Totally OT, but frustrated.....

[Gordon JC Pearce]

der Mouse wrote:
>>>[...], how many of you have the knowledge of metalurgy to make any
>>>metal tool from say... the Bronze age, or Iron, or make gun powder,
>>>sure you know what's in it, but can you obtain the raw materials,
>>>and build the contraption that they used to make it?
> 
> 
> Anyone who's read _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_ knows how to make
> gunpowder (well, anyone who's bothered to remember the details).
> Myself, I'm not sure I can keep it straight which ingredient is which,
> but I remember the 75:15:10 ratio, so it's at most six tries. :)

On the basis that posting the recipe would probably make those readers 
in the less politically-free parts of the world into terrist suspec's, I 
will keep quiet on that one.

> As for metallurgy, well, no.  But I could probably reinvent rudimentary
> cast iron with at most a few years' work; I expect the hardest part to
> redevelop would be extracting iron from ore.

Heat iron ore with charcoal.  The carbon reduces the oxygen, leaving you 
with fairly poor quality iron.  This is called "carburisation".  You can 
then batter that about until you get wrought iron.

Gordon.