Calendars and Cassiterite - the Heavy Mineral that Changed History!
Last Updated: 9th May 2013By Dave Crosby
Just a few millennia ago a club of bone or wood and a percussion sharpened stone would place you at the "cutting edge" of modern technology.
Then around 6,000 BC either smarts or luck brought native copper to the attention of scattered tribes. Pounding made it brittle, heating made it soft again.
The Copper Age, AKA the Eneolithic or the Chalcolithic Age, was born.
Copper was interesting stuff! It could be pounded into various shapes without breaking. But then again, it could accidentally be pounded out of shape, and never could achieve or maintain a sharp edge like flint or obsidian, so stone remained the main cutting tool.
Even so, significant social changes such as larger villages, fortifications, village leaders, long-distance trading, and development of copper metallurgy rapidly followed. But there were also new problems.
1. People wanted more, but it was scarce.
2. It took a while to learn that copper also existed in over 160 different minerals (Atkinson 1987).
3. Then they had to figure out how to separate the copper from the unwanted stuff. That required smelting using a furnace that reaches at least 1,084 °C (1,984 °F) That took a while.
- 1984 . . . where have I heard that number before? George Orwell?
4. Finally they had to find large quantities of ore to get a reasonable amount of copper.
Then after all that work, all that learning and effort, all they had was . . . soft copper.
5. People with stuff that other people didn't have brings out a certain trait is some people:
From time to time during the next two thousand years people noticed that when certain heavy dark rocks (Cassiterite!) were placed in hot fires, a white metal (Tin!) would be found in the ashes afterward. It melted far easier than copper, only 232 °C, 449.4 °F, was very malleable, but it was a "summer metal."
When the cold (13.2 °C - 56 °F)gray clouds came, the tin would turn gray too, and fall apart. A little interesting, but not very useful.
NOTE TIN PEST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXB83Heh3_c
A little antimony or bismuth added to the tin will prevent this.
Around 3000 BC people started noticing some copper was harder and a different color than other copper and held a better edge. WHY?
Experimenting began. Trace elements of arsenic and tin were finally determined to be the why.
But there was a problem. Invest time and energy in training up a good arsenic metal worker and they would go toes up on you before getting a decent return on your investment.
Arsenic was out, tin was in!
People with control issues realized that if they could think of making superior weapons and slaughtering their enemies in large numbers, so could other people!
Young "skulls full of mush" that go around saying "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" are clueless about human nature. One side will ALWAYS show up! Well, I guess it technically wouldn't be a war, it would be a massacre.
And we shouldn't think of those kings as being evil. They just need to be in control. All is well, move along. These are not the Droids you are looking for.
A Sumerian King of presently unknown name raised a huge army, but he had a problem.
Armies need armament, or whats the point?
He sent teams on world wide scavenger hunts for copper and tin. Pack trains of donkeys and camels from Turkey, Afghanistan, Africa and England weren't enough. Ships were sent forth and returned from distant lands laden with the stuff for conquest. The first arms race had begun!
Some have suggested that they (the Sumerians) even reached the Americas way back then, settling an area in eastern Mexico known in Sumerian records as "the Land of the Setting Sun," initiating the Olmec civilization, and and another in Bolivia known as the Land of Tin.
Calendars? Every calendar in every corner of the world was based on lunar cycles . . . except for three.
God made a perfect world with 12 new moons in a year of 360 days. 360/12 = 30 days per new moon, or month. Easy, right? Wrong.
You see, there was a problem. Actually there are roughly 365 1/4 days in a year, but the real problem is that the earth doesn't go around the sun in a circle. It travels in an ellipse with two focal points, with the sun at one, nothing at the other.
As the earth gets closer to the sun it goes faster. as it moves away, it slows down. The cycles of the moon are functions of the sun, but viewed from earth. Sometimes we see the first new moon 31 days after the last, sometimes only 29. And then there is that pesky 5 1/4 days. That requires a government employee checking carefully every month to observe exactly when each new moon occurs to keep the nation from careening into chaos!
For the unknown king that had to be in control, that was unacceptable. To hell with the moon! How about a brand new calendar based on the rising sun with 18 months X 20 days each? That gives the required 360 days in a year!
He could fire that government worker and everything would work perfectly! . . . or, would 20 months with 18 days each be better? Apparently he vacillated, because one was set up in Olmec Vera Cruz Mexico, and the other near Tiwanaku Bolivia, where they actually found cassiterite.
http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/boliviaandthesumerianconnection.htm
The king died and the calendar in Sumeria perished with him. The ships stopped visiting, and the stranded miners struggled on to build the great civilizations of Mexico and Bolivia/Peru.
