| Hieroglyphs | Phonetic Value | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Ba. | Earth, Metal, Soul, Circle, Seed, Corn. | |
| Ba. | Iron. | |
| Ba’a. | Iron, Earth. | |
| Ba’aenpe (Benipe or Penipe). | Iron. | |
| Bet. | Iron. |
Mr. Day (who has drawn it up) observes that ‘BA’ (
) is a constant in the phonetic values assigned to the uncertain hieroglyphs for iron, and feels disposed to believe it synonymous with χαλκός, base metal in general. He would translate the Saidic ‘ΒΕΝΙΠΕ’ and the Coptic ‘ΠΕΝΙΠΕ’ by ‘stone (ΒΕ) of (ΝΙ) sky or heaven (ΠΕ)’; in fact, ‘sky-stone,’ alluding to meteoric iron, probably the first utilised. Dr. Birch holds ‘BA’ to be a general term for metal made particular, as in Greece, by prefixed adjectives (white, black, yellow) denoting the quality of the ore. And hence the determinative of ‘BA’ (metal, stone, or hard wood) is the cube or parallelogrammic block which denotes building and building materials.
Native iron may be distributed into two great divisions, extra-terrestrial and terrestrial. The former is known as meteoric or nickeliferous. Mr. Day (pp. 22–23) gives analyses of this form, and takes, from Chladni[329] and others, a list of masses that fell in Siberia, Thuringia, and Dauphiné; in West African Liberia, and in American Sta. Fé de Bogotá, and Canaan, Connecticut. Though many trials have been made in working extra-terrestrial metal, all have hitherto failed; the phosphorus, nickel and its alter ego, cobalt, render the forgings, in our present state of technology, too brittle for use. Terrestrial or telluric iron is again divided into two classes—the nearly pure ore and the native steel. According to the schedule of Rosset:
Iron is a metal not cast and malleable.
Steel „ cast and malleable.
Pig-iron „ cast and not malleable.
That iron was common amongst the ancient Egyptians we may assume as proved. Mr. A. Henry Rhind, when opening the tomb of Sebau (nat. b.c. 68), noted on the massive doors ‘iron hasps and nails,’ ‘as lustrous and as pliant as on the day they left the forge.’ Belzoni, who died in 1823, found an iron sickle under the feet of one of the Karnak Sphinxes dating from b.c. 600. In June 1837, Mr. J. R. Hill, employed by Colonel Howard Vyse, when blasting and excavating the Jízeh[330] Pyramid, came upon a piece of iron, apparently a cramp, near the channel-mouth of one of the air-passages: it had thus been preserved from rust, and its authenticity cannot be doubted. Some suggested that it was used for scraping and finishing; others for finally levelling the faces of dressed stone, but it tapers off from the middle to an edge on either side and it narrows at one end.[331] This relic can hardly be of later date than b.c. 4000–3600, when Khufu (Cheops) built his burial-place and inscribed in it his hieroglyphic shield[332] or cartouche
