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17th century Damascus sabres contained carbon nanotubes
- gamache 17y agoDamascus steel blades were forged out of small pure cakes of steel containing around 1.6-1.7 per cent carbon, called wootz. Produced in India, wootz cakes were shipped to Damascus where expert sword smiths fashioned them into blades.
- patrickg-zill 17y agoInteresting but not added to the article is that the rise and fall of the users of those swords, correlates in some ways with the rise and fall of the supply of the material used to make the swords. That is, when the supply dried up, they lost their power because the swords represented a technological advantage.
- skalpelis 17y agoOr because of firearms proliferation. It was the 18th century, after all.
- eugenejen 17y agoFirearms can't be overwhelming combat weapons until U.S. civil war. That's why the expansion of United States to Indian nations were faster than expansions of all previous civilizations before U.S. Civil war. Rifles after mid 19th century reduced the chances of closes combat between gunners and sword swingers and archers.
- Kaizyn 17y agoYeah, conquistadores such as Fernando Cortez didn't have any sort of overwhelming combat advantage against the Aztecs...
- eugenejen 17y agoYou are right. But I think the small pox brought by him helped a lot?
- yters 17y agoThat and the Indians gave his conquests a mythological spin, giving him a psychological advantage.
- HalcyonMuse 17y agoThe people of the Americas had a distinctly different ritual of warfare. Much of the advantage had to do (at least in the beginning) with the natives "honorably" waiting for their opponents to be ready, which for the Europeans involved setting up their cannons just right. It was one big culture-shock clusterf@$#.
- alexkay 17y ago> Firearms can't be overwhelming combat weapons until U.S. civil war Right, Napoleonic wars were fought with bows and spears :/
- eugenejen 17y ago
- quantumhobbit 17y agoAnd so does a burning candle. Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) can be formed from just about any reaction involving an excess of carbon. It is the amount and purity involved that is interesting. If you look hard enough you'll find them everywhere. I would like to know what volume fraction of CNTs and cementite (Fe3C) nanowires were present. If it was a significant fraction they could have contributed to the swords properties by the rule of mixtures.
- rogercosseboom 17y agoFantastic essay by Manuel Delanda on the importance of materiality: http://www.t0.or.at/delanda/matterdl.htm http://www.t0.or.at/delanda/matterdl.htm
- kingsley_20 17y agoYet another Indian invention, ascribed to the middle east through medieval ignorance. The wootz steel is the key. See: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/647868/wootz-steel http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/647868/wootz-steel