(27) How, then are we to explain this problem? Much as I hate to admit it, I am driven to the conclusion that the ancient Egyptians possessed some simple method of tempering copper to the hardness of modern tool-steel [11]; even now copper with 2 % of alloy may, by heavy hammering, be brought to the hardness of mild steel. This has been suggested by many writers, and examples of tools are known—Wilkinson quotes one in volume II, p. 255—where the malletted end of the chisel was worn by the blows, but where the point was sharp; of course that might be explained by the fact that it had just been re-sharpened, but I have myself seen a chisel where the cutting-edge was chipped in the same manner as a modern steel tool instead of being burred. I was unable to purchase this specimen, but I tried the point with a knife, and was able to scratch it as I could any other piece of copper; the temper, therefore, must have been temporary (cf. WILKINSON, Manners and Customs, vol. II, p. 255, and PETRIE, Arts and Crafts, p. 100).
[11] There has lately been a rumour that a method has been discovered in America for tempering copper, and that a company is being formed for its exploitation; if this is true, it will relieve archæologists considerably, who have been at their wits’ end for a good explanation for the last 50 years.
If this is the true solution, it is probable that the knowledge died out when the use of iron and steel became general, as its value in not producing sparks could hardly have been foreseen. It is not surprising therefore that the knowledge died out when it was no longer a necessity.
It might be remarked that instead of having a method of greatly hardening copper, the Egyptians might have been able to temper iron. The experiments on iron and its properties during the last century have been innumerable and, had there been a method, apart from the introduction of carbon, of tempering iron to a very great hardness, I think that it would certainly have been discovered by now. In our present state of knowledge, it is best to leave the subject as an open question.
CHAPTER V. TRANSPORT OF OBELISKS.
(28) Before entering into the question of the transport of obelisks, it may be as well to give extracts from ancient writers. They throw very little light on the problem, the Roman and Greek writers only giving what seems to be third-rate hearsay information, while the Ancient Egyptians usually confine themselves to statistics as to the numbers of men employed.
King Menthu
otpe IV sent an expedition of 10,000 men to the Wady Hammâmât quarries to bring in a sarcophagus, and records that it took 3,000 sailors from the Delta nomes to remove the lid, measuring 4 by 8 by 2 cubits, from there to Egypt. This seems to shew that a pressed gang of the amphibious Delta inhabitants from the lakes had been taken out to the quarries. At any rate we are told that “not a man perished, not a troop was missing, not an ass died and not a workman was enfeebled” (BREASTED, Ancient Records, I, 215). This was more fortunate than the expedition of Ramesses IV quoted below, but it gives no details of the various kinds of artisan employed.
In the reign of Amenem