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Show FAMOUS RELIC OF THE PAST Ircn Pillar of Delhi, Made of Welded Metal, Was Wrought Some 1,500 Years Ago. The famous "Iron Pillar" of Delhi, which stands in the inner courtyard of the VQuth" mosque, about nine miles south of the modern city, has always excited the interest of metallurgists and engineers as well as historians. It was probably made about 413 A. D., and moved to its present site in 10H2. As it is between 23 and 24 feet high, 1? inches in diameter at the baseband Yi at tl,e tip, and probably weighs over six tons, its manufacture at so early a period as the fifth century partakes par-takes somewhat of the marvelous. And it v.as rendered even more of a manufacturing manu-facturing wonder when the discovery was made some years ago that it was J a solid piece of welded wrought-iron. The curious yellowish tinge of the upper up-per part, had led to the belief that it consisted of brass or bronze. The weeding weed-ing together of such a mass of metal in those primitive days, centuries before be-fore the era of modern . forges and drop hammers, must have been a mighty troublesome job for King Can-dra's Can-dra's iron workers. Some years ago Sir Alexander Cunningham Cun-ningham had a rough analysis of the metal in the Pillar made, which finally proved it to be wrought iron. Sir Robert Krdfield, a past president of the British Iron and Steel Institute, recently obtained new samples of the column and subjected them to a careful care-ful and very thorough analysis "the first thorough analysis," he believes. The result was as follows: "Carbon, 0.0S; silicon, 0.046; sulphur, 0.006: phosphorus, 0.114; iron, 99.72; total 90.966." Plainly a really excellent type of wrought iron, says Sir Robert, and much to be wondered at when the date of its manufacture is borne In mind. The small quantity of sulphur indicates the use of unusually pure fuel, y obably charcoal. The absence of manganese, an element usually present in wrought Iron, is also of interest. in-terest. The specific gravity of the metal was found to be 7. SI. |