Page "Alloy" Paragraph 20

The first known smelting of iron began in Anatolia, around 1800 BC.

Called the bloomery process, it produced very soft but ductile wrought iron and, by 800 BC, the technology had spread to Europe.

Pig iron, a very hard but brittle alloy of iron and carbon, was being produced in China as early as 1200 BC, but did not arrive in Europe until the Middle Ages.

These metals found little practical use until the introduction of crucible steel around 300 BC.

These steels were of poor quality, and the introduction of pattern welding, around the 1st century AD, sought to balance the extreme properties of the alloys by laminating them, to create a tougher metal.