"Any fool would know that with tweeds and other daytime cloths one wears gold; with evening clothes one wears platinum" Duchess of Windsor. During a time of economic suffering platinum filled the void where gold was because silver is just simply too common and gold to expensive. During the Second World War platinum was rationed because it was an effective catalyst in making explosives. Of course after this Queen Elizabeth had a crown made completely of platinum for her coronation in 1937, how embarrassed the Duchess of Windsor would of been.
Iron
Iron is the metal of the heavens, lumps of it fell form the sky and they still do. One of the biggest meteorites, which is now at the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was found by Ellis Hughes in 1902. Ironically enough he found it on a piece of property that belonged to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company. Though this is an impressive meteorite the most impressive are found at the poles. Where the Inuit's have named the three largest man, woman, and dog.
We al know now that blood contains iron, but in the late 1700's they did not, until Vincenzo Menghini did some investigating. Menghini was a physician in Bologna and he was determined to find out why blood had a metallic taste. He collected samples of blood from various mammals, birds, and fish and roasted them until there was a solid residue. He then preceded to poke around in the residue with a magnetic knife and was pleased to find that there was iron in blood. His research helped in curing chloris and gave a base for future studies about blood.
Platinum is so pretty especially in that picture above. And who would have thought that something that you can find in your blood is also found in outer space.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that the discovery of iron, found in our blood, was due to a person's curiosity on why blood has a metallic taste.
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