For almost all of human history, iron ore was simply "useless red rock." How did ancient people—without chemistry, without the periodic table, and without theory—manage to extract from it the metal that holds the entire modern world together?

In this video:
— Why did the first iron literally fall from the sky, and what does Tutankhamun's dagger have in common with a meteorite;
— Why was iron 40 times more valuable than silver;
— What 400 degrees Celsius separated the Bronze Age from the Iron Age;
— How an accident in a copper smelter's furnace led to the first bloomery;
— How the collapse of the Bronze Age and a tin shortage forced the world to switch to iron;
— China's cast iron, India's Wutz steel, and African hot-air furnaces;
— From the bloomery to the Bessemer converter and skyscrapers;
— Three main myths about the discovery of iron.

One chemical reaction, observed three thousand years ago in a clay oven, still builds our cities.

#history #iron #ironage #bronzeage #metallurgy #archaeology #ancientworld #historyoftechnology #steel