History of Aluminum Essay Example for Free

History of Aluminum Essay Aluminum as a metal came to its existence only 200 years ago. However, Dmitry Eskin noted that almost 2000 years ago, Pleny the Elder â€Å"mentions a strange, light, and silvery metal in his Historia Naturalis which might indicate that aluminum may have been discovered accidentally and then forgotten† (Eskin 2008, p. 1). Citing the work of Pleny the Elder, Eskin puts it: â€Å"One day a gold smith in Rome was allowed to show the Emperor Tiberius a dinner plate of a new metal. The plate was very light, and almost as bright as silver. The goldsmith told the Emperor that he had made the metal from plain clay. He also assured the Emperor that only he, himself, and the gods knew how to produce these metal from clay. The emperor felt immediately, however, that all his treasures of gold and silver would decline in value if people started to produce this bright metal of clay. Therefore, instead of giving the goldsmith the regard expected, he ordered him to be beheaded† (p. 1). The existence of this young metal was established by an Englishman H.  Davy in 1808 which he called â€Å"aluminium,† but this name was later changed to Aluminum (USA). Thus, both aluminium (U. K. ) and aluminum continues to be use to call this metal. Nevertheless, it was not until 1825 that pure aluminum was extracted by the Dane N. C. Oerested, though actually, he was only able to produce tiny amounts. Eskin pointed out that between 1827 and 1845, the German F. Wohler â€Å"developed the first process to produce aluminum powder by reacting potassium with anhydrous aluminum chloride† (p. ). It was also Wohler who determined some physical properties of aluminum such as its density which according to Eskin, â€Å"appeared to be the most remarkable characteristic of the new metal† (p. 1). Citing the description of Jules Verne about this newly discovered metal in his â€Å"From the Earth to the Moon† in 1865, Verne wrote: â€Å"This valuable metal possesses the whiteness of silver, the indestructibility of gold, the tenacity of iron, the fusibility of copper, the lightness of glass. It is easily wrought, is very widely distributed, forming the base of most rocks, is three times lighter than iron, and seems to have been created for the purpose of furnishing us with the material for our projectile† (p. 2) By 1854, a French chemist by the name of Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville improved the method used by Wohler which facilitated the aluminum commercial production that resulted to the dropping of price from approximately $1200 per kilogram in 1852 to just about forty dollars per kilogram in 1859. But aluminum’s price remained costly for voluminous use. Not long when Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive method for the aluminum production. Mary Bellis noted that extracting pure aluminum was not easy as it is never found free in nature. This difficulty made aluminum a precious metal during this period, but with Martin hall’s invention of aluminum processor which was patented in 1888 had made aluminum processing easy that brought aluminum price down to an even lower at eighteen cents a pound (Bellis, Mary). According to the American society for metals, aluminum is the most â€Å"abundant metal in the earth’s crust† (ASM, ASM International Handbook Committee 1990, p. 35) was a development of this century. It derives its name from the Latin alumen meaning bitterness. The ASM International stated that aluminum was first exhibited in 1855, but it was difficult to obtain during this period that it was more expensive than gold. During this time, companies producing aluminum had difficulty attracting buyers due to its high cost at $2 a pound. It was only after one manufacturer discovered, it made good, inexpensive tea kettles that the price declined at cents a pound, and by the 1900 it was down to 32 cents per pound (p. 35). Production of aluminum however, was low until World War II, but in 1963, the aluminum industry which was undreamed of during the 1900, employed 35, 970 people in 951 plants with payroll of $221, 567,000. Thus in the first seven months of 1968 alone, more than 412,000 Mg (450 tons) of aluminum were cast in the United States. John Gilbert Kaufman and Elwin L. Rooy pointed out that the first important market for aluminum were the castings following the commercialization of the Hall-Heroult electrolytic reduction process (p. 1). Kaufman and Rooy stressed that at first application were merely â€Å"limited to curiosities such as house numbers, hand mirrors, combs, brushes, tie clamps, and decorative lamp housings that emphasized the light weight, silvery finish, and novelty of the new metal† (p. 1). Furthermore, Kaufman and Rooy cited that cast aluminum cookware was invented and was a welcome alternative to cast iron and brass pots, pans, and kettles (p. ). As the production of aluminum increases, its cost steadily declined, and by the end of the 19th century, â€Å"important engineering application became economically viable† (p. 1). From this point onward, the use of aluminum in some industry features prominently. Kaufman and Rooy stated that the use of aluminum played important role electrification. Aluminum was well suited to the electrification demand of a low-density, corrosion resistant, and high-conductivity wire and cable. Aluminum was also suited to transmission towers and cast installation hardware, and was also in demand to automotive pioneers who â€Å"sought innovative materials and product forms to differentiate the performance and appearance of their products† (Kaufman Rooy, p. 1). More importantly, Kaufman and Rooy noted that when the Wright Brothers succeeded in powerful flight, engine and other parts in cast aluminum â€Å"represented the beginning of a close collaboration with what would become the aviation industry† (p. 1). The earliest design rules for aluminum structures according to Randolph Kissell and Robert L.  Ferry were developed at Alcoa around 1930 and were used â€Å"to design the aluminum deck and floor beams installed on the Smithfield street Bridge in Pittsburg in 1933 (Ferry 2002, p. 217). After the publication of the American Society of Civil Engineers of an article entitled â€Å"Specification for Structures of a Moderate Strength Aluminum Alloy of High Resistance to Corrosion† in 1952 and similar other publications in 1956, major aluminum producers led by Alcoa as the number aluminum producer, followed by Reynolds and Kaiser began to developed structural design books for their product (Kissel Ferry, p. 17). From this point on, aluminum has become important components of the construction manual series which included the following: Section 1: Specifications for aluminum structures; section 1A: Commentary on Specifications for Aluminum Structure; section 2 Illustrative Examples of Designs; Section 3: Engineering Data for Aluminum Structures; and, section 5: Specification for Aluminum Sheet Metal Work in Building Construction (p. 18). From its humble beginnings, the use of aluminum has evolve from simple curiosities such as house numbers, combs, pins, and other small items made from aluminum, to become an important material in almost business industries from automotive to aero space industry, to construction industry. Below is a classification table for aluminum which characterizes its description and its properties.

