2006-08-14 05:05:34 · 13 answers · asked by rewen trebor 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
The most likely explanation is that it emerged from pottery. Many of the pigments used in painting ceramics, especially reds, blues and greens, are ores of copper. Sometimes a pottery kiln develops reducing (low oxygen) conditions; the ore is thus reduced and the pure metal emerges as beads. This a flaw that sometimes occurs in pottery today.
Having seen this unusual feature, it is is relatively small step to do it on purpose with the intention of getting the shiny stuff.
Note that the earliest metal smelted, copper, sometimes occurs as "native " metal in nature, so it wasn't unkown before smelting was discovered.
2006-08-14 08:58:50 · answer #1 · answered by Paul FB 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some metals exist in their natural state in nature and can be found with little effort, eg. Gold and Silver and Copper. Finding these growing in the rocks of weathered out veins would have meant that man had to dig into thte ground to find more. Fire, the destructive tool of early man would have been ideal for breaking the rock away from around these native metals, and in the process could have liberated more molten metal by reducing oxide ores. A keen eyed early metallurgist would have noticed that these coloured paint stones could make metal when 'roasted' and 'smelted', and look where we are today.
2006-08-14 08:09:55 · answer #2 · answered by godsbod 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lightning set the ground ablaze and man put steak on this magic fire, and it was good. Too bad they didn't have hickory wood to spice it up a bit.
They also found some rock turned into solid metal after a really hot fire. So they used and shaped these pieces of metal, and hunted the meat down. From then on, i'm sure they figured out that if they grab the mineral and heat it up really hot, they could make tools out of it.
Just an idea of how it happened.
2006-08-14 05:10:42 · answer #3 · answered by flammable 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably by putting some rocks containing metalic ores around a campfire to act as a hearth and then finding metal in in the cinders once the fire's gone out.
2006-08-14 08:07:13 · answer #4 · answered by Andrew 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
excuse me. Not rocks!!! Ores
Man doesn't make metals. Metals are already there since the beginning. They just collect ores like iron ores for example and then they take out the impurities of that ore to have a pure metal.
2006-08-14 05:17:01 · answer #5 · answered by cooler 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first metal to be produced for any useful purpose was Copper (Cu) which is found as a distinctive greenish stain in rocks. It melts at 1084 degrees centigrade .
It was alloyed with Tin (Sn) which melts at 232 degrees centigrade (so can be extracted by a cooking fire) to form Bronze which was much more useful. Tin is usually found as Casserite Ore.
2006-08-14 06:44:01 · answer #6 · answered by Red P 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The theory is that men discovered fulgurites - where lightning fused part of the ground into a rocky substance, which contained partly smelted metals if the ground struck was rich in metal ores.
2006-08-14 06:26:13 · answer #7 · answered by fiat_knox 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
man started a fire and the rocks around it were copper ore, in the heat of the fire the copper melted out of the ore and the molten copper solidified and was found among the ashes in the morning.
experimentation lead to discovering other ores that produced metals when heated.
2006-08-14 05:13:07 · answer #8 · answered by only1doug 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
By accident...like most of mans best discoveries
2006-08-14 06:02:56 · answer #9 · answered by G Man 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was asking myself that exact question just the other day.
Dont have an answer though.
2006-08-14 15:29:56 · answer #10 · answered by chris_p26 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