody wars. Even in ancient times, the golden color of the metal was associated in the minds of people with the color of the sun. So, according to one version, the Russian name of the metal comes from the word "sun". The Latin name (AURUM) translated as "yellow" "Alchemist's dream" Gold does not change when stored in air, does not rust, was a symbol of eternity. In nature, gold occurs in the form of small grains mixed with sand. But sometimes large nuggets are also found - weighing several tens of kilograms. Nowadays, about half of the gold produced is used in jewelry. Jewelers never work with pure metal. Gold with impurities has different shades: from yellow and red-brown to pinkish or even greenish. “SOME HEAVY AND LIGHT STONES...” The most ancient Latin name for silver is (a r g e n t u m) “white”, “brilliant”. The Russian word "silver" comes from the word "sickle" of the moon. Coins were minted from silver - humanity has assigned these metals the role of a measure of the value of goods. The ancient Romans began minting silver coins from 269 BC. - on Silver - brilliant, silvery half a century earlier than gold. - white metal (tm \u003d 962 ° C), malleable and ductile, the best conductor of heat and electricity among metals. In the old days, coins, vases, goblets were made from it, jewelry, chests and robes were decorated with the thinnest silver plates. In Russia, church vessels and icon frames were made of silver. SILVER IN MEDICINE Silver has been used for the treatment of various diseases since ancient times. Nowadays, silver nitrate is used in medical practice, in which this metal is in solution in the form of tiny solid particles. So that it does not precipitate, special stabilizing additives are introduced into it. The use of silver nitrate is due to its antimicrobial activity. In small concentrations, the drug has an anti-inflammatory effect, and in stronger solutions, it cauterizes tissues. Most often, silver nitrate in the form of aqueous solutions is used externally for the treatment of eye diseases. An alloy of one part silver nitrate and two parts potassium nitrate called "lapis" is used for external cauterization. "LIVING SILVER" Mercury - argentum vivum (living silver) hydrar-girum ("liquid silver") Mercury was known to people already in the II millennium BC. e. Alchemists considered her the feminine principle of substances, the mother of metals, the basis of the philosopher's stone. They also called it Mercurius, thereby emphasizing its proximity to the king of metals - gold. (Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun. The symbol of mercury coincides with the designation of the planet Mercury among astronomers. "Heavy water" . Mercury (t. Kip = 357 ° C) - the most the heaviest of all known liquids, a liter of it weighs 13.6 kg at 20 ° C. An ordinary glass jar breaks under the weight of mercury. Therefore large quantities mercury is stored in special vessels or in iron containers. The low melting point of mercury (-39 °C) is explained by the fact that Hg atoms firmly hold their valence electrons and hardly provide them for “general use *. The crystal lattice of mercury is unstable. Therefore, mercury is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Many dissolve well in mercury to form amalgams - liquid and hard alloys. This property of mercury was used to obtain mirrors by applying tin amalgam to glass. The ability of mercury to dissolve sodium and potassium is used in the electrolytic production of alkalis. Liquid mercury expands evenly when heated, so thermometers are filled with it. Mercury, unlike its neighbors in the subgroup, is a low-active metal. You can dissolve it in aqua regia or concentrated nitric acid: Hg 4 IHN "O, \u003d Hg (NO;), + 2NO, + 4- 2H, O," Almost all metals, except gold, silver and platinum, are able to displace mercury from solutions of its salts "The wolf devouring the king" - an allegory reflecting the ability of mercury to dissolve gold. Colored engraving. 17th century c o g d a t o Iron ingots. "IRON" A freely convertible currency is by no means only a sign of our time. But it would be difficult to imagine that iron was once the universal measure of values. Meanwhile, in the time of Homer, “some people bought things for ox skins, others for iron and prisoners. Oh, one part of iron was equal to ten parts of gold. m s Firstly, it was the most durable of the metals known at that time, indispensable in the manufacture of weapons and tools. o f m The second reason is the difficulty of extracting iron. c (In the old days, iron was obtained by the “raw” method. Iron ore and coal were loaded into furnaces that had the shape of a long pipe. Coal burned 1~ali, and the wind blowing into the pipe maintained the high temperature l (about 1400 ° C), necessary recovery of iron from oxide ore.bw The resulting metal (kripa) was forged, during the forging process pure iron was separated from it.In some countries, these are pieces of slag, and "Copper" remained. The Latin name for copper - Cuprum - comes from the name of the island of Cyprus, where copper mines already existed in the 3rd century BC. The Russian “copper” goes back to the word “smida”, which meant metal among the ancient Germans. Although copper is sometimes found in nature in the form of nuggets (the largest found weighed 420 tons) , its main part is part of sulfide ores.In the first metallurgical processes, not sulfide ores were used, namely malachite, which did not require preliminary roasting "Tin" It has been known to mankind since at least the middle of the III millennium BC, e. It occurs in nature in the form of the mineral cassiterite (from Grvch “cassiteros” - “tin”), the deposits of which are quite rare: in ancient times it was mined only in Spain, the Caucasus and China. Tin was valued even during the Trojan War. And it was called - "white lead" Tin - soft shiny malleable. a silvery-white metal, malleable and cast from tin, the wand bends with a characteristic crunch, caused by the friction of individual crystals against each other. But 13.2 "C, another modification is stable - gray tin, which has the structure of a diamond. (The transition of white tin to gray at low temperature often occurs spontaneously, although it is required to introduce a small seed of gray tin to carry it out in the laboratory. This transition is called "tin plague ": the metal crumbles into a gray powder, losing its metallic properties. It caused the death in 1912 of an English expedition led by Robert Scott, sent to the South Pole: travelers stored kerosene in vessels soldered with tin.) "Tin" A strong reducing agent .. About 60% of all tin produced are alloys.. Used for the production of bearings, babbits are used - tin-based alloys containing about 10% antimony and about 5% copper. The first such cross-linking was created in 1839 by the American inventor Isaac Babbitt. Tin film is applied on the iron to prevent it from rusting.This treatment is called tinning. ganic acids contained in food, tin cans for storing canned food are also coated with a layer of tin. "Lead" Lead nuggets are extremely rare in nature. (However, in the form of a compound with sulfur - a lead luster, lead was already known to ancient masters. Beautiful, shiny crystals of this substance attracted attention. If you put them in a fire diluted in a shallow pit, molten metal will soon drain to the bottom of it, because the melting point of lead low - 327 ° C.) It is interesting that today the industrial production of lead is based on the same chemical reactions - calcination of lead luster in air.