"Great submarine depressions and elevations which have so largely affected Europe, Asia and America, during the secondary, tertiary , and quasi-modern periods, have not affected Africa . In fact, Africa is the oldest continent in the world...
"Here at every third or fourth village, we see a kiln -looking structure , about six feet high, two-and-a-half or three feet in diameter. It is a clay, fire-hardened furnace for smelting iron. No flux is used, whether the specular iron, the yellow haematite, or magnetic iron ore is fused, and yet capital metal is produced. Native manufactured iron is so good, that the natives declare English iron to be 'rotten' in comparison, and specimens of African hoes were pronounced at Birmingham to be nearly equal to the best Swedish iron."
P. 420-421, "Kota-Kota Bay to Chinanga," NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI by David and Charles Livingstone (1865)
Monday, January 29, 2018
AFRICAN KILN
"Great submarine depressions and elevations which have so largely affected Europe, Asia and America, during the secondary, tertiary , and quasi-modern periods, have not affected Africa . In fact, Africa is the oldest continent in the world...
"Here at every third or fourth village, we see a kiln -looking structure , about six feet high, two-and-a-half or three feet in diameter. It is a clay, fire-hardened furnace for smelting iron. No flux is used, whether the specular iron, the yellow haematite, or magnetic iron ore is fused, and yet capital metal is produced. Native manufactured iron is so good, that the natives declare English iron to be 'rotten' in comparison, and specimens of African hoes were pronounced at Birmingham to be nearly equal to the best Swedish iron."
P. 420-421, "Kota-Kota Bay to Chinanga," NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI by David and Charles Livingstone (1865)