Iron is one of the most common elements and one of the most used metals, Iron in the Latin language was called Ferrum that is why it is called (fe) in the periodic table. The thirteenth century BC is called the iron era.
Iron is one of the vital factors for living as the combining of iron with oxygen in hemoglobin and that is how oxygen is transported to the body cells. Plants use iron two in th process of photosynthesis.
Iron has been available in the earth crust for ages but nobody was able to use it till the beginnings of the 16th century BC, the Hittites from West Asia were the first to reach for the using of iron as a weapon. The Hittites kept their secret of how they used iron till their empire fell apart.
By the eleventh century BC other nations were able to use the iron as Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Philistines, Romans, Carthaginians, Kushites, and Assyrians.
Aryans transferred the iron uses to India 200 years later, a century later the secret was transferred to China.
The largest iron producers in the world are China, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and India. While the countries that produce iron from the ore are China, Japan, the United States, Russia, Germany, and Brazil.
Iron is extracted from its ore by first heating the iron with limestone and coke in a huge oven under a tremendous heat that can reach till 1500 degree celsius which leaves the ore free from the oxygen and the impurities, combining iron with carbon produces steel. Iron is used in several combines with other metals as copper or aluminum to be used in producing very helpful compounds.
The difference in the percentage of carbon would give different types of iron as steel, cast and wrought iron. Cast iron is made of melted pig iron then poured in moulds to take certain shapes and left to be solidified. Wrought iron has the least percentage of carbon, the most famous structure that used the wrought iron is the Eiffel Tower.