Making Metal

Metals can be traced back in human history to the elements copper, silver, lead, and iron, which may have been found in the 4000 BC time period; no evidence supports a firm date, and some feel it may have been used prior to that. Gold was found, it is believed, roughly around 3000 BC. The proper term in metallurgical terms is smelted. Smelting encompasses melting, or other means such as fused by pounding metal components We know smelted iron was developed around 1500 BC. The early metals were not very sophisticated, but they could be cast, hammer pounded to eliminate some slag and dross, then formed by recasting or pounding, and finally polished to a luster finish. The Bible and historians wrote of how the metal was heated, the dross or slag was skimmed off the surface to purify it, and eventually poured into molds. Today (early 2014) there are 118 elements in the periodic table, 66 of those metals. Until the 1600s, only 12 elements were known to exist.