Tips and Quotes
From a recent novel (has it ever been said better?)
"Unfortunately, metal in its free state--a nice steel stake or a solid brass candlestick--represented a high level of order, and Nature was slatternly and preferred disorder. The crumble of rust. The promiscuity of molecules in solution. The chaos of warm things. States of disorder were vastly more likely to arise spontaneously than were cubes of perfect iron. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, much work was required to resist this tyranny of the probable--to force the atoms of a metal to behave themselves."
Reference: Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Adhesive bonding tip: or the efficacy of atmospheric pressure
It is helpful to remember that the average atmospheric pressure at sea level is equal to the pressure of a stack of steel four feet high. That's why vacuum bagging is such an effective way to apply pressure when bonding items. Not only does vacuum bagging provide high pressure, with the proper bagging and tooling the pressure can be judiciously distributed to do the most good.
Reference: W. P. Gallagher, Conservation Distribution List correspondence, March 1998 (var.).
Seawater Corrosion Quotes
"Successful prolonged corrosion-free service of stainless steel in seawater requires sophisticated corrosion engineering, or enormous good fortune."
Reference: B. F. Brown, Handbook of Stainless Steels
"The many components of well-engineered modern equipment require different metals to best accomplish the purpose of each component. … In seawater the result is, all too often, a fine wet cell battery and nightmare to the user and designer."
Reference: A. H. Tuthill and C. M. Schillmoller, Guidelines
for Selection Marine Materials,
INCO, 1971