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a general survey. 253
swords and won fame in their craft doubtless not merely fashioned and
tempered the weapons, but also knew the still greater art of producing a
good steel material out of ore. The oldest mining records preserved are a
document from the year 1288, relating to a share in Stora Kopparberget
(Great Copper Mountain), a deed of transference of the year 1303 dealing
with a share in the iron mountain of Norberg, a mining statute of the
year 1340 concerning "Yiästra Berget" (West Mountain), and a deed of
privilege of the year 1347 referring to Stora Kopparberget. In 1461
is mentioned a blast furnace in Närke. However, it was not till the 16th
and 17th centuries that the blast furnace process came into general use
in Sweden.
The later development of Swedish mining and metallurgical science
was on the whole influenced by Swedish conditions and requirements,,
though investigations and inventions of wider scope are not lacking.
The early felt need of quality and the consequent endeavour after
a profounder knowledge of the essential nature of the processes employed,
explains how scientific metallurgy came to be elaborated earlier in
Sweden than in other countries. Within this sphere Swedish mining and
metallurgy from the 18th century down to the present day can boast of
quite a series of eminent scientists. Work prolific in results has been
done-in Sweden, to determine the chemical composition of iron, to ascertain the
physical properties of iron and steel, to master the processes employed in
roasting kilns, blast furnaces, hearths and so forth, and to study the right
treatment of steal. New methods of quantitative analysis have also been
elaborated from time to time by Swedish scientists: several of these
methods have been adopted in all the iron-producing countries.
Passing to the technique of mining and metallurgy, it should be noticed
that dynamite, the far-reaching importance of which has been universally
recognised, is a Swedish invention. The Bessemer process, the most
ingenious of refining methods, has been developed to the point of effeciency
in Sweden. This process, like others of foreign origin transplanted to
Sweden, has been improved there and adapted to Swedish requirements. The
ore-roasting process has been successfully handled by Swedish metallurgists,
and solutions of the problem have been attained in several different ways:
the latest is the Ramén-Beskow furnace intended for the manufacture of
copper; this furnace is also extensively used abroad. — Two other old
problems, the briquetting of pulverised ore, and the direct production
of soft iron, have also been solved, for certain specific purposes, in
Sweden, the former by the Gröndal process of briquetting the iron ore
with– out the use of binding mediums, and the latter by the reduction of ore
into-sponge iron with inferior fuel, in accordance with Sieurin’s method. The
first practical electric blast furnace, as is generally known, originated in
Sweden, and several electric steel furnaces — among them the remarkable
Kjellin furnace — have also been constructed there. The first iron
works-driven throughout by electricity are also Swedish. An electric process
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