A bold leader arose among them, who persuaded the ironworkers that the arms which they forged for their masters might in their own hands become the instruments of freedom.
Sallying forth from their mountains, they set up their standard, and their weapons soon freed them.

For centuries after, the Turkish nation continued to celebrate the event of their liberation by an annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and a smith's hammer was successively handled by the prince and his nobles.
We can only conjecture how the art of smelting iron was discovered.
Who first applied fire to the ore, and made it plastic; who discovered fire itself, and its uses in metallurgy?
No one can tell.

Tradition says that the metal was discovered through the accidental burning of a wood in Greece.

Mr.Mushet thinks it more probable that the discovery was made on the conversion of wood into charcoal for culinary or chamber purposes.

"If a mass of ore," he says, "accidentally dropped into the middle of the burning pile during a period of neglect, or during the existence of a thorough draught, a mixed mass, partly earthy and partly metallic, would be obtained, possessing ductility and extension under pressure.