Iron, Man

Yes Yes Yes, We'll Get To Tony Stark In A Bit

Following on from Conrad's flirtation with the steel-making process yesteryon, and the valueless slag waste it produces, Your Humble Scribe ventured intellectually a little further into the use of iron, how it used to be utilised, and when and where it was replaced by steel.  Steel is by all accounts a better metal for so many other uses than iron, EXCEPT when it comes to metaphor.  Art!

     Here is his debut in 1962, It was evident from the side-panels that there was a member of Hom. Sap. under that armour, donning it as would a medieval knight.  You may also be wondering why inferior iron was used as a tagline here, which I wondered too, before the answer hit home: copyright.  Art!

     Ol' Kel Al beat Tony to this title by quarter of a century, and DC's lawyers would have loved to explain this in court to Marvel's lawyers, at considerable length and cost.

     ANYWAY there are very few entries in my "Brewer's" that derive from 'Steel', but Gosh! there are lots of entries for 'Iron'.  One reason is the dead weight of history, iron having become widely used in Europe from about 1,000 BC onwards, which is when the 'Iron Age' is deemed to have begun.  Goodbye Bronze Age, you were fun whilst you lasted.  Art!

     Steel, as a widely-used metal, on the other hand, has only been around since the 1870's, so about 150 years as opposed to nearly three millennia.

     Why 1870?  Because, gentle reader, ten years previously to that date, Henry Bessemer invented his Converter, which resembles nothing so much as The Mouth Of Hell done on an industrial scale.  Art!

Converter with puny humans for scale

     

     The giant vessel was filled with tons of molten iron, and air was forced through the base in order to oxidise and remove any impurities such as sodium and calcium.  Lime was added to remove phosphorus, and carbon or other metals (vanadium, chromium, manganese) were added to adjust the steel's qualities.  Art!

     Here's a BC whilst the 'Blow' is on and what you can't get from a still is the extremely volatile nature of the process, all giant gouts of flame and showers of sparks.  Each spark being a little bit of molten metal with the ability to burn.  Not surprisingly, a warning siren went off before the blow began.  Art!

     35 tons of pig iron has now been rendered into steel, and is being poured into a quaintly named 'ladle', a gigantic metal pot lined with ceramic that will itself pour the molten steel into moulds.

     Total time for this process to make steel was 40 minutes, meaning iron could be alloyed into steel far quicker and much, much cheaper than any previous process, and in the world of industry they love love love that word "Cheaper".  Thus began another aspect of the Industrial Revolution.

     ANYWAY we have, once again, veered away from our main theme, which was 'Iron'.  Art!

     Nothing to do with Marvel Comics, as evinced by the lack of lawsuits.  Let us now have recourse to "Brewer's" and what do we have here?  Art!

     Behold the 'Iron Maiden', a medieval torture device - actually a method of execution - where the criminal was placed against the back wall and the two doors were slowly closed.  You earned this type of punishment for being traitors, heretics, passing port to the right and parricide.   I say 'execution' because those iron spikes are sharp and especially pointy and after having 20 of them doing their business, you would be very un-alived.  Art!

     No, not an early form of tanning bed, Vulnavia.  This is an 'Iron Lung', an airtight chamber that mechanically aids in respiration when the relevant muscles do not work.  It looks to be more likely made of steel than iron but who am I to quibble?  Art!

     Welcome, if you dare, the "Iron Guard" or "Garda de fier", whom were Romania's Fascist party of the Thirties and into 1941.  They were a band of utter rapscallions and reprobates and the world is no worse for them no longer existing.  Art!

     More Romanian high jinks.  Or low jinks.  ANYWAY the 'Iron Gates' refers to a stretch of the Danube in south-west Romania, two miles long with a series of rapids and there used to be an island in midstream.  This, and other settlements along the riverbanks, were lost when the Iron Gates Hydroelectric Dam was built.  Art!

     Looks romantic, hmmm?  Well, steel your heart to it's loss.

     That's enough about Fe for today or this whole blog will be nothing but "Iron This" and "Iron That".

Our Journey With Bernie

Wrightson, that is, the "Master Of The Macabre" whose cards from 1993 and FPG we've been highlighting.  Allow me to do due diligence and ensure the relevant card is available on teh Interwebz.  

     Yup.

     Talk about having a captive audience.  And, my my, Grandma, what tremendously long arms you have.  I know, I know, all the better to get huggy with, and also useful for scratching your ankles without having to bend down.  Art!

What he was talking about

Gravitas Prevails!

After the sheer inapt ludicrousness of "Storm Bert", They appear to have taken Conrad's complaints to heart and are coming up with more appropriate names.  Art!

     "Darragh" sounds much more portentous.  Also - er - rather more dangerous than soppy simpy old Bert.  We shall see, especially if Conrad has to walk Edna during it.

Putinpot's Indigestion Troubles Increase Apace

It's only been a week and the Syrian jihadi rebels are now at the gates (and flanks) of the city of Homs, marking an extremely rapid advance, where the Syrian Army in service of Assad has demonstrated a rare ability to retreat with incredible speed.  Mostly by abandoning all it's heavy, slower equipment.  Art!

     That area encircled in taupe is where the orcs have their naval base, Tartus, which they have evacuated, all seven ships now being in the Med not in harbour.  North of there is their airbase at Khmeimim.  If the rebels seize Homs then the overland route from Damascus to the coast is cut.  Oooops.  Putinpot hasn't broadcast a meeting as he did in August when the Ukrainians invaded Kursk oblast, probably because his temper hasn't settled yet.  Art!

     Mark Galeotti, who knows a thing or two about Ruffia, mentioned that the orcs feel they won the civil war for Assad, taking a couple of years about it, and he's lost all that in the space of less than two weeks.  Not only that, the orcs are so heavily involved in Ukraine that they can't spare anything or anyone for Syria.  Ooops.

     O and that city circled in yellow?  The Kurds just captured it from Assad's forces, who seem to have either been called away or ran away.

     Ooops ooops.

The Korean Soap Opera Is Over

Their Prez has revealed himself to be the usual presidential nutjob, trying to stage a military coup and overthrow Parliament, because he was unpopular and powerless to exert his will.  Yeah, democracy can do that, matey.  Art!

     He now faces impeachment, prosecution and prison.  It's heartening to know that the Korean army units supposed to execute this coup plainly refused to follow what were illegal orders and to open fire on civilians.

     Believe me, the Sorks love love love democracy and had this coup gone ahead millions of them would have mobilised to protest.  

     There must be something in the water, though, because their Presidents all turn out to be corrupt, conniving criminals when in office.  Hmmmm reminds me of someone .....

Finally -

Yes, that Barm Brack is proving to be a very nice fruit cake, but since it had sugars in the batter, I'm only having a single very thin slice per diem.  Responsible, that's Conrad.