An Investigation into the P.e.d, Y.e.d and X.p.e.d of The Sony Playstat

An Investigation into the P.e.d, Y.e.d and X.p.e.d of The Sony Playstation1 I have chosen the Sony Playstation1 as my product. The Playstation1 went on sale in 1995 in Britain. It quickly sold all its stock completely due to very high demand, as it was a 'new thing' at the time. It cost  £200 in the shops and stayed at this price for a whole two years however demand started to decrease rapidly after this. This could be because of new arrivals to the console world i.e. Nintendo 64. So they dropped their price to  £130 and again huge demand for the product begun and they sold out. However after a year, demand for the Playstation1 dropped, so they dropped their price again down to  £100. There was still little demand, so they dropped their price even further to just  £70 and brought it out in a new smaller design. However things never picked up as the Playstation2 was released and so no one wanted the somewhat dated Playstation1. Prices remain at  £70 today in all major shopping stores. P.e.d (Price elasticity of demand) is divined as the responsiveness of the quantity demanded of a good to changes in its own price. It is calculated by the equation :- P.e.d = % change in quantity demanded % change in price As I have found information figures when the Plastation1 went on sale and more recent figures, I have worked out the P.e.d for the Sony Plastation1. P.e.d = 0.91 ============ The result shows the Sony Playstation1 is inelastic. This means the consumers are aware of changes in the price and reflect on them to whether or not they buy the product. Because of the quite neutral result of P.e.d it shows a balance ... ...le, an increase in the price of coffee will increase the demand for tea. This, I would not expect to be true for the consoles we are talking about. Goods in joint demand however will have negative cross elasticities. For instance, an increase in the price of record players will reduce the demand for records. This I would expect to be true for the Playstation1 and Nintendo 64. The coefficient will be high for goods that are very close substitutes or complements and low when they are neither substitutes nor complements. Uses of cross elasticity of demand  · Firms can estimate the effect on their demand of a competitors price cut.  · Firms can estimate impact on demand for their product if they cut the price of a complement e.g. if they cut the price of the computer, how much will demand for software increase?

Varying representations, interpretations of and attitudes towards death

Murderous, entrenched, complex – the Northern Ireland conflict seems to defy rational discourse. But from the contradictions and tensions has sprung some remarkable art, not least the poetry of the Troubles, now widely recognised as among the most vibrant contemporary writing in the English language. Through the six poems mentioned the theme of death is very prominent. We start with â€Å"Tollund Man† and â€Å"Grauballe Man†. In these two poems Heaney portrays the deaths as a tragedy, but opposed to his other poems, he refers hear mainly to the physical appearance of the bodies. In â€Å"Tollund Man† he starts the poem with a very vivid, striking description of the body, and expresses his desired pilgrimage. Heaney focus' mainly on the period after death in this poem and describes how its miraculous preservation has made it seem to become one with the earth â€Å"she tightened her torc on him†. Heaney seems in awe of the ‘corpse', which after death the body has taken on a Christ like appearance â€Å"I could risk blasphemy†. This death does not have any direct relation, as such, to Heaney, and therefore does not have the same sort of heartfelt mourning. None the less Heaney still seems to care greatly for this Bog body and elaborates on the condition in which the body was found. He uses these details to create himself his own story of their life leading up to their gruesome murder. In the last section of this poem Heaney refers to the â€Å"sad freedom† that comes with death, and how now he will be grouped as a statistic wit h Bog bodies found in the various other locations. The Tollund Man now has his freedom, but at a high price. Heaney finishes with a personal reference to his own sadness: â€Å"I will feel lost, unhappy, and at home† Here he is referring (as he does in a number of his poems) to the violence in Northern Ireland, to demonstrate how he has become accustomed to death. Similarly in â€Å"Grauballe Man† Heaney describes the body as if it has become one with the earth. As with many poets Heaney agrees that there is a fine line between sleep and death. Here the Grauballe Man: â€Å"Lies on a pillow of turf and seems to weep† Heaney personifies the lifeless body, describing him as if asleep he continues this and lets the bodies take on other animal qualities â€Å"his spine an eel arrested† but he maintains its peaceful image. Again here he uses vivid imagery â€Å"the vent of his of his slashed throat that has tanned and toughened† to convey the way in which this almost angelic body lays. He does not want to refer to the body as a corpse and he asks the rhetorical question â€Å"Who will say ‘corpse' to his vivid cast?† Similarly to the Tollund man given the body a more holy image than simply a rotting corpse. By the end of the poem Heaney has become familiar to the body and answers to himself his rhetorical question. Heaney draws up the conclusion that there is a fine line between beauty and atrocity. He uses blunt, monosyllabic word sounds such as slash[ed] and dump[ed] to represent the harsh reality of the world and what man has turned it into. Being used to death is something that has influenced a lot of Heaney's poems. This is an incredibly sad poem. The mood is set almost immediately in the second line: Counting bells knelling classes to a close. Notice how Heaney uses assonance and alliteration to emphasise the funereal sound of the bells and the feeling of time dragging. The stanza begins with the â€Å"morning† in line one but it is two o'clock in line three showing that hours have passed in waiting. The second stanza begins with the image of Heaney's father â€Å"crying†. Having come across Heaney's father in poems such as Follower in which he appears to be a strong man of few words, this contrary picture evokes powerful emotion in the reader. Heaney skilfully takes the reader with him as he enters the house through the porch – we meet his father, â€Å"Big Jim Evans†, the baby in its pram, the old men congregated in the room and finally Heaney's mother coughing out â€Å"angry tearless s ighs†. Lines 14-15 again show Heaney using assonance, this time in his repetition of the short â€Å"a† – â€Å"At†, â€Å"ambulance†, â€Å"arrived†, â€Å"stanched†, â€Å"and†, â€Å"bandaged† – emphasising the stopping short of blood and life. We learn in the sixth stanza that Heaney hadn't seen his brother for six weeks having been â€Å"Away at school†. The words â€Å"Paler now†, hang at the end of the stanza causing a sad pause before the sentence continues and describes how little changed in appearance the boy is in death, the difference being his paler complexion and â€Å"poppy bruise†. The final line stands out on its own. Almost every word is emphasised so that the reader must take in the line's message and the shock and deep grief that the family must have felt. There is an element of shock for the reader reading it for the first time also, when they discover who has died and that he was a mere four years old. Again in Funeral Rites it is a person close to Heaney who has died. In this poem Heaney describes him self as being very close to the deceased, playing the part of the pallbearer, he uses here a double entendre as he â€Å"shoulders a kind of manhood† as