- By Period
- Arachnids
- Fielding, Joy
- Police
- Electric Motors
- Macy, Caitlin
- Online Shopping
- XML
- PostgreSQL
- Calculus of Variations
- Nutshell
- Hawkins, Colin & Jacqui
- Philosophers
- Momaday, N. Scott
- Environment
- Letts Explore For Key Stage 3
- Handel
- Dickey, James
- Warren, Robert Penn
- Latvia
- Kinsella, W. P.
- Williams, Anne
- France
- Netscape
- Picture Dictionaries
- Watches
- Home and Garden
- UK Electronics
- UK Books
- Health and Personal Care
- UK Sporting Goods
- Clothing, Shoes and Accessories
- Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- CDs and Music Downloads
- UK Software and Video Games
- UK Toys and Games
- UK Home and Garden
- UK Video Games
- UK Baby Clothes and Accessories
- Books On
- German Electronics
Books : Science & Nature : Engineering & Technology : Production, Manufacturing & Operational : Materials & Industries : Ceramics
-
-
-
Diamonds have an enduring appeal but they are no more than one form of a very common element--carbon. This realisation and the promise of instant fame and fortune has provided the necessary stimulus for a succession of inventors, fraudsters and madmen to try their hand at artificially making diamonds. Diamonds can now be made from almost any form of carbon, from soot to peanut butter.Robert M. Hazen, an American research scientist, tells the often eccentric tales of The Diamond Makers for the general reader. From the early 1800s, claims of synthetic diamond production have been made but it was not until February 16, 1953, that success was finally achieved by Swedish scientists. By then the experimenters realised that making diamonds is not so easy. Nature can do it many kilometres deep within the earth or by hitting the earth with a large meteorite but reproducing these conditions in the lab are not so easy. It requires massive metal anvils capable of crushing rock material at over 60,000 atmospheres and then heating it to over 1500 degrees C. Alternatively controlled explosions can blast graphite into diamond at pressures in excess of 200,000 atmospheres. Hazen relishes the details of this macho science and technology and his laddish enthusiasm transfers well to the printed page. Nearly 50 black and white photos and figures, end notes and index make The Diamond Makers
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The Glass Bathyscaphe asks what was the crucial difference between oriental and occidental societies in the late middle ages and Renaissance that meant that those in the west developed modern scientific method and those in the east did not? What was the single most important substance behind the startling technological advances of the last two hundred years? Some might be tempted to answer, "Iron and Steel", to the second question but, according to MacFarlane and Martin, in their unusual book, the answer to both questions should be, "Glass". Through its use in telescopes and microscopes, barometers, thermometers and scientific instruments, medical and photographic equipment, glass made us feel differently about ourselves and the world.The danger in a book like this, which concentrates on one substance and its cultural significance, is that the authors could have sounded like monomaniacs, ascribing just about every advance in human knowledge to the wonders of glass. MacFarlane and Martin are aware of this danger and they acknowledge the enormous complexity of the forces that created the modern world. Their argument is subtle and sophisticated but they are in no doubt that glass has never been given the central place it deserves. Ironically, given its subject, The Glass Bathyscaphe has a slightly opaque title (how many know, without consulting a dictionary, what a bathys
-
-
-
-
-
This expanded second edition is an ideal introduction to the topic for undergraduates in materials science, ceramics or inorganic chemistry.
-
