The History of a Lump of Iron, etc

Preface

. In selecting Iron as a subject for a brief History, the Author was aware that in treating upon so great a theme he would necessarily have to leave much unsaid. He has endeavoured, however, to select from the vast accumulation of published processes and facts such varied material as would be most likely to interest the General Reader, and at the same time afford instruction to the more youthful members of the community. In associating Magnetism with the History of Iron, the Author has, he trusts, justified himself in the Chapter referring to the Native Magnet, or Loadstone, in which many facts are brought to notice which cannot fail to prove interesting to all readers. CONTENTS.

PAGE Chapter I.— Early History of the Uses of Iron . - i The Rev. Basil Cooper on the employment of Iron by the Egyptians .....-• 3 Mr. Day on the early Uses of Iron . . • -5 Discovery of a piece of Iron in the Great Pyramid . . 6 Dr. Percy's observations on Mr. Layard's discoveries at Nineveh . . . ■ ■ 7 Dr. Schliemann's discoveries . . ■ ■ -9 Chapter IL— Mineralogy of Iron— Pure Native Iron- Native NlCKELIFEROUS IRON, OR METEORIC IRON — Native Steel Iron— Magnetite— Titaniferous Iron Sand— Iron Glance, or Specular Iron Ore— Sulphides of Iron— Red Oxide of Iron— Brown Oxide of Iron — Compact Carbonate of Iron . . . n Pure Native Iron . . • • • .12 Native Nickeliferous Iron — Native Steel Iron — Magnetite, Black Oxide of Iron, or Loadstone . ■ • r3 Titaniferous Iron Sand— Iron Glance, Specular Iron Ore, or Red Iron Ore . . • • • ■ x4 Sulphides, or Sulphurets of Iron— Yellow Sulphide of Iron, or Iron Pyrites . . • • ■ ■ l5 Red Oxide of Iron, Sesquioxide of Iron, or Hematite . . 16 Brown Oxide of Iron— Ætites, or " Eagle Stones " . . -7 Granular Brown Oxide, or Bone Ore— Native Carbonate of Iron, Spathose, or Sparry Ore, Siderite, or Brown Spar . 18 Compact Carbonate of Iron, or Clay Iron-Stone . . 19 Pitchy Iron Ore — Yenite— Arsenical Iron, or Mispickel— Native Phosphate of Iron . . • • • 20 Native Sulphate of Iron, Green Vitriol, or Green Copperas— Chromate of Iron, or Chrome Ore . . ■ ■ 21 Arseniate of Iron— Carburet of Iron— Oxalate of Iron, or Humboldtite— Titanite of Iron— Emery— Ochres . . 22 Chapter III.— Native Iron — Meteorites, or Aerolites — Theories concerning their Origin— Their Chemical Composition . . ■ • • • • 23 Native Iron— Origin of Meteoric Stones . . .23 VI CONTENTS. page Mrs.

Somerville's Remarks on Meteorites . . -24 Description of the Fall of a Meteorite . . . .27 Analysis of an Aerolite — Accounts of some remarkable Meteoric Stones . . . . . .28 Chapter IV. — Cast-Iron, How formerly Made — Substitution of Coal for Charcoal in Smelting Iron . . 30 Simon Sturtevant first uses Coal for Smelting . . .31 First use of Coke as Fuel — Henry Cort's Inventions of the Puddling Process and Cylinder Rolling . . .32 Neilson's Invention of the Hot-blast . . . -33 Chapter V. — Manufacture of Cast-Iron — The Blast Furnace — Hot-blast Stoves — Preparation of the Ore for Smelting — Coking the Coal — Charging the Furnace . . . . . . -34 The Blast-furnace described . . . . -35 Hot-blast Stoves . . . . . . -38 Preparation of the Ore for Smelting . . . -39 Coking the Coal for Smelting Purposes — Charging the Furnace . . . . . . -41 Chapter VI. — Manufacture of Wrought-Iron from Pig- Iron — The Refining Process — The Puddling Process — Forging the Iron into Bar-Iron . . 42 The Refining Process — The Puddling Process . . -43 Forging the Iron into Bar-Iron . . . . -47 The Shingling Mill and Plate-rolling Mill . . .48 Chapter VII. — Ironfounding — The Patterns — Moulding in Green Sand — Moulding in Baked Sand — Moulding in Loam — Melting the Cast-Iron . . -49 Classification of Cast-iron — -The Pattern . . -SO Moulding in Green Sand . . . . .51 Moulding in Baked Sand — Moulding in Loam . . .52 Melting the Cast-iron . . . . . 54 Chapter VIII. — Miscellaneous Improvements in the Iron Industries . . . . . . .56 Hand-made Nails— Origin of Machine-made, or "cut nails" 56 French Wire Nails . • • 57 Galvanized Sheet-Iron— Telegraph Wire . contents.

