ABSTRACT
Reference to iron is found in the earliest pages of history. The origin of its use belongs to a still more remote and unknown period. It was not until the ages of stone and bronze gradually merged into the iron age, when most of the useful metals had become known, that the historic period took its rise. These three ages, however, were not definite periods in the history of the whole human race, but merely steps or stages in the development of particular tribes or nations. Thus, eight hundred years before Christ, while implements and weapons of stone and wood were still used in western and northern Europe, the age of bronze was creeping over the southern and central portions of the Continent; but at that time, according to Bible history, the use of iron had been known for over three thousand years.
