Posted on 10/14/2014 1:43:10 PM PDT by dware
More than 2,000 years ago, pieces of an Iron Age chariot were burnt and buried, perhaps as a religious offering. Now, archaeologists have discovered the bronze remains of this sacrifice. The remains were discovered at the Burrough Hill Iron Age Hillfort, a fortified hilltop structure that was once surrounded by farms and settlements, used most heavily between about 100 B.C. and A.D. 50.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
And another...
Bronze artifacts from the Iron Age. Who knew?
Bronze continued to be the prestige metal. The advantage of iron was that it was plentiful and cheap. I’m no expert, but I gather that bronze was actually superior for weapons and armor, but was too costly for mass use. Eventually, of course, steel trumped both bronze and iron.
Attempt at humor. Iron won out over bronze for its ability to hold an edge, especially after they learned to forge with some carbon to produce steel. For other applications, bronze had the advantages that you mention.
The pinnacle of iron was the US Civil War, although I believe the Eiffel Tower was constructed with very low carbon iron.
A colleague, working on his import, said that the exhaust system had bronze bolts - no rust, for no-hassle replacing of components.
Can’t remember the brand.
Probably Italian ,, Alfa or Lancia...
Again, I’m no expert, but I understand that Roman officers often wore bronze armor as a prestige item, long after the legions had been equipped with iron.
The Royal Navy used copper bolts on its wooden ships for the same reason, but they never built bronze ships.
You are correct, iron was plentiful, cheap and could be worked by simpler methods.
They also sheathed the hull below the waterline in copper to keep barnacles and augur worms from damaging the wood.
CC
Burned? my guess is it was an insurance scam at the end of the lease.
I believe the powder magazines were lined with copper to minimize the possibility of sparks.
And iron needs higher temps to smelt, so it followed bronze as the technology slowly advanced, although iron from meteors was forged much earlier, as it was already in metal form.
Way back in the day, on a Coast Guard buoy tender, we had bronze tools from the still earlier days of acetylene lamps, and for that very reason: bronze tools will not create sparks.
And the old (now retired} lightship radio rooms were in a separate deckhouse made of bronze. I can't say exactly why.
A prehistoric PINTO?
Thanks dware.
Nice!
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