In chapter 13, Kean talks about the elements being used as currency. Today, we use paper money being made out of cotton and coins made out of zinc, copper, and nickel, but back then people used metals like gold and silver as currency. Kean talks about the story of King Midas and his "golden touch". The myth although sometimes hard to believe could have been close to the truth, but except for a small detail. Perhaps what was considered gold was actually brass. Gold and brass look pretty similar as they are very shiny metals. Archaeologists tested this theory by comparing gold and brass together and the geographic location of King Mida's kingdom can support this theory. His kingdom was very close to mines where zinc was abundant and brass could have been made and passed for gold when combining zinc and copper.
The author also mentions the craze that gold rushes bring. He mentions the humongous gold rush in the Australian outback in 1896 that started with three Irishmen whose horse lost a shoe and while walking, the horse had unknowingly collected eight pounds of gold. From there on, many prospectors came to the area to try their luck at fortune by gold. While they searched day and night, many were fooled by the always common fool's gold or iron pyrite that mimics gold in its color and shine but it's actually pretty worthless. After the initial craze, another one started by another element, tellurium. Chunks of tellurium were found where gold was found and the searchers, desperate for gold, threw the tellurium aside. Then someone realized that the tellurium could be broken down to find gold and a new craze followed. People were going through chunks of tellurium that were once considered refuse and now offered a new shot at fortune. Kean also mentions today's problem with counterfeit money and the efforts done by the European Union to find the fake money. The element europium is the hero in the mission to find counterfeit money along with fluorescence. Europium and fluorescing dye are combined to be used on the euros. By seeing the euro with the naked eye, the euro appears to be a certain color, but when put under a special laser, a charcoal sketch of Europe appears to show an authentic euro. The author also mentions aluminum, or aluminium if you're fancy, to be a very important element. This silver metal was once more valuable than gold until it began to be used for industrial purposes as a less pure alloy. It was so valuable that the pyramid onto of the Washington Monument is made out of pure aluminum.
This chapter opened my eyes to different ways of seeing the elements. I grew up fascinated with King Midas and his "golden touch". As a small child, nothing excites you more than something shiny and the "golden touch" made my imagination fly. Although King Midas did lose his daughter when he accidentally touched her as she turned to gold, the story always made me wonder if there was a source of truth to the myth. Reading about the research done made me realize that something that once seemed so fascinating could have been something so simple. One new thing I learned was that aluminum was once very valuable. This element is used in our everyday lives and learning this new information was a learning experience.
Truuuuuueeee!!!
ReplyDelete