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2021 | Buch

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Ten Materials That Shaped Our World

verfasst von: Prof. M. Grant Norton

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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Über dieses Buch

This book examines ten materials—flint, clay, iron, gold, glass, cement, rubber, polyethylene, aluminum, and silicon—explaining how they formed, how we discovered them, why they have the properties they do, and how they have transformed our lives. Since the dawn of the Stone Age, we have shaped materials to meet our needs and, in turn, those materials have shaped us.

The fracturing of flint created sharp, curved surfaces that gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge. Molding clay and then baking it in the sun produced a means of recording the written word and exemplified human artistic imagination. As our ability to control heat improved, earthenware became stoneware and eventually porcelain, the most prized ceramic of all. Iron cast at high temperatures formed the components needed for steam engines, locomotives, and power looms—the tools of the Industrial Revolution. Gold has captivated humans for thousands of years and has recently found important uses in biology, medicine, and nanotechnology. Glass shaped into early and imperfect lenses not only revealed the microscopic world of cells and crystals, but also allowed us to discover stars and planets beyond those visible with the naked eye. Silicon revolutionized the computer, propelling us into the Information Age and with it our interconnected social networks, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.

Written by a materials scientist, this book explores not just why, but also how certain materials came to be so fundamental to human society. This enlightening study captivates anyone interested in learning more about the history of humankind, our ingenuity, and the materials that have shaped our world.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

This book examines ten materials—flint, clay, iron, gold, glass, cement, rubber, polyethylene, aluminum, and silicon—explaining how they formed, how we discovered them, why they have the properties they do, and how they have shaped our lives and changed our world. Written by a materials scientist, the chapters explore not just why, but also how certain materials came to be so fundamental to human society. This enlightening study will captivate anyone interested in learning more about the history of humankind, our ingenuity, and the materials that have shaped our world.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 2. Flint—The Material of Evolution

Abstract

This chapter starts by describing how a sedimentary rock with a structure consisting of microscopic quartz crystals that was formed millions of years ago enabled the creation of our first engineered materials. Hunting and butchering meat using sharp hard-wearing flint tools was key to our evolutionary success. As flintknappers were shaping tools that were more and more refined, flint found additional uses as a means to start a fire an application that would eventually lead to a new type of deadly weapon, the flintlock. Even with the increasing use of metals with their better durability and ease of shaping flint remained an important material over an enormous period of history.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 3. Clay—The Material of Life

Abstract

This chapter begins by describing the importance attached to objects made from clay. Clay figures were buried alongside Egyptian pharaohs because they were considered essential companions in the afterlife. Shaping of complex figures was possible because the weakly bound layers that make up the structure of clay can readily slide over each other when mixed with water. The earliest clay objects were human and animal statuettes. Later clay was shaped into bowls and urns and clay tablets that document the development of civilization. The chapter ends by looking at how ceramics, based on clay, became a major industry.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 4. Iron—The Material of Industry

Abstract

This chapter describes the history of iron from the first uses of meteoric iron shaped to make daggers and swords through the use of wrought and cast iron and then onto steel, a metal alloy that enabled a global transition towards industrialization. The ability to design the properties of steel for a wide range of applications has made it the most widely used metal today. With steel we built into the sky, connected cities, and conquered the oceans. The chapter concludes by considering the enormous carbon footprint associated with the production of steel.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 5. Gold—The Material of Empire

Abstract

This chapter explores the history of gold a metal so soft it can be shaped into sheets so thin they are transparent and drawn into wires finer than a human hair. Gold was treasured because of its appearance, hoarded because of its rarity, and in the 20th Century enabled the development of the microelectronics industry, space exploration, and became an exciting material for the emerging field of nanotechnology. The versatility of gold nanoparticles might make it one of the most important materials of the 21st Century and not the “useless” metal described by Henry VIII counselor Sir Thomas More.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 6. Glass—The Material of Clarity

Abstract

This chapter begins by describing the decorative use of glass. Because of its fluidity when hot glass can be blown, twisted, and wound into an infinite array of shapes. Using transition metals, rare earth elements, and colloids glass can be made in a rainbow of colors. But glass is not just for the artistic. As lenses glass has opened up the exploration of both the microscopic and macroscopic worlds. Microscopes and telescopes require glasses of high purity and transparency. But one application above all others that relies on glass with unparalleled transparency is as optical fibers. With an innovative approach to making glass fibers, we now have a fiber-based network that spans the world.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 7. Cement—The Material of Grandeur

Abstract

This chapter begins with a description of Portland cement, a complex material that hardens when wet and which resembles an English seaside rock and ends with our quest for approaches to reduce the carbon footprint of cement and its more widely used form concrete. Building structures enabled by the durability of concrete has been an inspiration for architects ancient and modern to create structures that could last forever. The Pantheon, the Empire State Building, and the Burj Khalifa are all grand reflections of a country’s economic importance.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 8. Rubber—The Material of Possibilities

Abstract

This chapter begins with a visit to Manaus, once the rubber capital of the world. Entangled long molecular chains that stretch, deform, and reform made a material that was an important part of Maya political, religious, and social life well before the apogee of the rubber boom in Brazil. Rubber became a commercially important material when a technique was developed to permanently link the chains using heat and sulfur in a process called vulcanization. Vulcanized rubber became essential for tires in the rapidly growing automobile industry following the introduction of the Model T Ford. The material was so important for the war effort that President Franklin Roosevelt declared it a “strategic and critical material.”

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 9. Polyethylene—The Material of Chance

Abstract

This chapter begins by looking at the history of polyethylene from its unintended synthesis through to its position as the most widely used, by far, plastic. Consisting of relatively simple molecular chains, containing just two types of atom carbon and hydrogen, polyethylene can be shaped into fibers, pipes, a wide array of containers, made into a foam, and blown into transparent films thinner than a human hair. These different forms enable a range of applications from safely insulating electric power lines to reliably transporting natural gas. This chapter also looks at a closely related polymer to polyethylene, Teflon.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 10. Aluminum—The Material of Flight

Abstract

This chapter begins by describing the airborne history of aluminum from being a critical component in the engine of the Wright Flyer to enabling the global airplane industry that began with planes such as the Comet. Aluminum is an ultra-light metal whose mechanical properties can be precisely tailored by the addition of a myriad of alloying atoms. Although aluminum is abundant in the Earth’s crust it proved very challenging to extract from its ore requiring a process that consumes enormous amounts of electricity. These challenges once made aluminum a precious metal alongside silver and gold. Its relatively low melting temperature and its structure mean that aluminum can be readily shaped and formed, which has enabled mass production of power transmission lines, automobiles, airplanes, and a host of aluminum products.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 11. Silicon—The Material of Information

Abstract

This chapter begins by describing the ubiquity of the “silicon chip”, a semiconductor device that is responsible for the modern information age based on the computer, wireless networks, and high-speed digital data transfer. The chapter concludes with the prospect that silicon may also become the enabling material for quantum computers, which can make use of all the accumulated industrial know-how about how to process this material.

M. Grant Norton

Chapter 12. Conclusion

Abstract

Without silicon, the heart of the ubiquitous “silicon chip”, the modern information age based on the computer.

M. Grant Norton

Backmatter

Titel: Ten Materials That Shaped Our World
verfasst von: Prof. M. Grant Norton
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-75213-2
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-75212-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75213-2

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