Metallurgy and Armor

[Bryan]

I'm looking into possible metallurgy techniques new to the Roman culture in the 1st Cent BC, due to expansion into Gaul.

I've heard mention of trip hammers and roll forging being the reasoning iron became prevalent. How true is that?

Were 1st Cent BC smiths consistently able to produce steel, matching the hardness of bronze?

Previously, Roman soldiers typically wore bronze helmets and a mix of cardiophylax/pectorale and mail. From the mid 2nd Cent BC period onwards, the common soldier appears to wear more and more armor made from iron. By the 1st Cent AD, it was mostly iron. Was this just a matter of more available and cheaper Gallic smiths? If so, cheaper in just materials, or in labor/time? How hard is it to cast and hammer bronze armor, as compared to forging and hammering iron?

Of equal strength, would armor made of steely iron be heavier or lighter than bronze?

Is there a legitimate reason, besides tradition, that officers continued to wear bronze armor from the 1st Cent AD onwards?

Lastly, I am wondering if someone could explain how bronze spinning was done in the ancient period, possibly include a link to tools used, so I can better understand how the process worked.

BTW, I have Sim's book, didn't find answers to these questions, nor did I while searching RAT.

Opinions are welcome.

[Crispianus]

Heres a couple of pics of water powered trip hammers in Hagan late 19th or early 20th century?, it wouldn't suprise me if the Romans had something similar:

http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/LWL-Freili...eum_Hagen/

Old Tek, they are Huge, immense machines mostly from wood.... which doesn't really come over in the pics..

[attachment=12922]WorkshopsHagantriphammerssmall.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=12923]WorkshopsHagantriphammerssmall2.jpg[/attachment]

This kind of machine is powered by a water wheel, two types existed as far as I'm aware ,presumably designed for driving different types of machinery, a turbine and a wheel type which "Vitruvius" apparantly writes about in the 1st century Ad, so one may assume it was by this time an established tek.....

The museum is well worth visiting for its low tek solutions alone, a real eye opener...

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Joe (or was it Jeffrey) posted a paper that did a metallurgical analysis of Roman swords from the 2nd BC - 1st AD, and it showed that they were rather consistent in steel quality (made of medium-high carbon steel). Roman swords also were extraordinarily low in slag content, usually less than 1% and we can't reproduce that.

I'll post the paper when I find i. Gimme a bit.

[Crispianus]

To expand on the waterwheel as source of power for machinery during the Classical era, its worthwhile reading this article by Andrew Wilson:

Machines, power and the ancient economy

This one may be of interest also as it includes waterwheel powered machinery, although a bit later:

Stone Sawing Machines of Roman and Early Byzantine Times in the Anatolian Mediterranean