The history of steel begins way before skyscrapers and I-beams. It actually begins in the stars! Meteors filled with iron and carbon slammed into one another, creating the earth we all walk on today. Once humans began to walk on earth and discovered iron, they became obsessed with extracting it and utilizing it and eventually turning it into steel.
King Tutankhamun (more commonly known as King Tut) had a dagger made of iron worthy of only pharaohs at the time. When Howard Carter, the archaeologist that discovered King Tut's tomb, laid eyes on the dagger, he knew it was of great importance, but what he didn't know was that it was from space.
Once Rome came around, they bought up tons of steel and forged swords for their great army. Once this happened, iron was a common metal, and its days of being a rare and valuable metal were over.
Fun Facts:
- During that time, the Japanese were widely regarded as the best swordmakers in the world. They produced blades for the samurai that were light and deadly sharp blades. The weapons became heirlooms, passed down for generations and the creation of these blades was an intricate and ritualized affair.
- Benjamin Huntsman is credited with inventing the process that creates steel. In seven decades time, the entirety of England knew the process to create steel.
- Andrew Carnegie created so much iron in his mills, it was equivalent to the production of all of England.
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