A lot of interesting facts are connected with metal. Even the ancient inhabitants of Norway believed that the poisoning of the smelter workers that were observed during the smelting of silver were tricks of Kobolt, an evil spirit. Indeed, during the firing procedure of cobalt arsenic-containing minerals, arsenic oxide is released, which is hazardous to health.
2
A completely different spirit, Nickel, angered the medieval miners of Germany.
It was he who prevented the extraction of copper itself from ore that looks like copper. It was only in the eighteenth century that a metal called nickel was isolated from this ore.
3
For many centuries, it was gold that was considered the most expensive materials in the world.
For centuries, alchemists have sought ways to extract it from all kinds of components. This succeeded in 1941, when a method was developed for the fast neutron bombardment of mercury atoms, and as a result, radioactive gold was obtained.
4
It is interesting that if we count the gold mined in the world for the entire history of mankind, then the total amount of this metal will be 165 thousand tons.
Moreover, half of this amount is from South Africa. And if one ingot is cast from this gold, then it will be a cube whose side is 20 m.
5
The most expensive tableware of Napoleon III was aluminum, only open and unusual at that time metal. They were served during gala dinners exclusively to the emperor and the most honored guests. All other guests used conventional appliances made of silver and gold.
6
The composition of sea water contains the entire table of the chemical elements of Mendeleev, including uranium and gold. However, for industrial purposes, even today we can use only bromine, magnesium and table salt.
7
The relative concentration in stars and galaxies of elements heavier than helium is called metallicity in astrophysics. It is by this parameter that the age of the stellar system is determined. It is known that the very first stars practically did not contain metals. But each subsequent generation was richer in them than the previous one.
8
Only seven percent of the titanium obtained in the world is used in mechanical engineering. Thirteen percent is used in the paper industry, twenty are for plastic and sixty percent for dye.
9
Mercury perfectly destroys the surface film characteristic of alumina, without which aluminum is oxidized in air for a short time. This is the main reason mercury is prohibited on airplanes. In the event of a spill, it may violate the integrity of the fuselage.
