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BOOK VIII
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183
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taken,
is made from iron that has been melted several times and thoroughly
cleansed of slag. Such iron comes from China, Pathicum, Noricum,
Comensis and Spain. In one locality iron changes into steel because of
the quality of the ore, as is the case today in Noricum, while in other
localities it is changed because of the water in which the iron is
quenched as at Como, Italy, and Bilbao and Turassio, Spain. Steel
commands a higher price than other varieties of iron because the more
often it is cleansed the more volume and weight it loses. Iron contains
a defect they call ferrugo (scale) and rubigo (rust)
produced at first through contact with moisture and more quickly
through contact with human blood. This defect is produced the quickest
by sea water and iron is protected from it by coating it with many
substances such as artificial lead oxide, cerussa, gypsum, bitumen, and liquid pitch. Unless it has been hardened by hammering it breaks more easily when heated to a red heat.
More
things are made from iron than from all other metals. It is used in
money; in rings worn by the Spartans; in chains worn by the Spanish
women; in large bowls such as those at Delphi that were the work of
Glaucus of Chios and placed there by Alyattes, King of Lydia; and in
statues such as the one in Laconia, the work of Theodorus Samius. It is
used to make nails, door hinges, bolts, keys, lattices, doors, folding
doors, spades, staves, small forks, hooks, tridents, three-legged
stools, anvils, hammers, wedges, chains, hoes, axes, scythes, baskets,
shovels, planes, rakes, ploughshares, pitchforks, dishes, spatulas,
platters, spoons, spits, knives, poniards, swords, hatchets, ferrules,
weapons, long Macedonian pikes, and various weapons that are known by
names derived from their origins, for example, pikes, javelins,
murices, corselets, helmets, breastplates, greaves, foot shackles,
manacles. So much concerning iron and other simple metals that either
occur pure in Nature or are purified by refining.
Now
may I speak about the metal alloys that are found native in mines and
are also smelted from ores. Nature mixes metals in various
proportions. Sometimes a third, fourth, fifth, or even sixth part of
one metal will occur in another, more often there is even a smaller
quantity. Two, three, four, or five metals may be mixed together. Two
metals may be mixed in many ways. Silver is alloyed with gold and gold
with silver; gold or silver with copper; silver, copper, or iron with
one of the plumbum metals; and silver, copper, or one of the plumbum metals
with iron. Another metal is sometimes mixed with tin or iron but any
other metal except silver is rare in bismuth or lead. With the
exception of two alloys, all of these lack names. One alloy is called electrum (electrum) and is a mixture of one part of silver in four of gold. The other is called stannum, an alloy with one part of lead in two parts of silver.
In former times they used electrum in
making goblets because they would show the presence of poison. Pliny
writes that when a poison is placed in one of these goblets a rainbow
forms, similar to the rainbow in
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