VII PAGE Chapter IX. — Chemical Uses of Iron . . . -59 Ferrocyanide of Potassium, or Yellow Prussiate of Potash . 59 Sulphate of Iron, or Copperas . . . . .60 Perchloride of Iron — Manufacture of Prussian Blue and Jewellers' Rouge by Watt's Process . . .61 Quevenne's Iron — Citrate of Iron — Lactate of Iron — Tartrate' of Iron — Tincture of Sesquichloride of Iron, or Steel drops . . . . . . . -63 Acetates of Iron — Dr. Callan's Iron Battery — Facing Engraved Copper plates and Electrotypes with Iron by Electro-deposition . . . ■ . . .64 Iron Salts used in Dyeing Silks, Woollen Goods, &c. . . 65 Chapter X. — Manufacture of Steel — Bar Steel, or Steel of Cementation — Shear Steel — Cast Steel, or Crucible Steel — Bessemer's Process for Making Steel . . . . . . .66 Steel, a Carburet of Iron — Natural Steel . . .66 Bar Steel, Steel of Cementation, or Blistered Steel . . 67 Shear Steel — Cast Steel, or Crucible Steel . . .69 Crucible Steel invented by Huntsman — Making Crucible Moulds . . . . . . -7° Bessemer's Process for Making Steel . . . -72 The Bessemer Converter — Importance of the Bessemer Processes . . . . . . -73 German Natural Steel . . . . . -75 Chapter XL — Manufacture of Steel continued— Siemens' Process for Making Steel — Mushet's Process — Hindoo Process — Damascus Blades — Damaskeening — Case-hardening — Hardening and Tempering Steel 76 The Siemens- Martin Process . ... . 76 Dr. Siemens' Description of his Process . . -77 Mushet's Steel Process . . . . . .80 Hindoo Process for Making Steel . . .82 Cast Steel — Steel a true Chemical Compound . . .83 Damascus Steel . . . . . . -84 Damaskeening — Case-hardening . , . -85 Hardening and Tempering Steel . . . .86 Table of Temperature for Tempering various Steel articles . 87 Parkes' Table of the Melting points of alloys of Lead and Tin for Tempering — Horsfall's Process for Tempering Pianoforte Wires ..... .88 CONTENTS.

PAGE Chapter XII. — Native Magnet, or Loadstone — Artificial Magnets produced by the Native Magnet — Mag netization by Artificial Magnets — Magnetization by the Electric Current . . . • 89 Artificial Magnets produced by the Native Magnet — Magnetization by Artificial Magnets — Magnetization by single touch . . . ■ . ■ ■ -9° Magnetism by double touch . . . ■ • 91 Electro-Magnets, how made . . . . -92 Magnetization by the Electric Current . . . -93 Faraday's Discovery of Magneto -Electricity — Electricity produced from Magnetism — Magnetism produced by Electricity — Siemens and Wheatstone discover Dynamo- Electricity — The Dynamo-Electric Machine . 94 Dr. Siemens explains the principle upon which Dynamo- Electricity is generated . . . . -95 Interesting Notes . . . . . . -97 Henry Cort's Inventions — Fairbairn's observations on the importance of . . . . -97 The black colour of Irish Bog Oak due to Iron— Huntsman's secret stolen from him . . . . -99 Affinity of Iron for Carbon — Faraday and Stodart's experiments on Alloys of Steel with Silver, Platinum, Iridium, and other metals ...... ioi Iron from a Morass — Ehrenberg's discoveries concerning infusoria ....... 102 Sulphuret of Iron — Fossils derive their colour from Iron . 103 The Ironstone of Cleveland — Mushet describes the phenomena attending the flowing out of Iron from the furnace . 104 Artificial Petrifaction ...... 105 Professor Roscoe applies spectrum analysis to the flame issuing from the Bessemer Converter . . . 107 Separation of Iron Ore by Magnetism . . . i0S Estimate of the world's production of Iron . . iog Magnetism in Iron Rails— Armstrong obtains Electricity from jets of steam . . TTn Iron_______________________________________________________________________________________ in

