Metallurgy is One of the World's Oldest Arts

• Iron samples have been discovered dating back to 4000 B.C.
• The art of iron making was well known to the ancient Egyptians by the time of Ramses II (1290-1223 B.C.).
• Most of the advances before the fifteenth century in the field of metallurgy were introduced to Europeans by Arab craftsmen.
• Once established in Europe, metallurgy, specifically iron production, suddenly expanded and iron became essential at the time of the Industrial Revolution.
• The invention of the Bessemer process in 1856, by British engineer Henry Bessemer, made steel affordable and led to the nonstop production of steel-related products.
• Products such as planes, trains, automobiles, and machines of every kind all require the use of an art and basic technology that started almost 6,000 years ago.

Metals are extracted from ores in three primary ways:

1. Dry processes; such as, smelting, volatilization, or amalgamation; which is treatment with mercury.
2. Wet processes, involving chemical reactions.
3. Electrolytic processes, which work on the principle of eletcrolysis using electricity conducted by a solution or melt to effect chemical changes.

The importance of metals in the progress of the modern world.

Physical metallurgy begins with the dressing of ore, using physical methods; such as, crushing, grinding, and separation by gravity to separate the various minerals that are found in a specific ore.