December 13 – Anniversary of a Prophecy by Dickens

nPostednon December 13, 2013

nCharlesnDickens is well known as the author who wrote such famous novels as GreatnExpectations, A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield.nHowever, he wrote lots more than novels, including plays, short stories, andnnon-fiction. n

nOnenbit of Dickens’s writing I discovered recently is Household Words:nA Weekly Journal. The journal, which was published for almost andecade, was edited by Dickens, but he wrote a great deal of it, too.

nHerenis what he published on this date in 1856:

n“Whatndo you think of a metal as white as silver, as unalterable as gold,nas easily melted as copper, as tough as iron; which is malleable, ductile, and with the singular quality of being lighter than glass?nSuch a metal does exist, and that in considerable quantities on thensurface of the globe.”

nDonyou know what metal Dickens is describing?

nItnturns out that it’s (drumroll, please) aluminum.

Althoughnaluminum is the third most abundant element in the earth’s crust, itnis the most recently discovered element in common use, and it wasn’tnuntil 1854 that people learned how to produce items with it!

n(Remember, people started using iron, gold, silver, and coppernthousands of years ago, compared to a mere 160 years ago fornaluminum!)

nDickensnwent on to say that aluminum may become more and more useful innhouseholds, because of its light weight. He wrote: “It may probablynsend tin to the right-about-face, drive copper saucepans into penalnservitude, and blow up German-silver sky-high into nothing.nHenceforth, respectable babies will be born with aluminium spoons inntheir mouths.”

n(Germannsilver is a mix of metals: copper, nickel, and often zinc. It used tonbe used a lot more in the past than it is now. And Dickens’s guessnabout aluminum bumping tin and copper into less use is right-on asnwell. Spoons, like other Western cutlery, are generally made fromnstainless steel, nowadays, BUT we still say that rich kids are bornnwith silver—not aluminum—spoons in their mouths!)

nAluminiumnor aluminum?

Indon’t know if you noticed that my Dickens quote said aluminium,nwhile I’ve been saying aluminum? The metallic element is spelled differently, with an extra “i,” in addition to beingnpronounced differently, in Britain and other English-speaking localesnthan it is in Canada and the U.S. Dickens lived in England,ntherefore he used aluminium; I live in the U.S., thus my spellncheck program and I use aluminum.

nBynthe way, Dickens thought the metal’s name was too much of a mouthful,nand he suggested that a shorter name be adopted if the metal were tonhave any success in being used. I’m glad to see that we NorthnAmericans, at least, took his advice and made the name one syllablenshorter!

nAlsonon this date:

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