Power

Hey everybody, are you ready for POWER (part two)? Well good because here it is...

POWER (Part two)

The Ochreous Stain:

 The next chapter in my book is called "The Ochreous Stain" and it is about Iron. Ancient myths believed that iron  had once radiated celestial power in the sense that lumps of iron fell from the sky. In fact it still does, in the form of meteorites. One of the largest of these ever found is housed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It is called the Willamette meteorite. In 1902 this meteorite was found purely by mistake by Ellis Hughes on land belonging to Oregon Iron and Steel Company. It is almost purely iron with only a little bit of nickel contained within it. Iron is often linked with strength and toughness because it is generally hard. It is also less ductile and malleable than other metals. Iron was often associated with masculinity in ancient times and it was used to forge weapons of war and armor. In 1745 Vincenzo Menghini discovered iron in the blood by performing various experiments with magnets and animal blood. From then on Iron was associated with Mars just as blood was with war. With the invention of spacecraft scientists were able to prove that there was in fact iron on Mars. During the Industrial Revolution iron was used to forge wondrous machinery and to advance scientific discovery even further. But where there is iron there must be rust and that is what happened to most of the ancient iron artifacts.

Picture Work Cited: Iron, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iron-135048.jpg, 5/21/2010, Wikipedia Commons

The Elemental Traders:

This chapter was called "The Elemental Traders", it encompasses the task of collecting all the elements on the periodic table. The author of my book has set out on completing the table and knows many people who have, in fact, been able to collect all the elements on the periodic table. Max Whitby and Fiona Barclay have done just this and have become elemental traders. They supply fellow enthusiasts with pure elements. When the author met with them he was invited to guess what some of the elements were. Some were easy to distinguish based on their appearance or weight, others were not so easy. Rhodium and Ruthenium are two of this elements that look like platinum. It is often dangerous for these traders because of some of the more noxious elements that pose threats on humans. In order to improve their business they also shape the element into more desired shapes, such as spheres or large crystals. This improves the value of the elements and therefore earn the elemental traders their pay.

Picture Work Cited: Rhodium, http://images-of-elements.com/rhodium.php, 2/13/2010, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Among the Carbonari:

This chapter, titled "Among the Carbonari" is about charcoal burning and carbon. Charcoal is almost purely carbon and when burned correctly it gives off more heat than an open fire. Jim Bettle runs a charcoal burning business in Blackmoor Vale. The author explains the process of wood-burning in this chapter. First, wood is piled in a specific pattern in the middle of a kiln and it is heated. Oxygen is released and carbon is trapped inside the kiln. After 24- hours the charcoal is complete. All the carbon dioxide must go somewhere and this is a key source of fuel for the world. Soon however, all this carbon dioxide will pile up.

Picture Work Cited: Carbon, http://images-of-elements.com/carbon.php, 12/2/2010, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 

This is the end of POWER part 2! Stay tuned for POWER part 3. :)

Work Cited:

Hugh Aldersey- Williams, Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements from Arsenic to Zinc, 2011, HarperCollins Publishers