Chapter I

Early History of the Uses of Iron. .When we reflect that the wealth and prosperity of Great Britain are chiefly due to the vast store of Coal and Iron which bounteous Nature has so lavishly bestowed upon her, much interest must necessarily attach to substances which have done, and are still doing, so much for our well-being as a nation. Taken by itself, there is nothing very remarkable in a Lump of Iron, but we will endeavour to show, however, that few substances in nature yield a more interesting subject for reflec tion, while assuredly none other — excepting Coal — has proved so immensely serviceable to man. "Whether we handle the delicate and exquisitely-formed needle — which passes through some hundred and twenty operations for its completion — or behold the mighty Nasmyth hammer, or the ponderous and complicated steam-engine, we cannot but admire the genius of those who, from the crude and shapeless ore, have produced such marvels of ingenuity and skill.

Expatiating on the uses of this important metal, Dr. Ure says, " Iron accommodates itself to all our wants, our desires, and even our caprices ; it is equally serviceable to the arts, the sciences, to agriculture, and to war j the same ore furnishes the sword, the ploughshare, the scythe, the pruning-hook, the needle, the graver, the spring of a watch or of a carriage, the chisel, the chain, the anchor, the compass, the cannon and the bomb. It is a medicine of much virtue, and is the only metal friendly to the human frame." To this we may add, it supplies our rail and tramways, our ships, our steam boilers and engines, and in great part our dynamo-electric machines, from which we obtain our electric light ; it also forms our bridges, our lamp-posts, our telegraph wires, and the pipes which convey our water and gas.

Early History of the Uses of Iron. — Although there have been many differences of opinion as to when the so-called Iron Age commenced, there can be no doubt whatever that this metal was employed for various useful purposes even so early as the sixth generation from the creation of the world, for we read in the 4th chapter of Genesis, v. 22, that Tubal-cain was " an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." In Daniel ii. 40, occurs this passage : " Iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things," and mention is made, not only of iron as a metal, but also of its being applied to many useful purposes, both peaceful and warlike, in many other passages in the Old and New Testaments. Mr. Watson, in his " Biblical . and Theological Dictionary," observes : " The knowledge of working it was very ancient ; we do not, however, find that Moses made use of iron in the fabric of the tabernacle in the wilderness, or Solomon in any part of the temple at Jerusalem.

Yet, from the manner in which the Jewish legislator speaks of iron, the metal, it appears, must have been in use in Egypt before his time. He celebrates the great hardness of it in Levit. xxvi. 19 ; Deut. xxviii. 23, 48 • takes notice that the bedstead of Og, King of Bashan, was of iron, Deut. iii. ii; he speaks of mines of iron, Deut. viii. g ; and he compares the severity of the servitude of the Israelites in Egypt to the heat of a furnace for melting iron, Deut. iv. 20. We find, also, that swords, Numb. xxxv. 16 : axes, Deut. xix. 5, and tools for cutting stones, Deut. xxvii. 5, were made of iron. By the 'northern iron,' Jer. xv. 12, we may probably understand the hardened Iron called in Greek from the Chalybes, a people bordering on the Euxine Sea, and conse quently lying on the north of Judea, by whom the art of tempering steel is said to have been discovered.

Strabo speaks of this people by the name Chalybes, but afterwards Chaldæi, and mentions their mines." Regarding the knowledge and employment of Iron by the Egyptians, the Rev. Basil Cooper remarks : — " It must, I think, be conceded that, supposing Iron to have been known to the Egyptians, its employment in the construction of those Titanic erections, the Pyramids, is far more probable than the hypothesis that none but bronze tools were used, and this, I think, can be satisfactorily demonstrated. " The proof is based on the extremely significant Coptic word for Iron, as illustrated and explained by the mode in which it is written in the hieroglyphical inscriptions, and on the occurrence of that word as a componant element in the name of an Egyptian Pharoah belonging to the dynasty. The modern Egyptian word for Iron is, in the Sahidic dialect, which is considered to be the purest, Benipi, or with a slight change in the final vowel Benipe.

