South Africa, Khoikhoi Iron Smelting

1. Manier van eyser te smelten 2. Hoe zy het tot gebruyk bequaam en 3. het zelve glad maken. (1. How to melt the way of eyser 2. How they make it available and 3. make it smooth). The Khoikhoi are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist non-Bantu indigenous population of southwestern Africa. Most early processes in Europe and Africa involved smelting iron ore in a bloomery, where the temperature is kept low enough so that the iron does not melt. This produces a spongy mass of iron called a bloom, which then must be consolidated with a hammer to produce wrought iron. Peter Kolbe (1675-1726) was a Dutch astronomer and naturalist. He is best remembered for his publication Naauwkeurige beschryving van de Kaap de Goede Hoop, describing the geography, climate, flora and fauna, followed by an accurate study of the Hottentots (Khoikhoi), covering their language, religion, lifestyle and customs. Cropped, original sized image appeared in: Naauwkeurige beschryving van de Kaap de Goede Hoop by Peter Kolbe, 1727

Picture No

12696967

Media ID

47683575

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3249px x 4350px (3.2MB)

Credit

BHL/Science Source/Mary Evans