

17th century Damascus sabres contained carbon nanotubes - rogercosseboom
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2006/November/15110602.asp

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patrickg-zill
Interesting but not added to the article is that the rise and fall of the
users of those swords, correlates in some ways with the rise and fall of the
supply of the material used to make the swords. That is, when the supply dried
up, they lost their power because the swords represented a technological
advantage.

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skalpelis
Or because of firearms proliferation. It was the 18th century, after all.

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eugenejen
Firearms can't be overwhelming combat weapons until U.S. civil war. That's why
the expansion of United States to Indian nations were faster than expansions
of all previous civilizations before U.S. Civil war. Rifles after mid 19th
century reduced the chances of closes combat between gunners and sword
swingers and archers.

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Kaizyn
Yeah, conquistadores such as Fernando Cortez didn't have any sort of
overwhelming combat advantage against the Aztecs...

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eugenejen
You are right. But I think the small pox brought by him helped a lot?

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yters
That and the Indians gave his conquests a mythological spin, giving him a
psychological advantage.

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quantumhobbit
And so does a burning candle. Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) can be formed from just
about any reaction involving an excess of carbon. It is the amount and purity
involved that is interesting. If you look hard enough you'll find them
everywhere.

I would like to know what volume fraction of CNTs and cementite (Fe3C)
nanowires were present. If it was a significant fraction they could have
contributed to the swords properties by the rule of mixtures.

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kingsley_20
Yet another Indian invention, ascribed to the middle east through medieval
ignorance. The wootz steel is the key.

See: <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/647868/wootz-steel>

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gamache
_Damascus steel blades were forged out of small pure cakes of steel containing
around 1.6-1.7 per cent carbon, called wootz. Produced in India, wootz cakes
were shipped to Damascus where expert sword smiths fashioned them into
blades._

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mgreenbe
Neal Stephenson has a fun depiction of wootz manufacture in _The Baroque
Cycle_. I can't evaluate its accuracy, but it's certainly a fun scene!

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zandorg
He had a dedicated researcher on the Baroque Cycle books.

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rogercosseboom
Fantastic essay by Manuel Delanda on the importance of materiality:

<http://www.t0.or.at/delanda/matterdl.htm>

