One of my goals is to highlight books, papers, patents that I find interesting because they illuminate how our ability to synthesize materials shapes our lives and our culture. To be clear, I choose these items because I find them interesting.
My pick for today is Clay, from Suzanne Staubach. Clay is one of the first materials that humans learned how to create and, as the book clearly states, it is ubiquitous. While Clay is a cultural history, it also provides numerous examples of the technical advances that were required to move from unfired clay to the advanced ceramics developed during the 20th century.
As someone with a materials science background, I was constantly switching back and forth from the book’s perspective to my own, reinterpreting some of the advances in terms of phase transformations and surface reactions. It also gave me a new appreciation about the technical know-how of the preindustrial world, from China to the Roman Empire.
I was also surprised to see Benjamin Thompson, aka Count Rumford, make an appearance in the book: if you have taken a class on thermodynamics, he is best known for his contribution An inquiry concerning the source of the heat which is excited by friction from 1798, where he experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to transform mechanical work into heat, thus contributing to disprove the prevalent caloric theory of the heat. It turns out that Thompson was a prolific inventor, and he developed a greatly improved fireplace and invented the kitchen range.