In the hieroglyphical form of the language it is the same. "Its first element is B A or B E (in the Coptic B O) meaning ' hardwood or stone ;' and the two letters which spell the word are often accompanied in the hieroglyphical I inscriptions by a picture of the squared stone, such as those of which the Pyramids are built. At other times, as if to remind us that the word originally meant ' hardwood,' and that it was only in process of time that it came to denote ' hardware ' in general, including such stoneware as was going in very early times, the picture illustrating the spelt word was a branch or sprig. The middle syllable in the word Benipe consists of the letters N I, with a very short vowel. It is a preposition, answering to the English ' of.' The last element in the composite word is the syllable P E, which is the Coptic word for heaven, or the sky.

And that this is really its signification here is proved incontrovertibly by the pictures with which this syllable is wont to be accompanied in the hieroglyphical orthography of the word Benipe; for it is the picture invariably used to denote the heaven or the sky and is employed for no other purpose. Properly it represents the ceiling of a temple, which was regarded as itself a represen tation of the sky, the true ceiling of the true and original temple, and the picture is accordingly wont to be emblazoned with stars. Hence," says Mr. Cooper, " the signification of the entire word Benipe, although it could not for some time be conceived why the Egyptians should have called Iron by so singular a name as ' stone of heaven,' ' stone of the sky," ' sky stone.' " Sometime afterwards, however, it occurred to me that this was the very name which would naturally be given to the only iron with which men were likely to meet in a natural state.

There is but one exception to the rule that iron is never found native like gold and some other of the metals ; that exception is in the instance of meteoric iron, which might surely be called with propriety ' the stone of heaven or of the sky.' Moreover, and I have to thank my friend Mr. Pengelly for reminding me of the fact, and so naturally helping me to shape out my crude speculation — meteoric iron needs no preparatory process, as does that procured from ores, to render it workable. In short we may be sure, especially with the light thrown on the matter by the invaluable Egyptian word, bright with the radiance of that heaven which enters into its compo sition, that with this wondrous matter from another sphere than our own the working of Iron began." The theory that meteoric iron was used by the Egyptians, the Israelites, or other invaders of Egypt, for making tools for cutting stone, is to our mind far more satisfactory than that which suggests the employment of either bronze or stone implements in the building of such colossal structures as the Pyramids.

Indeed, it seems almost incredible that the hiero glyphic figures of animals, trees, and other objects of deification could have been so well executed with tools of bronze or stone. In Mr. Day's exhaustive treatise on the " Prehistoric Uses of Iron and Steel,"* the author remarks : — "To turn again to the question of the priority of Iron, how does the investigation result ? Not, as we should expect, according to the Stone, Bronze, and Iron succession doctrine, but precisely the reverse of that; for not only are iron instruments depicted in the tomb pictures of the fourth dynasty at Memphis itself ; among the monuments there Iron has been found, and is now in this country of ours. Not only is metallic iron found in that very locality, but, remarkably so, it has been found in the very oldest building there — and by the universal record of all who are competent to judge, the very oldest building in the whole earth ; not in that particular building either in such a way as to have been placed there by " Prehistoric Uses of Iron and Steel," by St. John V. Day. accident or intention, at a time subsequent to the erection, but in such a way as that it could have been placed there when, and snly when, the structure was in course of erection.

It may perhaps appear startling to be told that, after a plate of malleable Iron was removed by blasting it out from the solid masonry of the Great Pyramid by Colonel Howard Vyse, thirty-nine years ago, and which has been ever since deposited in the British Museum, we have altogether failed to meet with an allusion to it by any writer of the history of metallurgy, whilst by the Egyptologists, although confessedly well-known to some of them, its existence has never been referred to, until notice was first directed to it by the writer in 187 1. This piece of iron to which we refer was not dug up amongst any rubbish or concrete mass of matter at the foundations of the Pyramid which have there accumulated, but was obtained out of the solid masonry at the top of the building, as the following passage and certificates quoted from Howard Vyse's ' Pyramids of Egypt ' testify : — "Mr. Hill discovered a piece of Iron in an inner joint, near the mouth of the southern air-channel which is probably the oldest piece of Wrought Iron known.

