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In June of 1934, members of the Hahn family discovered a rock, sitting loose on a rock ledge beside a waterfall outside London, Texas. Noticing that this weathered rock had wood protruding from it, they cracked it open with a hammer and chisel, exposing the hammer head to the light of day for the first time since the stone formed around it. To verify that the hammer was made of metal, they cut into one of the beveled sides with a file. In the resulting nick, bright, shiny iron was exposed. The bright metal in the nick is still there, with no detectable corrosion.
London, Texas is located approximately 100 miles west of Austin in Kimble County on U.S. highway 377, 18 miles northeast of Junction. The discovery site itself is on private property several miles from London, near a waterfall on Red Creek. Several miles upstream, masses of fossils are found, similar to the mass of fossils in the rock fragment from the concretion shown in Photo B2-1.
The density of the iron in a central, cross-sectional plane is shown in Photo K16. It shows the interior metal to be very pure, with no bubbles. Modern industry cannot consistently produce iron castings with this quality, as evidenced by test results that show bubbles and density variations that have caused pump and valve bodies to break. The handle eye is oval shaped, and roughly 1" x 1/2''.
| Element | Symbol | % by Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Iron | Fe | 96% |
| Chlorine | Cl | 2.6% |
| Sulfer | S | 0.74% |
The wooden handle appears to have been broken off, then worn smooth where it protruded from the rock concretion. Photo G6 shows the handle from the top with the hammer head removed.
Normal carbon has an atomic weight of 12, and is called carbon-twelve, or 12C for short. 14C is formed in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays smash into the protons in nitrogen atoms, which have an atomic weight of 14. Two of the Nitrogen protons are converted to neutrons. This causes the nitrogen atom to lose two electrons to balance its electrical charge. The resulting atom behaves chemically like carbon, but has extra neutrons, and thus is the radioactive 14C. Over a long period of time, the neutrons escape because of radioactive decay, and what is left is ordinary 12C.
To estimate a date, the amount of each type of carbon is measured and the numbers are plugged into a complicated mathematical formula which gives a date. There are many assumptions in this formula, some reasonable, some questionable.
Further complicating the picture is the fact that the level of contamination of the handle wood by modern carbon compounds is unknown. For example, almost all cleaning solvents and soaps contain high levels of these compounds. If anyone cleaned the artifact in the last several decades with such a substance, this would skew the results of a radiocarbon test, giving a much-more recent date.
As mentioned previously, the artifact was discovered on the surface, and thus had extended contact with creek water and groundwater, and whatever modern organic compounds were dissolved in it. Other limitations of radiocarbon dating are explained in Dr. Aardsma's technical monograph listed under Suggested Reading.
Recently, a radiocarbon dating test was performed on a sample of wood removed from the interior of the handle. The results showed inconclusive dates ranging from the present to 700 years ago. This is graphic evidence that the handle has been contaminated by current organic substances.
Further tests of all aspects of the artifact will be undertaken as resources become available, and the results made available in a technical report.
Creation In Symphony: The Evidence, Dr. Carl E. Baugh, 1995, videotape.
Creation In Symphony: The Model, Dr. Carl E. Baugh, 1996, videotape.
Radiocarbon and the Genesis Flood, Gerald E. Aardsma, Ph.D., 1991, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA,