The Entire History of Steel

The ancient Egyptians were the first to make objects out of iron. The iron-nickel alloy they used stemmed from meteorites, which were rare. Around 1,800 BC, humans developed techniques to separate iron ore deposits out of the Earth’s crust from stones and minerals, marking the beginning of the Iron Age. The Chalybes people in the Black Sea area were the first to build hearths to extricate iron from the ores, make it malleable and forge weapons from it. Around 500 BC, the Chinese developed smelters that allowed them to liquify the metal and create objects by pouring it into molds. A century later, India’s ironsmiths developed a furnace that allowed the molten iron to absorb just enough carbon...