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My latest audiobook dropped this afternoon. This is #83. Don't stop me, I'm on a roll.
This time I got to do science. Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability has plenty in it to make anyone who remembers high school science classes happy. There is also a lot of good information on the history and operation of mineral extraction, and it is presented without a lot of enviro hand-wringing; we need this stuff, so what are good ways of getting it and using it that make sense for both the immediate need and the long term? I found it accessible and non-political.
From the blurb: Soil to Foil tells the extraordinary story of aluminum. Saleem H. Ali reveals its pivotal role in the histories of scientific inquiry and technological innovation as well as its importance to sustainability. He offers compelling portraits of the scientists and innovators who discovered new uses for this remarkable element, ranging from chemistry and geoscience to engineering and industrial design. Ali argues that aluminum exemplifies broader lessons about stewardship of nonrenewable resources. Soil to Foil shows that the story of aluminum’s use and misuse helps us rethink how to sustainably manage the resources of our planet.
As always, if you would like a free review copy, PM me. You don't have to have an Audible subscription to get the freebie, but you do have to use the free Audible app to listen to it.
Discussion (13)
CHARTER MEMBER
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That's the kind of stuff that interests Me. How everyday products come to market; from conception to selling.
For instance, Tabasco. How did They know to age it in charred barrels for three years?
Day 1: (taste) Nope. Not ready
..........
Week 1: (taste) Nope. Not ready
..........
Month 1: (taste) Nope. Not ready
...........
Year 1: (taste) Nope. Not ready
............
Year 1 Month 2: (taste) Nope. Not ready
[every. single. day]
Year 3: (taste) She's ready.
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I've wondered that about wine. The inside-baseball stuff always fascinates me.
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When did the terminology divergence (aluminum / aluminium ) happen? Which term did Oersted use when he isolated the element for the first time?
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As I recall, it was British scientists who isolated the element and named it aluminium, just as there are many elements that end with "ium." Someone sent a letter to the States about the discovery but misspelled it without the "i" so Americans pronounced it "aluminum." One would think that once they discovered that it is actually "aluminium" the Americans would have corrected the spelling and started pronouncing it correctly, but nope.
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The British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy had been fascinated by alumina and its unique properties, which had been found useful and exploited since antiquity. Davy was familiar with the work of the German chemist Andreas Marggraff, who had shown definitively in 1754 that the oxides of calcium and aluminum were distinct in their metallic constituents. This discovery spurred him to seek further ways of isolating the two metals that formed these oxides. Despite his humble origins as the son of a woodcarver in Cornwall, Davy outshone many of his elite contemporaries with his brilliant and innovative use of electrochemistry. In 1807, he successfully electrolyzed alumina with alkaline batteries, but the residue had so much potassium and sodium in the mixture that the metallic aluminum was not distinguishable. The metal he sought was too gregarious to be separated from its companion elements. He kept trying to isolate what he now fervently believed to be an undiscovered element, but each time some new alloyed metal occluded its emergence. He was able to isolate many other metals, such as calcium, barium, magnesium, and strontium, but aluminum eluded him—though he did give it its name. Davy suggested the hidden metal be named alumium in 1808 and aluminium in his monumental book Elements of Chemical Philosophy. The different spelling of the metal on either side of the Atlantic can trace its origins perhaps to Davy’s original ambivalence on its naming.
Ali, Saleem. Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability (pp. 62-63). Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
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