[TheForge] question for Bruce F. the Chemist

[Bruce Freeman]

Albin,

Albin,

I don't know to what extent the heat of the metal
would have an effect, but I'd be surprized if a slack
tub didn't contain considerable iron, in perhaps both
the ferrous (2+) and the ferric (3+) states.

Whether this would have a tonic effect, I don't know. 
Anemia can be treated with iron, but that's by
ingestion, and I don't suggest anyone drink slack tub
water.  This is especially true today, when cadmium
and lead could well be present in this water.  (In the
old days, copper, zinc, or lead might be present in a
blacksmith shop, but probably not in great
quantities.)

Furthermore, I'm a subscriber of what might be urban
legend that we should NOT include supplemental iron in
our diets.  Rumor has it iron's the responsible entity
for causing cholesterol to form arterial plaque.

Now, it MIGHT be that the water in a slack tub was
beneficial when topically applied specifically because
it was mildly toxic.  If it kills disease organisms or
parasites faster than it kills the patient, then it
cures the patient!

"Honey, Mud, and Maggots" is a fascinating book about
old-time treatments.  Honey is excellent for open
wounds.  Maggots (of the correct species only) are
wondrous for cleaning out dead or gangrenous tissue
from a wound.  I don't recall the benefits of mud.  In
wartime, wounds were bound and allowed to drain, and
though they smelled to high heaven, the wounded often
recovered fully due to the power of the white
corpuscles in the oozing pus.  Even the notorious
bleeding procedure was apperently efficacious in 70%
of the cases - though this would not be true today
because the diseases for which it was efficacious no
longer commonly afflict mankind.

Accordingly, I consider the question of the efficacy
of an iron tonic water to be outside the realm of my
expertise.

Bruce

--- Albin Drzewianowski <dski1045 at qis.net> wrote:

> Bruce,
> 
> I was demonstrating in the Historic Forge at the
> local Farm Musuem today.
> 
> Towards the end of the day, as my arm starts giving
> out, I look for any 
> excuse to talk instead of hammering.  So when
> someone asked about the slack 
> tub, I gave them the story about how in the "old
> days" people would come and 
> buy water from the slack tub for medicinal purposes.
>  I thought that was 
> just a scam by blacksmiths to make a little money on
> the side.  But one of 
> the guests asked whether the water in the tub would
> pick up an iron from 
> having all the hot steel quenched or cooled in the
> slack tub.  Also, small 
> pieces of hot steel that have been cut off are often
> just tossed into the 
> slack tub.
> 
> So the question is:   would quenching  or cooling
> hot steel  or the presence 
> of small pieces of steel in the bottom of the slack
> tub increase the iron 
> content of the water such that it would have some
> medical benefit as some 
> kind of tonic???   Today, we have extra iron as a
> supplement in lots of 
> things that we eat, but back in the "old days" they
> did not.
> 
> Inquiring minds want to know.
> Albin
> Westminster, MD 

> 
> 
> 



       
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