It has been sent to the British Museum with the following certificates : — ' This is to certify that the piece of iron found by me near the rriouth of the air-passage in the southern side of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, on Friday, May 26th, was taken out by me from the inner joint, after having been removed by blasting the two outer tiers of the stones of the present surface of the Pyramid ; and that no joint or opening of any sort was connected with the above-mentioned joint, by which the iron could have been placed in it after the original building of the Pyramid. I also showed the exact spot to Mr. Perring, on Saturday, June 24th. "J. R. Hill. "Cairo, June 25th, 1837." " To the above certificate of Mr. Hill I can add that since I saw the spot at the commencement of the blasting, there have been two tiers of stone removed, and that if the piece of iron was found in the joint pointed out to me by Mr. Hill, and which was covered by a large stone, partly remaining, it is impossible it could have been placed there since the building of the Pyramid.

"J. T. Perring. " Cairo, June 27th, 1837." " We hereby certify that we examined the place whence the iron in question was taken by Mr. Hill, and we are of opinion that the iron must have been left in the joint during the building of the Pyramid, and that it could not have been inserted afterwards. " Ed. S. Andrews. " James Mash, ce." There can be no doubt whatever that, owing to the extreme oxidizability of Iron, any implements fabricated from this metal thousands, or even hundreds of years ago, would, unless pro tected from atmospheric influence in some way, be converted into oxide of iron, by which all traces of its form, or even its existence, would be lost for ever to human observation. That iron had been used almost in the earliest period of man's existence upon our earth is clearly established in the first Book of Moses, as we have shown, and if we do not now find relics of such extreme antiquity, at least Mr. Layard's researches have proved beyond doubt that the Assyrians employed this metal for many useful purposes nearly a thousand years before the Christian era.

Respecting the early use of Iron, Dr. Percy observes :-— " That the Assyrians were well acquainted with Iron is clearly established by the explorations of Mr. Layard, who has enriched the collection of the British Museum with many objects of iron from Nineveh of the highest interest. Among these may be mentioned tools employed for the most ordinary purposes, such as picks, hammers, knives, and saws. There is a saw similar in construction to that now used by carpenters for sawing large pieces of timber across. It was found in the North-west Palace at Nimroud, and it is computed that, while it could not date later than 880 b.c, it may -have been considerably earlier. " Among the ancient Greeks bronze evidently preceded iron, but many passages in Homer show that iron was common in his time, and that even the art of tempering iron by plunging it into cold water was well known.

The Romans were early acquainted with the art of extracting iron, and carried it out on a very large scale. They carried the art with them into the countries which they conquered, and Spain, Elba, and other localities attest the magnitude of their operations by the vastness of the debris which they left behind, in the shape of cinders from their furnaces," &c. The Romans, who were far behind the Carthagenians in respect to their navy, having no knowledge of ship-building, suffered greatly from the depredations of the Carthagenian fleet ; being a determined and resolute people, however, they resolved to possess themselves of an efficient fleet, to which end Fortune favoured them by the stranding of a Carthagenian galley, from the design of which they built their first fleet. Their vessels, however, not being sufficiently effective against their more powerful foes, the Romans constructed a destructive machine called the Corvus, which was made after the following fashion : " They erected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, of about one foot and a half in diameter, and about twelve feet long; on the top whereof they had a block, or pulley.

Round this piece of timber they had a stage or plat form of boards, four feet broad, and about eighteen feet long, which was well framed and fastened with iron. The entrance was longways, and it moved about the aforesaid piece of timber as on a spindle, and could be hoisted up within six feet of the top. About this there was a sort of parapet, knee-high, which was defended with up-right bars of iron, sharpened at each end, towards the top whereof there was a ring. Through this ring, fastening a rope, by the help of the pulley, they hoisted or lowered the engine at pleasure, and so with it attacked the enemy's vessels, sometimes on their bow and sometimes on their broadside as occasion best served. When they had grappled the enemy with these iron spikes, if they happened to swing broadside to broadside, then they entered from all parts ; but in case they attacked them on the bow, they entered, two and two, by the help of this machine, the foremost defending the forepart, and those that followed the flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of the parapet."* The above is from Polybius' account of the first warlike preparations which the Romans made by sea.

