"Aluminium" (SH60460, Rating: G)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: The Musgrave Ritual: Aluminium
Author: gardnerhill           
Word Count: 60
Rating: G
Warning: None.
Summary: A brief history of bauxite.

***

“He had a crutch fashioned from aluminium?” Watson whistled. “A very wealthy family.”

“And I retrieved it from thieves wishing to steal eight pounds of metal more valuable than gold.” Holmes shook his head. “A pity it’s so costly to extract – aluminium’s lightness and strength actually makes it a capital material for crutches.”

“The American chemists may change that soon.”

Comments

[debriswoman]

Holmes...ahead of his time:-)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Or just keeping up with current state of chemistry (the aluminum extract procedure only got fine-tuned in 1888).

[debriswoman]

Fascinating...wasn't aware of the time line

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Also makes the crutch easier to manoeuvre as a weapon ;)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Whack!

"OW!"

"I said 'God Bless Us Every One' you stingy old fart!"

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I didn't know all this about aluminium in Victorian times! How very interesting...

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Yep - until about 1888 aluminium was so tough to extract (despite it being the most common metal) that it was used for jewelry and cost more than gold. That's why an aluminum crutch would have been an eye-opener in Holmes' time. (I remember seeing a picture in one of my science books in school of an aluminum rattle made for Napoleon's son.)

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Great spotted and well written. It must have been an interesing case.

And a good bit of speculation from Watson.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I do remember learning in my chemistry class that because aluminum had been so hard to extract till about 1888 that it was more valuable than gold and was used for jewelry (Napoleon had a rattle made of it for his son). So in ACD's day that would be like a story about someone with a solid platinum crutch.