These shards of metal I drew are how I imagine a crystaline state of 55-Nitinol
Gold, because it is easy to work with and never tarnishes, has always been cherished. It shimmers like the sun and is born in the violence of stars--spat out by them in their last moments as suns. Gold is a star's last gift to the universe, before it blinks away forever. It is no wonder that we adorn ourselves with gold. It is amazing stuff.
55-Nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy, is amazing in a much different way. It looks like any other metal. A little drab. Maybe in need of a polish. But, 55-Nitinol does a magical trick.
Imagine that in your spare time you like to play around with molten metals in your garage. Imagine that you carve a love letter or your favorite recipe into a block of wood. Then imagine preparing a mold of this carved block and slowly pouring molten 55-Nitinol (heated to a very precise temperature) into the mold. Then, you would make yourself some tea, sit back, and wait.
In a few hours, you would return to your metal shop, crack open the mold and there it would be: a boring silver-grey declaration of your love or your grandmother's recipe for pineapple upside-down cake. In your hands you would hold a heavy slab of metal, now inscribed with your sentimental and timeless testament. This dull looking metal slab, with whatever special words you chose, could in theory endure longer than anything else on earth.
If, tomorrow, an asteroid fell and melted the earth's crust and along with it every living and inanimate thing, including your metal creation, your love letter or recipe might not be lost forever like the oceans and the trees. The earth would be barren but as it cooled your melted creation would slowly re-form itself, slowly hardening into the shape of a slab, and slowly the words that you had carved would come back together, and your piece of metal would sit atop a lifeless rocky expanse, so that the last proof of man would be your love letter or recipe for pineapple upside-down cake. The only hint of man on earth would be your little metal slab, because once 55-Nitinol is given a shape it will always return to that shape. When it is heated in the proper manner, it will retain the memory of the shape it is given.
For more information see this old NASA report: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12702945/55Nitinol-The-Alloy-with-a-Memory-NASA-Report
For more information see this old NASA report: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12702945/55Nitinol-The-Alloy-with-a-Memory-NASA-Report
No comments:
Post a Comment