Who was that king? The Olmec/Maya calendar provides a hint as it began August 13, 3114 B.C. Who was in charge in Sumeria back then?
Back to our subject.
In making bronze, there is a problem. Not enough tin, and the bronze is too soft, too much and the bronze can literally fly apart with enough energy to kill anyone standing nearby!
Ancient bronzes have been found with a tin content between 2% and 12%. 12% seems to capture the best detail for artwork.
Those early bronze workers had all kinds of problems to overcome:
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/111994
Bronze disease: http://proteus.brown.edu/greekpast/4867
Hydrogen Embrittlement: http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/bin/view/Brunelleschi/MegsNotebook
Problems? Yes, but solving them initiated scientific research and changed history, all because of a heavy stone known as cassiterite!
Then around 6,000 BC either smarts or luck brought native copper to the attention of scattered tribes. Pounding made it brittle, heating made it soft again.
Native Copper - France
Copper was interesting stuff! It could be pounded into various shapes without breaking. But then again, it could accidentally be pounded out of shape, and never could achieve or maintain a sharp edge like flint or obsidian, so stone remained the main cutting tool.
Even so, significant social changes such as larger villages, fortifications, village leaders, long-distance trading, and development of copper metallurgy rapidly followed. But there were also new problems.
1. People wanted more, but it was scarce.
2. It took a while to learn that copper also existed in over 160 different minerals (Atkinson 1987).
3. Then they had to figure out how to separate the copper from the unwanted stuff. That required smelting using a furnace that reaches at least 1,084 °C (1,984 °F) That took a while.
- 1984 . . . where have I heard that number before? George Orwell?
4. Finally they had to find large quantities of ore to get a reasonable amount of copper.
Then after all that work, all that learning and effort, all they had was . . . soft copper.
5. People with stuff that other people didn't have brings out a certain trait is some people:
"Whenever he saw a dollar in another man's hands he took it as a personal grudge, if he couldn't take it any other way." - O. Henry
Cassiterite - Australia
sometimes copper and tin got mixed together in ores
When the cold (13.2 °C - 56 °F)gray clouds came, the tin would turn gray too, and fall apart. A little interesting, but not very useful.
NOTE TIN PEST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXB83Heh3_c
A little antimony or bismuth added to the tin will prevent this.
Around 3000 BC people started noticing some copper was harder and a different color than other copper and held a better edge. WHY?
Experimenting began. Trace elements of arsenic and tin were finally determined to be the why.
But there was a problem. Invest time and energy in training up a good arsenic metal worker and they would go toes up on you before getting a decent return on your investment.
Arsenic was out, tin was in!
People with control issues realized that if they could think of making superior weapons and slaughtering their enemies in large numbers, so could other people!
Do unto others before they had a chance to do unto you! The Bronze age (or another step in the WAR AGE) had begun.
Young "skulls full of mush" that go around saying "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" are clueless about human nature. One side will ALWAYS show up! Well, I guess it technically wouldn't be a war, it would be a massacre.
And we shouldn't think of those kings as being evil. They just need to be in control. All is well, move along. These are not the Droids you are looking for.
A Sumerian King of presently unknown name raised a huge army, but he had a problem.
Armies need armament, or whats the point?
He sent teams on world wide scavenger hunts for copper and tin. Pack trains of donkeys and camels from Turkey, Afghanistan, Africa and England weren't enough. Ships were sent forth and returned from distant lands laden with the stuff for conquest. The first arms race had begun!
Some have suggested that they (the Sumerians) even reached the Americas way back then, settling an area in eastern Mexico known in Sumerian records as "the Land of the Setting Sun," initiating the Olmec civilization, and and another in Bolivia known as the Land of Tin.
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— Of cabbages—and kings—
- Lewis Carroll
More specifically, of calendars, cassiterite, and control issues.- Lewis Carroll
Calendars? Every calendar in every corner of the world was based on lunar cycles . . . except for three.
God made a perfect world with 12 new moons in a year of 360 days. 360/12 = 30 days per new moon, or month. Easy, right? Wrong.
You see, there was a problem. Actually there are roughly 365 1/4 days in a year, but the real problem is that the earth doesn't go around the sun in a circle. It travels in an ellipse with two focal points, with the sun at one, nothing at the other.
As the earth gets closer to the sun it goes faster. as it moves away, it slows down. The cycles of the moon are functions of the sun, but viewed from earth. Sometimes we see the first new moon 31 days after the last, sometimes only 29. And then there is that pesky 5 1/4 days. That requires a government employee checking carefully every month to observe exactly when each new moon occurs to keep the nation from careening into chaos!
