stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
|
Post by stefan on Aug 15, 2007 14:37:27 GMT -5
Hey Earth- if you try it and it goes wrong- can I have all your toys??
|
|
earthdog
Cave Dweller
Don't eat yellow snow
Member since June 2006
Posts: 2,731
|
Post by earthdog on Aug 15, 2007 14:57:59 GMT -5
Stefan, yes you can, you greedy chit. If something goes wrong, maybe it'll blow a hole in the ground and that'll be the start of yet another pond...
|
|
stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
|
Post by stefan on Aug 16, 2007 12:35:33 GMT -5
LMAO-- If you try it please be careful!! AND NOT NEAR THE HARLEY!!!
|
|
rockhard
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2006
Posts: 227
|
Post by rockhard on Aug 29, 2007 3:49:48 GMT -5
Seems like a monosaccharide sugar (with a small molecule), like the fructose in honey, would adsorb better and deeper than the larger molecules of sucrose table sugar would.
If Pliny did it, he probably soaked them in honey, dried them out for a few weeks, then tossed them into the hot ashes under a fire to carbonize, like soft pottery could be fired.
That's what I'd try if I were going to try it at home- well, maybe the oven instead of a fire. Or a friend's ceramic kiln that slowly heats and cools.
Now I really want to try it. I bet some of the greyish colorless agate I find could be made pretty interesting, at least showing the banding. I'm not really interested in artificial coloring, but might make an exception for something non-toxic and natural-ish like that.
Hmmm. It might also be a way to make some nice black stone that could be polished out of dull gray chert like stuff.
I know, I'm a nerd.
V
|
|
dallas
off to a rocking start
Member since March 2007
Posts: 8
|
Post by dallas on Aug 29, 2007 9:50:15 GMT -5
With just heat, you might only get very dark brown. It will take acid to get the pure black carbon. (Not sure if somethign besides sulfuric acid will work). The concentrated sulfuric acid extracts water out of sugar leaving behind pure black carbon. C 6H 12O --> 6H 2O + 6C PM if you want a 3M PDF file with several pages from Kurt Nassau's book. Tells how to dye several different colors. Only one I would consider is BLACK. For some reason that seems less unnatural to me. Go figure. I would select gray or clear/translucent (even yellowish) agate with existing bands of opaque white - or at least white bands that are darker than the rest of the slice when held up to light.
|
|
181lizard
Cave Dweller
Still lurking :)
Member since December 2005
Posts: 2,171
|
Post by 181lizard on Aug 29, 2007 12:23:59 GMT -5
Vincent...you've just been usurped as the head nerd! Dallas...please don't take that as anything other than a teasing for your scientific knowledge! And hello!
|
|