You might have cooked last night’s dinner in copper-clad cookware (copper coated with stainless steel), brought out the sterling silver dinnerware (silver alloyed with copper) to eat it, then used the water coming out of your pipes (nearly pure C12200 copper) to wash the scraps down the garbage disposal.Ī more important use of copper than cookware and currency (I prefer debit cards) is electricity. Aside from the lowly one-cent piece-which was once nearly pure copper but is now made of copper-plated zinc-the dimes and quarters we use to feed slot machines, parking meters, and candy bar dispensers are mostly copper with a little nickel thrown in for strength. ![]() Since then, similarly clever people have been blending copper with various alloying elements to make a range of useful products. And perhaps 6000 years after that, some clever Sumerian found that she could melt copper together with another elemental metal-tin-to make a harder, more wear-resistant alloy. Of course, they immediately began pounding it into weapons and ornamental headwear, using it to intimidate or impress their fellow humans as the circumstances required. ![]() History shows that people first discovered this elemental metal roughly 11,000 years ago in what is now Iraq. Of all the metals we see, touch, and use each day, it’s millennia-old copper that is perhaps the most important.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |