Posted on 07/11/2011 8:15:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Nanjing Belt was discovered in a tomb in 1952 around a skeleton. The tomb and the body dated to the Jin Dynasty that brings us back to the early centuries A.D (265-420) and luckily the name of the occupant was established through an inscription. He was one Zhou Chou (obit 297) who died fighting, of all people, the Tibetans.
So far so easy: belts and even britches are common in graves around the world from the mysterious dragon buckles of Late Roman mercenaries to the ceremonial belts of the Lords of the Maya. In fact, the problems only really began when the boffins got the belt off Zhou and back into a laboratory.
The belt included 'about' (?) twenty pieces of metal -- which had presumably been attached to the now rotted leather -- and four of these were made of almost pure aluminium. Aluminium it will be remembered does not appear alone in nature. It took Europeans till the early nineteenth century to understand how to isolate this useful substance and even then the aluminium that issued was far from pure.
Chinese historians were, understandably, bemused and something of a civil war broke out, not helped by the fact that the Cultural Revolution was on the horizon. If there was a resolution though before Mao's guillotine came down it was that four pieces were, indeed, aluminium. The problem then was not metallurgical but rather archaeological: were they Jin Dynasty or had they been placed in the tomb in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries?
(Excerpt) Read more at strangehistory.net ...
If you know of a cold way to get aluminum out of bauxite, please don’t post it - freepmail me.
I promise to share the profits! I will even name it Pontiac Patton Aluminum!
See? You get top billing.
LOL.
Do you mean “cinder blocks”, as we use in constuction, or something else?
Modern cement cures better under water than in air - because it cures slower.
Pre-cast and pre-stressed bridge sections, eg, are cured in a water bath.
Was it transparent aluminum?
I wonder if these objects were tested for traces of Pepsi Cola?
Actually it wasn’t concrete per se we couldn’t duplicate but concrete that would set up under water. The Romans were able to build many things we couldn’t later duplicate because we had no concrete that would set up under water. It was only quite recently(as time is reckoned)that we were able to make concrete that would set up under water. Al Capone, and other mobsters, used it quite extensively I understand.
The Chinese got a big pile of aluminum ore and placed it on various mountain peaks. Odds were, that at some point lightning would hit one of the piles and the aluminum alloy would be the by product. It was, Metal From the Gods...once every 500 years or so.
The thing to remember about the Chinese is that throughout their long history, they burned their libraries over and over again - usually along with the scholars who contributed to them. They’ve done just that in recent times. They’ll do it again.
“If you know of a cold way to get aluminum out of bauxite ...”
Funny you should mention that. I just happen to have been working on this special mixture of rare-earth catalysts, and I’ve got this black box, see, that I put these catalysts in, see, and then I add some powdered bauxite and some plain sea water that’s been slightly heated into one end of this black box, see, and in a few minutes, see, almost pure aluminum comes out of the other end of the black box, see, and ...
That would make it very rare, indeed.
But I had not thought of that - thanks!
...and let me guess - you need venture capital.
heheheh.
I believe salt water is a different story...or maybe that’s sugar water. one of the two will prevent portland from setting up.
More Chinese fakes?
Huh. I do not know.
Thoth... /g
There are places in america where lightning strikes pretty darn regular. I’d imagine the same kind of places exist in china and you could get aluminum way more frequently than every 500 years. The thing about aluminum is, it oxidizes rapidly under certain conditions...like weak acids such as human sweat or human blood. So its not going to last long.
“The pyramid peak of the Empire State building is aluminum”
I think you mean the Washington Monument.
Occam’s Razor says the belt belonged to a time traveler who originated from a time we’ve not yet reached, because we don’t have time travel, yet.
Case solved.
Next!
Geez, one screup on here, and ten posters to tell you that you goofed...
But you are correct.
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