Fifty Minerals That Changed the Course of History by Chaline, Eric
Roll over image to zoom in Click on image to zoom
Fifty Minerals That Changed the Course of History by Chaline, Eric

Fifty Minerals That Changed the Course of History

Firefly Books
Price:
$20.95

Description

The brief sections are consistently interesting, and plenty of supplemental illustrations and photos make this a handsome volume... best-suited to curious kids and casual mineralogists. --Publishers Weekly

A beautiful book, nicely bound and richly illustrated... written in an easy to read, casual style. --Science Books and Films

Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History is a beautifully presented guide to the minerals that have had the greatest impact on human civilization. These are the materials used from the Stone Age to the First and Second Industrial Revolutions to the Nuclear Age and include metals, ores, alloys, salts, rocks, sodium, mercury, steel and uranium. The book includes minerals used as currency, as jewelry and as lay and religious ornamentation when combined with gem minerals like diamonds, amber, coral, and jade.

Examples of the fifty minerals are:

  • Diamonds: Did a necklace ordered by Louis XV precipitate the French Revolution?
  • Sulphur: The biblical brimstone now used in organic farming.
  • Clay: The oldest ceramic object is not a cooking pot or drinking bowl, but a statuette.
  • Arsenic: Was Napoleon murdered while imprisoned on the island of St. Helena?
  • Coal: The Romans invented the first central heating system.
  • Saltpeter: China's fourth Great Invention was perhaps not so great after all.
  • Salt: Once used as currency, we give it little thought today.
  • Jade: The Chinese fabric of pajamas for eternity.

    • Ubiquitous or rare, the minerals described in Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History have been fundamental to human progress, for good or evil. Many are familiar -- the aluminum can we drink from, the car we drive, the jewelry we wear. They can be poisons, medicines or weapons, but wherever found and however used, their importance can be easily overlooked. This attractive reference gives us fascinating insight into our undeniable dependence on minerals.



    Author: Eric Chaline
    Publisher: Firefly Books
    Published: 09/05/2017
    Pages: 224
    Binding Type: Paperback
    Weight: 1.25lbs
    Size: 8.90h x 6.70w x 0.80d
    ISBN13: 9781770855878
    ISBN10: 1770855874
    BISAC Categories:
    - History | World | General
    - Nature | Rocks & Minerals

    About the Author

    Eric Chaline is the author of Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History, as well as numerous titles on philosophy and history.