Thursday, 14 June 2012

The Chinese did it first

Just a quick addendum to the previous but one post – I forgot to mention the Terracotta warriors’ weapons.

Recent research has shown that the different types of weapon – arrowheads, axes, swords etc. – are all made of slightly different alloys, depending on their purpose. This alone suggests that the Chinese metallurgists of the period (2000 years ago) were centuries ahead of the game.

Furthermore, after two millennia underground, some of the blade edges were still sharp. It turns out that they had been chrome-plated. Funny that, since Chromium was only discovered in 1797.

Mind-blowing.

Rumour has it that in one of the more recently discovered pits, one of the generals is clutching an iPhone 5*

* Jailbroken, too.

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