Replies

1 posted on 08/23/2004 7:16:42 AM PDT by sionnsar

2 posted on 08/23/2004 7:16:55 AM PDT by sionnsar (Iran Azadi ||| Resource for Traditional Anglicans: trad-anglican.faithweb.com)

"Hello, computer..." ;-)

3 posted on 08/23/2004 7:17:22 AM PDT by Pyro7480 (Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genitrix.... sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper...)

Scotty would be pleased."

Aye!

5 posted on 08/23/2004 7:18:42 AM PDT by JoeSixPack1 (Kerry couldn't have gone to Sears in Cambodia Christmas day! They were closed!)

"How do you know he didn't invent the stuff?"

8 posted on 08/23/2004 7:19:17 AM PDT by Petronski (Like sittin' on pins and needles, things fall apart. It's scientific.)

uh... are any whales missing from Seaworld?

12 posted on 08/23/2004 7:20:36 AM PDT by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it with something for you))

The link doesn't work for me.

14 posted on 08/23/2004 7:21:42 AM PDT by bert (Peace is only halftime !)

"Transparent Aluminum is Here"

Well, it's about time

17 posted on 08/23/2004 7:22:13 AM PDT by nuconvert (Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.)

Picture link is busted.

19 posted on 08/23/2004 7:23:04 AM PDT by boris (The deadliest weapon of mass destruction in history is a Leftist with a word processor)

The headline is misleading. Alumina is an oxide of aluminum not a metal. Where do journalists get their science training, public school?

20 posted on 08/23/2004 7:23:18 AM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)

The title is goofy. Aluminum is a metal. Aluminum oxide is already transparent and exists in crystaline and amorphous states. There is also no alloy here, the compound Al₂O₃ has simply been mixed with other compounds to effect structure. The goal is toughness. That's all.

21 posted on 08/23/2004 7:24:05 AM PDT by spunkets

Perhaps it was here before but nobody was able to see it.

23 posted on 08/23/2004 7:24:32 AM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG

I always wondered how Scotty produced all those cool animated graphics so quickly on an ancient (to him) Macintosh. I also wondered if I could navigate an ancient Timex Sinclair or Altair (old operating systems) so quickly and efficiently. Scotty was truly a "miracle worker".

24 posted on 08/23/2004 7:25:18 AM PDT by asgardshill (The Republican's best weapon lies midway between John Kerry's nose and lower chin.)

This stuff has been around for quite a while. You will often see it used in halogen light bulbs.

28 posted on 08/23/2004 7:28:09 AM PDT by avg_freeper (Gunga galunga. Gunga, gunga galunga)

"Scotty would be pleased."

he's not the only one...

29 posted on 08/23/2004 7:31:47 AM PDT by hoot2

Hello, computer?

Just use the keyboard.

Keyboard? How quaint!

33 posted on 08/23/2004 7:37:48 AM PDT by jmstein7 (A Judge not bound by the original meaning of the Constitution interprets nothing but his own mind.)

No transparent aluminum.

Aluminum is a metal, alumina is an oxide (compound) of aluminum, and quite a different beast -- just as hydrogen is very different from water (hydrogen oxide).

37 posted on 08/23/2004 7:49:56 AM PDT by expatpat

38 posted on 08/23/2004 7:50:11 AM PDT by Homo_homini_lupus (Man is a wolf to man.)

44 posted on 08/23/2004 7:54:04 AM PDT by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))

Transparent Aluminum is Here

And here it is:

Nice, isn't it?

45 posted on 08/23/2004 7:57:39 AM PDT by azhenfud ("He who is always looking up seldom finds others' lost change...")

Excuse me but this is not a NEW process! Indeed, the first production of "transparant" alumina occured in 1902!! Its called a Ruby

The year 1902 saw the first production of synthetic ruby using the Verneuil flame-fusion process. Later, sapphire, spinel, rutile, and strontium titanate were grown with this technique. In this process, a single crystal, called a boule, forms in the flame of a simple, downward-impinging oxygen-hydrogen blowtorch. Pure oxides of aluminum (in the cases of ruby, sapphire, and spinel) or titanium (rutile and strontium titanate) are poured into the top of a small furnace and melted. Other oxides are added as needed for process control and to obtain the specific color desired. The melted material solidifies as a boule on a rotating fire-clay peg as the peg is slowly withdrawn. A boule has a very characteristic shape, with a rounded end, a long cylindrical body, and a tapering end. It is usually about 13 to 25 millimeters in diameter, 50 to 100 millimeters long, and weighs 75 to 250 carats.

Another melt technique is the Bridgman-Stockbarge solidification method, named for an American, P.W. Bridgman, and a German, D.C. Stockbarge, who, aided by three Russians, J. Obreimov, G. Tammann, and L. Shubnikov, discovered and perfected the process between 1924 and 1936. Currently, the method is used primarily for growing nongem halide, sulfide, and various metallic oxide crystals, one of the metallic oxides being aluminum oxide or sapphire