Snipped from http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/01/09/ancient_indian_nanotechnology/index.html Quote: On June 11, 1795, a man named George Pearson gave an address to the Royal Society of London titled "Experiments and Observations to Investigate the Nature of a Kind of Steel, Manufactured at Bombay, and There Called Wootz: With Remarks on the Properties and Composition of the Different States of Iron." His lengthy treatise begins thus: Doctor Scott, of Bombay, in a letter to the President, acquaints him that he has sent over specimens of a substance known by the name of wootz; which is considered to be a kind of steel, and is in high esteem among the Indians. Dr. Scott mentions several of its properties, and requests that an inquiry may be instituted to obtain further knowledge of its nature. This gentleman informs the President, that wootz "admits of harder temper than any thing known in that part of India..." ...Notwithstanding the difficulty and labour in forging, Mr. Stodart from this trail was of the opinion, that wootz is superior for many purposes to any steel used in this country. He thought it would carry a finer, stronger, and more durable edge, and point. Hence it might be particularly valuable for lancets and other chirurgical instruments. The remainder of the presentation reports, in excruciating detail, the results of numerous experiments conducted on this mysterious substance by Pearson. He hammered the wootz, hacked it with "chizzels," melted it, poured acid on it, and compared it to every other form of iron or steel he had available. The report doesn't make for the most entertaining reading, except when seen as an example of the scientific method, as a clue to the underpinnings of the industrial revolution and the explosion of technology birthed in the United Kingdom. Such is the stuff that the Age of Enlightenment was built upon, not to mention Western mastery of the world. I do not know whether Tipu Sultan was wielding his Damascus sword when killed in battle by the British in 1799, just four years after Pearson's report to the Royal Society into the nature of "wootz." I do know that in the obsessive, single-minded, immensely curious experiments of Pearson and his colleagues we can see the roots of a global transformation far more earth- shattering than anything unleashed by Tamerlane or Diocletian or Alexander. But in the span of human history, a mere 200 years isn't all that long a stretch. Who knows what wonders wait to be fabricated by Indian scientists inspired by Robert Curl's reminders of their ancient prowess? The glories of Damascene steel may be nothing compared to the nanotechnological Taj Mahals of the future. Unquote ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India