The Importance of Iron and Advent of Steel

Life seems impossible now without iron, the cheapest and most important metal we use. Iron is extracted from a rocky material called iron ore. Like many elements, iron is too reactive to exist on its own in the ground. Instead, it combines with other elements, especially oxygen, in ores. The chemical process for extracting a metal from its ore is called smelting.

The first people who discovered how to extract iron from iron ore were the Hittites, a powerful group of people living in Asia Minor and Syria - south of the Black Sea. They kept the process a closely guarded secret. The Egyptians, for example, had to pay the Hittites in gold four times the weight of iron and once deceived them with lumps of bronze covered with a thin layer of gold.

The smelting of iron was the most important metallurgical development. Iron-ore is plentiful all over the world, therefore it may seem surprising that such a long time elapsed before iron was produced. The reason was that the furnaces used to smelt copper were not hot

Sometimes the early iron-workers, or smiths, accidentally produced a steel article instead of an iron one. Steel is iron with a small percentage of carbon in it. The carbon came from the fuel in the furnace in which the iron was heated. The smiths later learned from experience how to introduce this carbon when they wanted to produce steel.

Steel is stronger than iron, and can be made stronger still by quenching, which is the sudden cooling, in water or other fluids, from red-heat. However, steel becomes very brittle when made extremely hard, and as each smith used his own method the quality of the steel varied a great deal. Often a sword made by a poor smith snapped just when it was most needed.

In those days furnaces were not hot enough to melt iron completely. To extract the iron from the iron-ore, the ore was heated as much as possible (reducing the iron to a ‘spongy’ consistency) and then hammered. This forced the bits of rock and other impurities out, leaving the iron behind. Great skill and dexterity were required, especially as tongs had not been invented and the hot metal was handled with green sticks.

Task 1

Phonetic Exercise

Practise after the speaker and learn to pronounce the words given below.

 

civilization /sivilai’zeiò n/; iron /’ai'n/; especially /is’pe òi'li/; oxygen /’oksij'n/; Hittites /’hitaits/; guarded /’ga:did/; furnace /’f ':nis/; eventually /i’ventò u'li/; toughness /t/\ fnis/; superior /sju:’pi'ri'/; Celtic /’seltik/; percentage /p'‘sentij/; quenching /’kwentò ih /; impurity / im’pju'riti/.

 

 

Task 2

Lexical Exercises

Exercise 1. Find the English equivalents for the words and word - combinations

given below. Use them in the sentences of your own.

 

самый дешевый металл; самый важный металл; легко вступающий в реакцию; Малая Азия; к югу/ северу от; распространиться как на запад, так и на восток; покрыть тонким слоем золота; твердость; производство орудий труда и оружия; кузнец; процентное содержание углерода; добавлять углерод; закаливать металл/сталь; хрупкий; производить сталь; плавить железо; жидкое вещество; примеси; щипцы.

 

 

Exercise 2. Match the English words and word-combinations given below

with their Russian equivalents.

 

1. to extract iron 1. химический процесс

2. chemical process 2. учиться на опыте

3. a steel article 3. качество стали

4. the fuel in the furnace 4. раскаленный докрасна

5. to learn from experience 5. добывать железо

6. the quality of the steel 6. топливо в печи

7. to melt iron completely 7. требовать большого умения

8. to vary a great deal 8. полностью расплавить железо

9. to require great skill 9. отличаться во многом друг от

друга

10. steel becomes very brittle 10. изделие из стали

11. red-heat 11. сталь становится очень хрупкой

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions

 

1. Why is life impossible without iron? 2. Who first discovered how to extract iron from iron ore? 3. Why did they keep this process as a closely guarded secret? 4. How did the discovery of iron spread both east and west? 5. What is smelting? 6. What did the smiths do? 7. How did they get steel? 8. What process is called quenching? 9. Were the early smiths able to melt iron completely?

Exercise 4. Complete the following statements by choosing the answer which

you think fits best. Are the other answers unsuitable? Why?

 

1. Man cannot live without iron because:

a) it is easy to mine it. b) it is very cheap.

c) he uses it in his everyday life.

2. The Hittite kept the process of smelting a top-secret because:

a) they wanted to use iron only for themselves.

b) it helped them to sell iron at high price.

c) they were very ptimitive people.

3. Early smiths could not produce proper steel because:

a) they did not know the right percentage of carbon.

b) the furnaces were not hot enough. c) they tried to introduce oxygen.

4. Great skill and dexterity were required to extract iron from ore because:

a) iron was heated very quickly.

b) the furnaces were not hot enough and tongs hadn’t been invented.

c) the hammer was too heavy.

Exercise 5. Give a written Russian translation of the following sentences.

 

Iron is the commonest of all metallic elements (symbol Fe), used in various forms. Practically all of the iron is extracted from its chemical compounds in the blast furnace. A certain amount of harmful impurities is always present in iron ore. Ferrous metals are used in industry in two general forms: cast iron and steel.

Steel is iron containing to 1.7 per cent carbon content. Pure iron is not used in industry because it is too soft.

Cast iron is a hard, brittle, non-malleable iron-carbon alloy containing 2.0 to 4.5 % carbon, 0.5 to 3% silicon and lesser amounts of sulphur, manganese and phosphorus.

 

 

Task 3.

Focus on Grammar

 

Exercise 1. Explain the use (or absence) of the definite article in the cases

given below.

 

1. Life seems impossible without iron. 2. It is the cheapest metal. 3. Asia Minor. 4. The Black Sea. 5. The most important process. 6. Iron is the sixth metal discovered by man. 7. Iron appeared in Britain in the Bronze Age. 8. The first traces of iron. 9. A small percentage of carbon. 10. The carbon comes from the fuel in the furnace in which the iron was heated. 11. Great skill and dexterity were required.

 

 

Degrees of Comparison

 

long - longer - the longest

important - more important - the most important

Special cases: good - better - the best

bad - worse - the worst

little - less - the least

many/much - more - the most

far - farther - the farthest

further - the furthest

 

With the help of the degrees of comparison we can contrast differences.

For example: Mercury has the lowest melting point.

The melting point of copper is slightly higher than gold

and lower than platinum.

We can contrast differences also with the help of the following patterns.

is unlike не похож на

Iron is different from отличается от alunimiun

differs from

 

Unlike iron в отличие от

In contrast to iron aluminium is light

Compared to iron

 

In comparison to iron по сравнению с железом

 

 

Note: The structure “the”+Comparative+”the better”