EARLY USE OF COPPER

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 5 February 1923, Page 4

EARLY USE OF COPPER

November 10 b v “w “ lectunor ■ > , of P refa “. th • hi, ’ uBh to the consideration of moder, developments in „ U branches flf ?^ r ° US \ he thought that t was sometimes interesting and Jruerive to look back and studv th metallurgy of the ancients. Bron* rounding represented the most ancient tut one of all metallurgical industry and some of the methods at preM . | ln use were centuries old. Gold was the first metal known, th,. 1 bCUIg dl,e fact that it existed in nature, in the beds of streams .ml , elsewhere, as the metal itself. P„ 1 fci ®tonc man found that these bright *"k ° W particles, which were so unlib I the surrounding earth and pebble were soft, and could be easily worked Ornaments were made from gold, but it was useless for any other purpose Copper, the second oldest metal, wa, known centuries before the Christis, era, and the metallurgy of copper and I bronze had reaches a high degree of perfection long before the advent of iron. This was due to the fact tha the carbonate or ■ xide ores of copi* (malachite, for example) were easi* reduced, by means of charcoal, in a open fire. The discovery of coppe smelting was obviously accidental; son* lumps of copper ore,"in places, fount close to the earth’s surface, were » doubt used for building up a cookint fire. The glowing charcoal present r» 1 duced some of the metallic oxide, aritli the result that a mass of copper va., subsequently found among the ash« Probably some time elapsed before th mystery was explained, and when # was found that the metal wa-s onlv ob-l tained where a certain kind of “rock '' was used smelting operations begun i*' earnest. Man soon found that tb’ best way of manufacturing implementj was by casting, and the first mor ,! 1 used were open, and usually or slabs of slate or other soft niate:b | hollow ed out to the required shape Th J early metallurgists copied their 'lo'-i and flint implements, but as their 'b"' became greater so their patterns improved and, towaixls the end of ***' bronze ;>ge the workmanship of implements and utensils was exqu’Sir] —Engineering.