A
Anonymous
Guest
I found this on our farm, in the pasture. It looks like a freakin' duck! It was about 7" deep and hit hard on my ExpII. Sounded and gave visual of a silver quarter! Then I dug this.
<img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10610/duck.jpg" alt="" />
Strange to say the least. I thought it was made of aluminum at first due to is weight and color. But it seemed too hard to be aluminum. Couple of people thought it could be solder. Nope, too hard. Here is another look.
<img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10610/duck2.jpg" alt="" />
I took it to work, where we have a deformulation lab that has an awesome instrument. It's a X-ray absorbtion spectrometer. It has the ability to give accurate measurements of the compostion of any give sample that is below Na(sodium) on the periodic table of elements. That's all solid matter at room temperature. It is non-destructive and does no damage at all. Read about it here.
http://www.uga.edu/cms/XAbs.html
Anyway, a fellow chemist ran a spectrograph of it and it said that this "duck" contained the following:
Nickel= 2.53%
Copper= 72.15%
Zinc= 24.31%
Gold= 0% (gold was shown because the method was one for precious metals)
Silver= 1.01%
I did some internet research and found out that what I have is BRASS! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> It is silver colored because it was heated very hot and lost is "brass" color.
So I have a brass object that is duck shaped and looks like it was made that way on purpose. On the back of the duck is a darkened area that, (before extreme cleaning) resembled a block letter "T". Could this be somebodys lost art? I'm sure that brass wasn't melted anywhere back there. Temps are too hot to melt it outside of a foundry. It's a mystery, but very cool! And at least I know what its made of.
I have access to using the X-ray Spec. anytime I wish when it's not in use. It cost the lab about 20$ to run a sample on this one instrument. It cost about $1800-$8000 to run a complete deformulation on anything.(bowling ball, catalysts, urethanes, etc) If anyone out there has something (metal) that you would like a non destructive and accurate formulation ID, on a find you are unsure about, email me and I will give you more info. The object has to be no more that 7" X 7" due to size limitations. Gold can be ID'ed as %pure gold and alloys used in it and in carats. I will charge what it costs to run the sample ($20) plus what it cost to return ship it. I'm not trying to make a buck here (yet! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> ), just wanting to help solve some of lifes mysteries. It takes about 30 minutes to complete an analysis and only scans the surface of the object up to about 1 or 2 micrometers in depth. So if you want to know whats inside and object, sorry. That would require some drilling <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock"> .
I'd be glad to help out if I could.
--Allan--
<img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10610/duck.jpg" alt="" />
Strange to say the least. I thought it was made of aluminum at first due to is weight and color. But it seemed too hard to be aluminum. Couple of people thought it could be solder. Nope, too hard. Here is another look.
<img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10610/duck2.jpg" alt="" />
I took it to work, where we have a deformulation lab that has an awesome instrument. It's a X-ray absorbtion spectrometer. It has the ability to give accurate measurements of the compostion of any give sample that is below Na(sodium) on the periodic table of elements. That's all solid matter at room temperature. It is non-destructive and does no damage at all. Read about it here.
http://www.uga.edu/cms/XAbs.html
Anyway, a fellow chemist ran a spectrograph of it and it said that this "duck" contained the following:
Nickel= 2.53%
Copper= 72.15%
Zinc= 24.31%
Gold= 0% (gold was shown because the method was one for precious metals)
Silver= 1.01%
I did some internet research and found out that what I have is BRASS! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> It is silver colored because it was heated very hot and lost is "brass" color.
So I have a brass object that is duck shaped and looks like it was made that way on purpose. On the back of the duck is a darkened area that, (before extreme cleaning) resembled a block letter "T". Could this be somebodys lost art? I'm sure that brass wasn't melted anywhere back there. Temps are too hot to melt it outside of a foundry. It's a mystery, but very cool! And at least I know what its made of.
I have access to using the X-ray Spec. anytime I wish when it's not in use. It cost the lab about 20$ to run a sample on this one instrument. It cost about $1800-$8000 to run a complete deformulation on anything.(bowling ball, catalysts, urethanes, etc) If anyone out there has something (metal) that you would like a non destructive and accurate formulation ID, on a find you are unsure about, email me and I will give you more info. The object has to be no more that 7" X 7" due to size limitations. Gold can be ID'ed as %pure gold and alloys used in it and in carats. I will charge what it costs to run the sample ($20) plus what it cost to return ship it. I'm not trying to make a buck here (yet! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> ), just wanting to help solve some of lifes mysteries. It takes about 30 minutes to complete an analysis and only scans the surface of the object up to about 1 or 2 micrometers in depth. So if you want to know whats inside and object, sorry. That would require some drilling <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock"> .
I'd be glad to help out if I could.
--Allan--
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