Sacks, Oliver, Uncle Tungsten (London: Pan Macmillan, 2001)
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Sebald, W. G., The Rings of Saturn (London: Harvill, 1998)
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Text Credits
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be grateful to be notified of any correction that should be incorporated in future editions of this book.
Extract from The Waste Land © the Estate of T. S. Eliot by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.
Extract from ‘Cargoes’ by John Masefield reproduced by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of John Masefield.
Extract from Dr. Strangelove, copyright © 1963, renewed 1991, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
Extract from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, published by Penguin. Copyright © The University of the South, 1947; Copyright renewed © The University of the South, 1975. Reproduced by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc. in the UK. Reproduced by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. in the USA.
Extract from ‘Hier, in diesem Zink’ from Bertolt Brecht, Werke. Grosse kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, vol. 11. © Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurst an Main, 1988.
Extract from ‘Roam Home to a Dome’ by R. Buckminster Fuller. Courtesy the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller.
Searchable Terms
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
The elements of the modern periodic table are indicated in bold.
Abbas I (Persia) 309
Abbott, Donald 323–4
Abbott, Isabella 323
Abd al-Rahman III 95
Åbo see also Turku (Finland) 373, 375
Afghanistan 56
Agamemnon (ship) 243–4
Age of Iron (Coetzee) 173
Agricola (Georg Bauer) 25, 165
alchemy/alchemists
and antimony 345–6, 348
and gold 28, 190, 221–2
and mercury–sulphur reaction 97–100
and other metals 50, 51, 219, 221–2, 227–8
and the four ‘elements’ and principles 148
Chinese and Western theories of 47
symbols 227–8
The Alchymist (Wright) 117, 123–4
Aldeburgh (Suffolk) 186, 293
Aldersey-Williams, Hugh
elements collection of 4–6, 9, 55, 61
family 147, 186, 214, 253, 287, 316, 321, 344
performs experiments 12, 61–5, 113, 115–23, 145–7, 205, 214–15, 227, 265
school and childhood recollections 1, 3–4, 6–7, 9, 153, 176, 205
works with plutonium 76–8, 80
Alexander II (Russia) 214, 261
Alexandria (Egypt) 276
alkali metals 83, 86, 179–80, 360 see also named elements
alkaline earths 178 see also named elements
alloys 17, 20–21, 45, 46, 51, 60, 184, 207, 211, 219, 222, 233, 247, 264–5, 315, 343, 361, 368, 369, 375 see also brass, bronze, etc.
Almadén (Spain) 95–7
Alum Bay (Isle of Wight) 267
alumina 260, 328
aluminium 4, 84, 89, 97, 140, 184, 227, 253–65, 279, 299, 328, 244, 361, 369, 378, 379
alternative spelling of 260
and modernity 255
lightweight 220, 255, 284
regarded as precious 256, 259, 283
aluminum see aluminium
Alvarez, Santiago 226
amalgams 23, 38, 96, 99, 178
Amazon region 19, 65
amber 28, 199–200, 325, 327, 358
The American Language (Mencken) 260
American Museum of Natural History (New York) 44–5
Americas, pre-Columbian 21, 32, 95, 224, 349
americium 70, 78, 394, 396
amethyst 328
Ampère, André-Marie 135, 144
Amrani, Marité 169–70
Andersen, Hans Christian 206
Angel of the North (Gormley) 54, 222
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) 87
Anthony, Earle C. 337
antimony 154, 181, 207, 219, 317, 343–8, 382
different forms of 345–6
regulus or star 346–8
Antimony (Utah) 350
