We made sand assume: this phrase is used sometimes to evoke the particular technological receivedders of our age, especially since artificial intelligence appears to be again on the slate of possibilities. Whereas there could be no Silicon Valley without silica sand, semiconductors are arduously the primary marvel humanity has cast out of that sort of material. Consider the three millennia of history behind the traditional Japanese sword, lengthy recognized even outfacet the Japanese language because the katana (literally “one-sided blade”) — or, extra to the purpose of the Veritasium video above, the 1,200 years wherein such weapons have been made out of metal. How Japanese Masters Flip Sand Into Swords
In clarifying the science of the katana, Veritasium host Derek Muller begins greater than two and a half billion years in the past, when Earth’s oceans have been “wealthy with dissolved iron.” However then, cyanobacteria begined photosynthesizing that iron and creating oxygen as a by-product. This course of dropped layers of iron onto the ocean ground, which eventually arduousened into layers of sedimalestary rock.
With few such formations of its personal, the geologically volcanic Japan actually got here late to metal, importing it lengthy earlier than it may manage domestic professionalduction utilizing the iron oxide that accumulated in its rivers, recovered as “iron sand.”
By that point, iron swords would now not reduce it, because it have been, however the addition of charcoal within the warmthing course of may professionalduce the “incredibly robust alloy” of metal. Certain Japanese swordsmiths have continued to make use of metal made with the roughly traditional smelting course of you may see perfashioned in rural Shimane prefecture within the video. To the disaplevelment of its professionalducer, Petr Lebedev, who participates in the entire course of, the foot-operated bellows of yore have been electrified, however he arduously appears disapleveled by his probability to take up a katana himself. He might have but to achieve the ability of a master swordsman, however beneathstanding each scientific element of the weapon he wields should make slicing bamboo clear in half that rather more satisfying.
Related content:
A Hypnotic Take a look at How Japanese Samurai Swords Are Made
A Vintage Brief Movie concerning the Samurai Sword, Narrated by George Takei (1969)
A Demonstration of Perfect Samurai Swordsmanship
An Origami Samurai Constituted of a Single Sheet of Rice Paper, Without Any Reduceting
Watch the Previousest Japanese Anime Movie, Jun’ichi Kōuchi’s The Boring Sword (1917)
How Japanese Issues Are Made in 309 Movies: Bamboo Tea Whisks, Hina Dolls, Metal Balls & Extra
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the e-book The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by means of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social webwork formerly generally known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
