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GOLD
Part 4

The SECOND QUESTION:

2. Is there something in the aluminum cap on the Washington Monument?

ANSWER:
I found a lot on the Aluminum Capstone:
https://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/9511/binczewski-9511.html

At the time of its placement, aluminum was apparently quite expensive.
Some consider this a “watershed event in the subsequent emergence of the modern massive aluminum industry.”

Names mentioned in this history include:

- William Frishmuth - Frishmuth foundry in Philidelphia
- Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey, Corps of Engineers, United States Army. The engineer in charge of completing the Washington Monument
Captain Davis, Casey’s assistant. He investigated a pricing disagreement between Frishmuth and Casey
There is a discussion of chemical composition, functional purpose (part of lightening rod system- which underwent a number of modifications ) Commemoration of the casting in the mid 1980s.

Discussion ensues of William Frishmuth - A truly amazing guy:

“…. By 1860, he had become increasingly interested in politics and was a very active anti-slavery advocate. During the 1860 presidential campaign, he supported Abraham Lincoln on the emancipation issue and traveled the mid-Atlantic and New England states addressing the German-speaking communities on his behalf. This effort resulted in the close acquaintance of Lincoln, who took a liking to him and invited him to Washington, D.C., for the presidential inaugural. When the Civil War began, Frishmuth was appointed as a special secret agent in the U.S. War Department by the Secretary of War at the request of Lincoln. In 1861 he was reportedly awarded $200 in gold from Lincoln’s private purse for capturing three spies…”

There is a discussion of Frishmuth’s casting accomplishment:
“…It should be remembered that during that period there was virtually no knowledge of the dissolved gas in aluminum and its manifestation as porosity in the finished casting. Sixty years later, Eastwood10 cited the case of cast aluminum automobile steering wheels made in the 1915 period that “were polished to a high luster in which the condition of pinhole porosity stuck out like a sore thumb.” Frishmuth’s casting 30 years earlier avoided this. What did he know in preparing the metal?

There were no filtering or degassing procedures for casting aluminum in 1884. Melting, solidifying, and remelting was the primary means of improving final cast metal quality. The polishing methods for the large surfaces of the pyramid, together with the relatively soft aluminum metal, would have exacerbated any cast surface imperfection (e.g., the familiar comet tail encountered today by people inexperienced in polishing small aluminum metallographic specimens). Finally, the inscriptions engraved on the pyramid’s sides would have been adversely affected by any surface imperfection and undoubtedly the meticulous Casey would not have tolerated or accepted this.

The casting’s size was only one part of Frishmuth’s achievement. The quality of it was quite another….”

More info on the Monument in general can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument

AND

http://www.american-historama.org/1881-1913-maturation-era/washington-monument.htm

Fellow FReeQ’s QUESTION continues:

How about in similar obelisks? (Have you heard about the obelisks in certain important cities in the world? I forget where I read that. FR? London, is one of them.

ANSWER:
Yes that’s true. I’ve known this for a long time, but had not thought about it recently. Good catch. So into the bunny hole I go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk

Here is a listing of the locations of ANCIENT existing obelisks. You are certainly correct about ONE IN LONDON…. And there is ONE IN THE VATICAN.

There are ANCIENT Egyptian obelisks in the following locations:
Egypt – 8
Pharaoh Thutmosis I, Karnak Temple, Luxor
Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Temple
Pharaoh Hatshepsut, Karnak Temple, Luxor
Pharaoh Senusret I, Al-Masalla area of Al-Matariyyah district in Heliopolis, Cairo
Pharaoh Ramses III, Luxor Museum
Pharaoh Ramses II, Gezira Island, Cairo, 20.4 m (67 ft)[17]
Pharaoh Ramses II, Cairo International Airport, 16.97 m (55.7 ft)
Pharaoh Seti II, Karnak Temple, Luxor, 7 m (23 ft)
France – 1
Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Obelisk, in Place de la Concorde, Paris
Israel – 1
Caesarea obelisk
Italy – 13 (includes the only one located in the Vatican City)
Rome — 8 ancient Egyptian obelisks (see List of obelisks in Rome)
Piazza del Duomo, Catania (Sicily)
Benevento, two obelisks
Boboli Obelisk (Florence)
Urbino
Poland – 1
Ramses II, Poznan; Archaeological Museum, Poznan; (on loan from Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin)
Turkey – 1
Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, the Obelisk of Theodosius in the Hippodrome, Istanbul, along with the Byzantine Walled Obelisk and the Serpent Column
United Kingdom – 4
Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, “Cleopatra’s Needle”, on Victoria Embankment, London
Pharaoh Amenhotep II, in the Oriental Museum, University of Durham
Pharaoh Ptolemy IX, Philae obelisk, at Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne Minster, Dorset
Pharaoh Nectanebo II, British Museum, London (pair of obelisks)
United States – 1
Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, “Cleopatra’s Needle”, in Central Park, New York

I did not get into generating a list of modern made ones.

QUESTION:
Fellow FReeQ wondered about those other obelisks scattered about:

“I wonder if their caps are significant. Your mention of the topless pyramids that Q has posted makes me wonder about that.”

ANSWER:
I agree it is a good question, but I elected not to bunny hole that - at least not right now.

END Part 4