Bill Aycock on tue 20 jan 98
Funny how you see what you expect to see- the original recipe called for
the powdered METAL, AluminUM, not the powdered oxide, AluminA. there was
even a comment that you could buy it as paint pigment, with a brand name
and number.
Aluminum powder is silvery, very fine, and is used as pigment, and as
Rocket fuel (thats what makes the shuttle booster flame so BRIGHT). It is
very reactive, and can be as explosive as flour dust, or coal dust, if it
is finely dispersed in air.
Alumina is white, is a coating on almost all pieces of Aluminum metal we
see, and is not reactive. it is also bound, physico-chemically, to silica,
in kaolin.
I dont know specifically what makes the recipe with alumiNUM thicken the
mix, but it probably has to do with the reactivity, which alumiNA and
Alumina Hydrate dont have.
Chemical formulae:
Aluminum -- Al
Alumina -- Al2O3
Alumna Hydrate-- Al(OH)3
Bill- on a wet (4 inches ahead for the year IN JANUARY!) Persimmon Hill.
Bill Aycock --- Persimmon Hill
Woodville, Alabama, US 35776
(in the N.E. corner of the State)
W4BSG -- Grid EM64vr
baycock@HiWAAY.net
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