Metallurgy Through the Ages
Overview
Over a period of thousands of years, humans learned to identify, extract, blend, and shape metals into tools, ornaments, and weapons. The ability of metals to alter the wealth, power, and culture of societies is so profound that the Bronze Age and the Iron Age label distinct eras in human development. Metallurgy makes the current Information Age possible and continues to shape our lives.
Background
Metals have shaped history—magnifying our efforts, providing leisure time, and creating empires—because metals allow us to shape our environment like no other materials. Ironically, the first recognized metal, gold, is unchanging and nearly useless. Gold exists in an almost pure state in nature. It does not rust or corrode, and, undoubtedly, it gleamed out from rocks or streambeds, catching the attention of humans in prehistoric times. Gold can be easily shaped, but it is so soft that it cannot be used for weapons or tools. The most useful material of this early time was stone, so this period is not known as the Golden Age, but the Stone Age. The only metal artifacts of this age are beautiful ornaments and simple utensils, such as cups and bowls. Still, gold did teach some fundamental principles of metallurgy that would become useful in later times: discovery (finding and recognizing a metal in nature), concentration (in the case of gold, by cold hammering smaller pieces into larger pieces), and shaping (working the metal into a desired form).
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