Did You Read It takes on The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean. Question one: aluminium in the 1880s, dearer than gold or cheaper than tin? Gary: cheaper than tin. Marcie: dearer than gold, chapter thirteen, $550 a pound (and 25 cents once Charles Hall freed it with electricity). Question two: King Midas's golden touch was really zinc, making brass look golden. Bonus: the table is money, war and poison, with some science.
The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean, 2010, tells one true story per element and treats the periodic table as a human artifact of money, war, poison and politics as much as science; its money chapter shows aluminium falling from dearer than gold at $550 a pound to 25 cents once Charles Hall freed it with electricity, and King Midas's golden touch as zinc making brass look like gold.
On the book: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
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The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Little, Brown and Company · Jan 1, 2010
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