It will be noticed that their famous offensive and defensive machine owed its effectiveness to spikes of iron. The Romans are also said to have used slings or thongs, which were loaded with lead or iron. According to the Greek poets, Iron was not only known, but extensively used in their own time, but .the remarkable discoveries of Dr. Schliemann, Mr. Day thinks, tend to throw considerable doubt upon their accuracy. Rather than discredit these sublime writers, however, we should be more disposed to believe that any Iron implements made in their day, and still more such as may have existed in ancient Greece, had perished by the slow, but sure, process of oxidation. * Kennett's " Antiquities of Rome." Mr. Day makes the following observations upon this subject, which will be read with interest : — " Yet whilst Greek poets so wrote, it would now appear to be in direct antagonism to facts belonging to the period immediately preceding the times in which they flourished, if even they were not quite within their own ken, for the recent memorable researches of Dr. Schliemann* into the Hill of Hissarlik, in the Troad — whether he has really succeeded in disentombing the Ilion of Homer or not — indicate that he has dug down far enough to get at hard facts, and to have found relics, with every appearance of probability, belonging to a time preceding the establishment there of a Lydian dominion, or at the lowest estimate, about 1400 b.c, and extending thenceforward over a period of at least 1 700 years.

" Dr. Schliemann has found the superposed foundations of no less than four successive cities, but notably has not met with a progress, from a lower to a higher order of things, in any sense whatever. The city which he — and that with extremely strong evidence in his favour has pronounced to be Troy, of which Priam was King, being the second from the bottom (that a still older city) with the Palace, Treasure, Tower, wall, and a double scœan gate, of which Homer has sung, still extant. The con struction of the overlying cities is progressively inferior, until terminating in the Greek colonists, who had ceased to cut and dress stone, building their houses of wood If we then interrogate Dr. Schliemann on the evidence respecting the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, he tells us at once that the theory is all assumption, and not borne out by a single fact or relic to be met with in the Hill of Hissarlik, for there in the ruins of every city he finds knives, hatchets, and arrow-heads of flint, "Troy, and Its Remains," by Dr. Henry Schliemann. diorite, and a very hard transparent green stone, by thousands, in immediate contact with thousands of ornaments and articles of utility, formed not only of copper and bronze, but of gold also ; and while in the older deposits neither Iron nor Steel have been met with in the metallic state, yet certain relics, which have somewhat dubiously been denominated sling-bullets of Iron, in a state of oxide, were found in them, side by side with flint, copper, and bronze instruments.

Tin was also absent, although mentioned by Homer ; but Iron relics, still metallic, were found in the uppermost deposits." Dr. Schliemann's English editor remarks, " Such facts as these furnish a caution against a too hasty application of the theory ofthe Ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron."

Chapter II

Mineralogy of Iron — Pure Native Iron— Native Nickeliferous Iron, or Meteoric Iron — Native Steel Iron — Magnetite — Titaniferous Iron Sand— Iron-glance, or Specular Iron Ore — Sulphides of Iron — Red Oxide of Iron — Brown Oxide of Iron — Compact Carbonate of Iron, &c. Pure Native Iron is exceedingly rare, and, except in a few isolated instances, is generally believed to be of meteoric origin (see page 23). Iron chiefly occurs in combination with oxygen (oxides of iron), sulphur (sulphides of iron), or com bined with acids in the form of salts, as carbonate, sulphate, chromate of iron, &c. It is one of the most widely-diffused products of our earth, being present, in some form or other, in every part of the globe, permeating every soil, existing even in vegetables, and in the blood of the higher order of animals, the red colour of which is due to the presence of iron.

The brilliant red colour of coral* is due to a trace of peroxide of iron, and the beautiful veins and markings of the various marbles are also chiefly produced by oxides of iron ; indeed, there are comparatively few substances in nature with which this metal is not either directly or indirectly associated. Iron ores abound in all parts of the earth, and in every mineral formation, and that country which is most favoured by its presence, and that of its grand associate — Coal — from their transcendant importance to mankind, becomes the richest and most powerful country in the world. Such has been, and still is, England's proud position. May she long retain it ! The ores of Iron are the following : — Pure Native Iron. — The extreme rarity of Iron in a pure state, led many naturalists to doubt its being a natural product of our globe ; and in presence of the fact that masses of iron had frequently been known to descend upon our planet — but from whence none can tell — such scepticism would not be unreasonable.