Apollo 46
Aquinas, Thomas 99
Aranda, Marquis of 33
Aranjuez (Spain) 241
Are You a Bromide? (Burgess) 141
Argentina 225
argon 60, 277, 279, 337
discovery of 85–6, 332–4
Aristotle 148, 392
Arkwright, Richard 124
Armbruster, Peter 394–7
Arrhenius, Carl Axel 373, 375, 385
Arrhenius, Svante 25, 26
arsenic 130, 309, 313, 314–21
abundant in the environment 314, 321
as pigment 287, 296, 316
, 318–19
as poison 315–21, 350
occurring with other ores 202, 203, 207, 308
Artemis 46, 225
astatine 71
Atahualpa 19
Athens 35, 232, 171
Atlantic Ocean 19, 21, 26, 200, 212, 242–5, 299
Auer, Carl 366–8, 376
Australia 16, 22, 245
Austria 68, 144, 208, 296
Aztecs 18, 20, 45, 239
Bacon, Francis 53, 148
Bad Suderode (Germany) 166
Ballard, J. G. 173, 300–302
Balloon Dog (Koons) 305
Baltimore (Maryland) 142
Bangladesh 321
Banham, Reyner 302–3
Banks, Joseph 40
Banner, Fiona 339–40
Barcelona 95
Barcelona Pavilion 299
Barcelona University 226
Barclay, Fiona 56–60
barium 72, 162, 164, 178, 182, 184, 361
Barthes, Roland 235
baryta 178
Bath 131, 166, 312
Bauhaus (Germany) 298
Baum, L. Frank 207, 330
Les Baux (France) 255
bauxite 255, 263
Beagle (ship) 107
Beaverbrook, Lord 263
Becquerel, Henri 163
Bedouin people 45
Beijing 158
Belcher, Edward 108–11
bell metal 211–12
Benjamin, Walter 223, 249
Beowulf 327
Bergman, Torbern 354, 355
Berkeley (California) 71, 73, 90, 349–50, 360, 396
berkelium 70, 396
Berlin 26, 72, 130, 173, 220, 246, 248, 349, 375, 380
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo 274
Bernstein, Jeremy 79
Bernstein, Leonard 300, 330
Berthollet, Claude-Louis 136–7
beryl 327–30
beryllia 329
beryllium 2, 329, 367, 379
Berzelius, Jöns Jacob 71, 325–6, 329, 353, 356, 358, 369–73, 376, 378
Besant, Annie 193–7
Betjeman, John 173
Bettle, Jim 61–5
Beuys, Joseph 250
The Bible 5, 103, 127, 265, 330, 338, 342–3 see also Revelation
Big Ben 212
The Big Money (Dos Passos) 30, 158
Bilbao 280–83
bismuth 162, 185, 207, 297, 395
Black, Joseph 178
Blake, William 53, 225
Blandford Forum (Dorset) 63
Bleak House (Dickens) 114
Bleigiessen 214, 127
Blok, Alexander 87–8
blow-pipe 357–8
Bohr, Niels 27, 82
bohrium 394
Bolívar, Simón 34
Bones (Banner) 339
The Book of Dave (Self) 174
boron 2
Boron (California) 350
Boston 337–8
‘The Botanic Garden’ (Erasmus Darwin) 158
Bouvard and Pécuchet (Flaubert) 389
Bovingdon (Hertfordshire) 189
Boyle, Robert 123
Brand, Hennig 112–15, 117, 122, 123, 125, 127
Brandt, Georg 309, 352, 355, 369
brass 21, 51, 210, 247, 258
Brazil 65
Brecht, Bertolt 251, 269
Brett, Jacob 242
Brett, John Watkins 242
brimstone 103–6, 112 see also sulphur
Brisingamen 325, 327
Bristol 176, 311–12
Britannia (ship) 245
British Museum (London) 13, 243
Broadmoor hospital 190, 320
bromide 139, 141
bromine 1, 56, 142–3
Bromo-Seltzer 139, 142
bronze 11, 32, 35, 36, 48, 51, 204–5, 206, 211–12, 219, 222, 237, 247, 255, 258
Brown, Denise Scott 341
Browne, Thomas 28, 29, 334
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 54, 245
Bryson, Bill 258
Budapest 368
Buddha 16
Bunsen, Robert 179, 187, 366–8, 370
Burgess, Anthony 173
Burgess, Gelett 141
‘Burial of the Agitator in a Zinc Coffin’ (Brecht) 251
Burma 329
Buxton (Derbyshire) 166
Byron, Lord 68
Cabot, John 239
cadmium
as artists’ colour 287, 288–93, 312, 391
as poisonous 292, 296
discovery 287–8
dropped over Norwich 293–5
environmental pollution by 183, 289, 292
caesium 179, 180, 187
calamine 247, 288
calcium 85, 121, 166, 178
in living organisms 268–9, 275
in sculpture 271–4
white minerals of 10, 266–70
Calder, Alexander 94–6
California, University of 71
