Re: Aftermath: Population Zero

On 10 m=E4rts, 19:40, Mark_Reich...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> On Mar 10, 12:28 pm, Gene Ward Smith <g...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > Mark_Reich...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote in
news:42cc4a6e-4a4e-43b2-9996-fe87ca1d=
8062
> > @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > > It would have to be internal rust from humidity because neither
flood
> > > nor rainwater has any chance at getting at the internal steel.
>
> > So what would be the best choice for an arch building material--some
tit=
anium
> > alloy?
>
> If you want it to last millenia, yes, but it would have been
> prohibitively expensive, and I'm not sure whether the strength
> characteristics of titanium are up to sup****ting the structure like
> the interior steel.  Just using stainless steel throughout would have
> doubled or tripled the cost.
>
> That reminds me.  Another structure the exterior of which will last a
> long time is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which could only be made
> with a titanium shell because the Russians dumped titanium on the
> market at just the right time.


A metal which lasts indefinitely outside is gold, but this of course
expensive.

Copper and bronze are also expensive; they form patina on the outside,
but are resistant to bulk corrosion.

High carbon steel rusts faster than low-carbon iron - like Delhi
pillar (1600 years outside) or the fastenings of Parthenon (300 years
outside since Parthenon was blown up).