For the unknown king that had to be in control, that was unacceptable. To hell with the moon! How about a brand new calendar based on the rising sun with 18 months X 20 days each? That gives the required 360 days in a year!
He could fire that government worker and everything would work perfectly! . . . or, would 20 months with 18 days each be better? Apparently he vacillated, because one was set up in Olmec Vera Cruz Mexico, and the other near Tiwanaku Bolivia, where they actually found cassiterite.
http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/boliviaandthesumerianconnection.htm
The king died and the calendar in Sumeria perished with him. The ships stopped visiting, and the stranded miners struggled on to build the great civilizations of Mexico and Bolivia/Peru.
Who was that king? The Olmec/Maya calendar provides a hint as it began August 13, 3114 B.C. Who was in charge in Sumeria back then?
Back to our subject.
In making bronze, there is a problem. Not enough tin, and the bronze is too soft, too much and the bronze can literally fly apart with enough energy to kill anyone standing nearby!
Ancient bronzes have been found with a tin content between 2% and 12%. 12% seems to capture the best detail for artwork.
Those early bronze workers had all kinds of problems to overcome:
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/111994
Bronze has good resistance to:
1. Industrial, rural and marine atmospheres
2. Weak acids if suitably shielded with appropriate protective coatings.
Bronze has poor resistance to:
1. Ammonia
2. Ferric and ammonia compounds
3. Cyanides
4. Urban pollution
5. Acid rains
6. Bird droppings
1. Industrial, rural and marine atmospheres
2. Weak acids if suitably shielded with appropriate protective coatings.
Bronze has poor resistance to:
1. Ammonia
2. Ferric and ammonia compounds
3. Cyanides
4. Urban pollution
5. Acid rains
6. Bird droppings
Bronze disease: http://proteus.brown.edu/greekpast/4867
Bronze disease is a form of corrosion that affects bronze artifacts. It manifests itself as either a powdery green substance on the surface of the metal or as a warty or waxy film over the surface of an artifact. To the untrained eye, it may simply resemble a natural patina. However, while a patina is not destructive, bronze disease most certainly is.
In reality, “bronze disease” is not the result of bacteria, as the name would suggest, but the result of a complex chemical reaction. It is known as bronze disease because the reaction produces a green powder on the surface of bronze artifacts that resembles a fungus. This corrosion is much like rust on iron. This corrosion is caused by a circular set of reactions that involve the chlorides of a copper alloy and water. Bronze disease is triggered by the presence of water in this equation. It might take just one humid day to activate the reactions and begin the destructive chain.
The actual chemical reaction is still not fully understood, though the chemistry of corrosion has been studied for some 150 years. However, the basic understanding of the process indicates that the presence of cuprous chloride in copper alloys reacts with water to create hydrochloric acid. The acid then eats away at the bronze, and in turn reacts with the copper. This second equation produces the visual manifestation of the disease: that dreaded green fuzz. Generally, the fuzz covers pockmarks caused by the hydrochloric acid.
In reality, “bronze disease” is not the result of bacteria, as the name would suggest, but the result of a complex chemical reaction. It is known as bronze disease because the reaction produces a green powder on the surface of bronze artifacts that resembles a fungus. This corrosion is much like rust on iron. This corrosion is caused by a circular set of reactions that involve the chlorides of a copper alloy and water. Bronze disease is triggered by the presence of water in this equation. It might take just one humid day to activate the reactions and begin the destructive chain.
The actual chemical reaction is still not fully understood, though the chemistry of corrosion has been studied for some 150 years. However, the basic understanding of the process indicates that the presence of cuprous chloride in copper alloys reacts with water to create hydrochloric acid. The acid then eats away at the bronze, and in turn reacts with the copper. This second equation produces the visual manifestation of the disease: that dreaded green fuzz. Generally, the fuzz covers pockmarks caused by the hydrochloric acid.
Hydrogen Embrittlement: http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/bin/view/Brunelleschi/MegsNotebook
Hydrogen embrittlement occurs in bronze casting when hydrogen molecules fail to dissipate from the bronze. It is also possible for hydrogen to enter into a casting during corrosion reactions. The hydrogen combines with carbon, forming methane gas that collects in voids in the metal, building up pressure that can initiate cracks. Therefore, the presence of hydrogen in the casting reduces the ductility and load-bearing capacity of the metal, which can result in fractures due to stresses below the standard yield. To avoid the inclusion of hydrogen in bronze castings, degasifiers are now added to the molten metal to combine with the hydrogen molecules and pull them out of the casting.
Problems? Yes, but solving them initiated scientific research and changed history, all because of a heavy stone known as cassiterite!
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