iron ore found in the town of Lerbach (Part of Osterode am Harz)
On Saturday, April 5 (2025), the general meeting of the ‘Förderkreis Königshütte Bad Lauterberg e.V. ‘support group kings’ hut) will take place at the Hotel Riemann in Bad Lauterberg. As in previous years, the general meeting will start at 3 pm with a public lecture. Our first chairman, Mr. Hans-Heinrich Hillegeist, will give this lecture, entitled “On the trail of historic Harz ironworks".
What do you know about iron? For getting in the mood, here comes some - not all-encompassing - background information:
Iron is a naturally occurring chemical element with the element symbol Fe (Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. The element has an atomic mass of 55.845 and belongs to the group of metals. Iron is the fourth most common element in the earth's crust, it is not radioactive and it is solid at room temperature. The melting point of iron is 1538 °C, the boiling point 3000 °C. Iron is a base metal. When the metal comes into contact with moist air, there is a change in structure and colour, this process is called corrosion, we all know it as rust.
On earth, iron is mostly found in various ores and iron minerals. The inner core of the earth probably consists of an alloy with an iron content of 80 %.
Iron is also an essential trace element for all living beings, i.e. it is absolutely necessary for life, both for plant and animal life. In mammals, iron is an important basic building block of blood; it is present in the form of haemoglobin in the red blood cells and is necessary for the transportation of oxygen. The daily requirement of iron for an adult is between 10 and 15 mg. Many plant-based foods contain iron. Spinach certainly springs to mind, where a misplaced comma once led to many children being fed spinach because of its supposedly high iron content. But what people probably didn't know at the time was that spinach (iron content 38 mg/kg) contains substances (such as oxalic acid) that inhibit the absorption of iron in the body. But the consumption of dairy products also ensures that iron is poorly absorbed in the intestine. Coffee, black tea and red wine also enables the absorption of iron. In contrast, vitamin C promotes the absorption of the trace element. But that's just a side note.
Back to iron as an ore:
The discovery of iron extraction from iron ore (in this case red ironstone) and charcoal (for smelting) is attributed to the Hittites, an early Indo-European tribe that settled in the Near East in the 2nd millennium. The discovery was made around 1,400 B.C. The Hittites carefully guarded this knowledge of iron smelting as a secret.
After the decline of the Hittite Empire around 1,250 BC, this knowledge spread to the west and east (towards Central Europe and Persia and India respectively).
But even before people in various cultures learned to extract iron from the ore found on earth, they used meteoric iron, also known as celestial iron, which was already known before the actual “Iron Age”.
The relatively late use of iron in most cultures around the world was due to the difficulty of processing it. The complicated smelting process, in which the iron is extracted from the ore, requires knowledge of the correct technique. The iron must also be processed once it has been extracted from the ore before tools can be made from it.
Now a little more information about iron in Europe today:
Around 800 BC, the use of iron finally replaced the use of bronze in Central Europe. The Celts were the bearers of the new culture (Hallstatt period). The word “isaron”, which the Celts and Germanic tribes knew in common, became “iron” in German, “iron” in English and “iarann” in Irish. The exact origin of the Latin term “ferrum” is not yet known.
Incidentally, iron was one of the seven metals of antiquity and was assigned to Mars, the god of war, by the Romans.
Today, iron is also used in electrical engineering due to its magnetic properties. For example, heavy iron cores are installed in transformers to strengthen and concentrate the magnetic field.
With the public lecture, Mr. Hillegeist leaves the support group. He will relinquish his position as first chairman on the date of the general meeting. However, he will remain loyal to the support group as Honorary Chairman. Many members have been friends with him for a long time.
Visitors are cordially invited to attend his lecture “On the trail of historic Harz ironworks”.
As already mentioned, the lecture starts at 3 pm. However, Mr. Hillegeist will remain loyal to the support group as Honorary Chairman. Many members of the support group have been friends with him for a long time.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
This piece of iron ore is called Jaspis, with inclusions of quartz