he is only a child. As in â€Å"The Tollund Man† and â€Å"The Grauballe Man† Heaney begins with a vivid description of the body with its â€Å"dough white hands† and â€Å"igloo brows†. Heaney uses phrases such as the black glacier of each funeral pushed away† to demonstrate how darkness is synonymous with death. In the second section of this poem, Heaney also concentrates on the period straight after death as in â€Å"Mid-Term Break†. However here he focuses on the funeral procession linking it again with the violence in Northern Ireland: â€Å"Now as news comes in of each neighbourly murder we pine for ceremony, customary rhythms:† Heaney shows he has become accustomed to death and how the formalities after death are simply for show. Heaney, once again, creates a solemn atmosphere in the second section describing the slow moving procession paying their ‘respect'. He personifies the funeral procession as it â€Å"drags its tail† morbidly through the streets and side roads of Ireland. In the last section Heaney brings together the themes of his own childhood experience of death, deaths in the north at present and the death of Gunnar, a Viking hero â€Å"dead by violence and unavenged†. This demonstrates the futile waste of life conflict has caused over many centuries, and sending a powerful message to the reader. In the poem â€Å"Limbo† Heaney touches on the controversial subject of Religion. Heaney casually introduces the subject of the poem, with a newspaper style headline: â€Å"Fishermen at Ballyshannon Netted an infant last night Along with the salmon† He tags on the end of the first to line†-along with the salmon† making it sound as if it is nothing out of the ordinary. Following this he concentrates on the actual death of the bastard baby, murdered by his own mother for the sake of religious beliefs. Heaney describes how the baby was rejected by its mother and discarded, although not without feeling: â€Å"He was a minnow with hooks Tearing her open.† This shows how strong some peoples convictions really are, and how they are prepared to die, or to kill for them. He uses vivid imagery and descriptive language to try and out across the pain, emotion, and brutality of the situation. The mother has to choose her baby or her religion, and being a strict Christian chooses Catholicism and drowns her own child ironically in contrast with the teachings of the bible. He ands mentioning the place where the body of the child now lays, in â€Å"some far briny zone† where the water is too harsh â€Å"Even Christ's palms, unhealed, Smart and cannot fish there.† The last poem, Casualty, is more of a story than the others are. It describes an elderly man who is a local customer at a bar in Ireland. He is fond of a drink but is able to control him self and maintain dignity. He is content to sit at a bar and watch life go by him. Out of respect he attempts to speak of poetry, but is clearly not at ease with this, so Heaney changes the subject. Although he is â€Å"laconic† he has a great presence, but his confidence eventually leads to his downfall, and this is how Heaney builds up emotion in the reader. He presents a figure that he describes in great detail and becomes attached to. This man does not think he should have to obey a curfew and is killed out on the street. Heaney describes how graffiti on the wall compares lives to goals in a football match. Heaney demonstrates his emotion in the harsh situation, and provokes emotion in the reader by creating a very solemn mood. In the second section Heaney moves on from this particular case to the general brutality in the Ireland conflict. He uses phrases such as â€Å"coffin after coffin† and â€Å"common funeral† to demonstrate how, tragically, death and violence have become an accepted part of life. Heaney then goes back to the solemn story of the man from the bar, who was simply carrying out his usual routine. He did not think he should be confined to his home for someone else's evils. This shows how the killings were not discriminate and he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Heaney then goes on to say how he did not attend the funeral, but instead reminisces on his times spent with the man. Heaney seems to find falsehood in funerals, and would prefer to sit in isolation and think back to the time when he â€Å"tasted freedom with him†. Now the man is free and has no longer to face the arduous tasks of life, or the cruelty of man. Throughout Heaney's poems he expresses his distaste of mans cruelty towards their own species. Heaney expresses his views on the futility of violence with inspiring confidence. In each of his poems he manages to use many different literary devices and provokes thought and emotion in the reader. His language is poignant and yet not aggressive and at the same time he is presenting a very valid set of arguments.

How to Use the French Word Se Rendre Compte

The French word  se rendre compte, pronounced,  ra(n) dr(eu) ko(n)t, means to realize or be aware. Examples Je ne me suis pas rendu compte quil allait arriver ce soir: I didnt realize that he was going to arrive this eveningTu teRends compte de la situation?: Are you aware of the situation?Et il la fait, tu te rends compte!: And he did it, can you imagine!Related: rendre - to give back, return