californium 70, 396
Cambridge (United Kingdom) 39, 131, 332, 381
Canada 34
Candide (Bernstein) 330
Candide (Voltaire) 19–20
Candy Heart (Koons) 305
Cannery Row (Steinbeck) 321
Canova, Antonio 274
Canton (China) 111
Capra, Frank 30
carbon 5, 8, 12, 58, 69–70, 135, 154, 159, 329, 389
as charcoal 62, 64, 66
as coal 8, 11, 52, 62, 66
as lamp black 269, 313, 343
in steel-making 48, 52
see also diamond
Carbonari movement 61–9
‘Cargoes’ (Masefield) 8, 18
Carrara (Italy) 271–2, 274
Carthage 17, 200
Cartier, Louis 35
Casanova, Giacomo 33
A Case for an Angel (Gormley) 222
Casey, Thomas 258
Cassiterides 199–203
cassiterite 199, 204
Catch-22 (Heller) 22
Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht) 269
Cavendish, Henry 152, 354
Ceres (planet) 40, 372
cerium 56, 168, 359, 368–9, 371–2, 278
Cerne Abbas giant 267
CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) 136
Chabaneau, Pierre-François 32–3, 38–9
charcoal see carbon
Charlemagne 165
Charles II (England) 125
Charles III (Spain) 32
Chartres cathedral 281, 306
Chatterton, Thomas 319
chemical formulae 59, 147, 370
chemical symbols 74, 156, 370, 397
Chevenix, Richard 38, 41, 43
Chicago 73, 261
China 92–4, 108, 109, 111, 247, 300
chlorine 83, 138, 147, 159, 185, 352, 355
as bleaching agent 128, 134, 391
as disinfectant 136–7
compounds in the environment 135–6
in gas warfare 128–34
Christie, Agatha 2, 186–90
Christofle 256, 259
chromium 2, 9, 61, 259, 292, 323, 324, 327–8, 329, 394
and consumerism 297–304, 350
pejoratively termed ‘chrome’ 9, 304–5, 347
pigments 287, 295, 296, 312
Churchill, Winston 47, 126
cinnabar 93, 95, 98, 100–102 see also mercury
Clark, Harry 61
Clarke, David 229–30
Claude, Georges 335–7
Clemens, Samuel 22
Cleopatra (Egypt) 275–6
Cleve, Per 355, 374
Cleveland, Grover 330
coal see carbon
Coalbrookdale (Shropshire) 52, 53
cobalt 165, 292, 306–12
blue 10, 295
violet 314
Cobalt (Idaho) 350
Cocteau, Jean 90–92, 96
Coetzee, J. M. 173
Cognac (France) 376, 380
Cohen, Leonard 140
coin m
etals 4, 17, 22, 34, 51, 165, 207, 232, 240, 331, 355
Cold War 90, 223, 396
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 156
Colombia 19, 21, 109, 329
colour
in nature 291
vocabulary of 295–6
Colt, Samuel 231
Columbus, Christopher 18, 20
combustion 68–70, 105, 106, 113, 114, 125, 153–4, 158
Conrad, Joseph 172
Conreen, Martin 205, 209
Constable, John 296
Constantinople 237
Cooke, William Fothergill 241
Cookworthy, William 310–11
Coolidge, Calvin 137
Copenhagen 27, 45, 55, 380, 396
copernicium 397
Copernicus, Nicolaus 397
copper 2, 4, 7, 20–21, 31, 48, 74, 89, 151, 201, 203, 204–5, 206, 207, 210, 211, 228, 229, 232, 233, 247, 259, 262, 265, 286, 304, 307, 358, 368, 389
as one of the ancient metals 31, 103, 227, 250, 278
mines and deposits 49, 202, 351–2, 378
used in batteries 155, 176
used in fireworks 180, 182, 184–5
used in roofing 237–9, 258
used in telegraphy 240–46
Copper Center (Alaska) 350
Corneliussen, Ole 313, 314
Cornwall 200–202, 311
coronium 192, 195
Cortés, Hernando 18–20, 239
Cortés, Hernando cosmetics 96, 168, 226, 342–3, 344
Cotton, Elmer 133
Courtois, Bernard 143–6
craft and craftspeople 11, 19, 26, 33, 34, 48, 207–8, 229, 256, 264, 270, 276–7, 279, 306, 310
Crane Park (London) 217
Crash (Ballard) 301–2
Crete 199
Cripple Creek (Colorado) 23–4
Croesus 17
Cromer (Norfolk) 268
Crookes, William 187–8, 195, 197
Cuba 18, 20
Curie Museum (Paris) 169–70 see also Radium Institute (Paris)
Curie, Marie 2, 7, 82, 86, 161–5, 167–70, 362, 363, 376
Curie, Pierre 7, 86, 161–3, 362, 363, 376
Periodic Tales Page 39