Posted by Robert Dilley on October 13, 1998 at 16:08:16:
Help! This ignorant geographer needs the help of a metallurgist. I have just finished reading Pigeon Post to my crew and am unable to answer the questions:
1 Why did the copper form into an apparently solid ball and then crumble when cut? I can understand that the melting-point of copper might be too high for the technique used, but in that case, why does it not just stay as powder?
2 Why did the crucible break? Was it, as Dick suggested, uneven heat? Why, when they put the charcoal all round it, was the heat uneven?
3 Where did the copper go in the blast furnace? I cannot believe they reached the evaporation point of the metal. Did it just spill out of the broken (for whatever reason) crucible and get mixed up in the ashes? Would there not still have been some signs of it?
I have wondered these points for years but it needed the prodding of offspring actually to try to find answers.
Suggestions welcomed: authoritative explanations wanted.