Metallurgy in Russia. Tales of bog iron and brown coal

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Most of the inhabitants of the former USSR have very vague ideas about the actual development of metallurgy before the 20th century. Perhaps people remotely heard about the Demidovs, their factories in the Urals.

The majority thinks about the possibility of developing metallurgy in the European part of Russia that there was no metallurgy, since there are no ore deposits in the European part of Russia.

Someone out of the corner of his ear heard something about bolt iron, that supposedly ore was mined from the swamps, the ore somehow, the peasants in the barns smelted a lame mare on horseshoes, and then people think - if the iron is swamp, then all this is certainly very primitive, but the iron itself is of poor quality.

If there is no normal iron, then there is no development of industry, which means that in Russia there was backwardness, bast shoes and everything was made of wood.

This idea was seized upon by historians - followers of the Norman theory of the eternal backwardness of the Slavs, which we are constantly reminded of in museums.

In this issue, I want to tell you about the strangeness of the development of metallurgy in Russia, debunk the myths about the swamp iron, show the missing cities, and also go to the vicinity of the ancient city of Vyatichi - Dedoslavl in order to try to find an old mine, see traces of ore mining, and maybe, if you're lucky, and the ore itself.

Metallurgy is both a science and an art, it is the presence of metallurgy that distinguishes a developed society from a primitive one.

We are now quite dismissive of metals, since we have a developed industry, and it is not a problem to get metal, but imagine what efforts it took people to get metals for plows, horseshoes swords and other products … survivors of the disaster, when they did not even have a roof over your head?

In the book of 1826 it is written that the first ironworks were opened in 1632, allegedly by the Dutchman Vinius, whether this was actually so unknown, and why it was a Dutchman - it is also unclear whether Holland was once a metallurgical power?

Why were foreign craftsmen needed if 40 tons of products were cast in Moscow 100 years earlier? It is obvious that for the casting of 40 tons of bronze, advanced metallurgy, industry, transport and science are needed.

The history of metallurgy, and especially the invention of methods for smelting steel, has long gone from the field of common sense to the field of politics, if you read historical works, then countries literally measure the height of blast furnaces, who had it higher and built earlier than others.

Russia was struck off the list of powers that had a developed steel industry, although we have everything for steel smelting - ore, forests for burning into charcoal, there is also coal, deep rivers for energy, talented inventors, engineers, craftsmen and workers …

Moreover, when swords, plows and horseshoes have been forged, the industry needs to be developed further.

The development of industry requires metallurgists to have alloyed steels, at least for cutters, drills, swords and dies. All these products require alloying additions from metallurgists - tungsten, molybdenum, nickel, chromium - where are the deposits of these metals found in abundance?

In Europe? Maybe in Russia in the Urals?

Officially, steel was not invented in India or Mexico, or in Egypt, and naturally not in Russia, but in England. Officially, the first method of steel production was developed in 1784 and was called Pudling, and the second, developed in 1856 by the Bessemer method.

And now a little history of the actual use of steel and iron.

In 1852, a huge steel bridge was being built in Kiev.

The roofs of the first gas holders in St. Petersburg, built in 1835, were covered with steel beams.

I want to show you an old house, from the late 18th to early 19th century, in which steel I-beams were originally used as floors.

1600-1700 breech-loading steel guns with a rifled barrel

On the map of Moskovsky in 1706, near the Baltic Sea, you can see a city with a very strange and self-explanatory name - Johannesstal, now this city does not exist.

St. Sophia Cathedral in Veliky Novgorod was built about 1000 years ago, it has huge bronze …