MAGNIFICENT MAGNESIUM: Forthcoming Book From MSU Documents Wonder Metal
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MAGNIFICENT MAGNESIUM
The newest book from E.N. "Ned" Brandt, due out in May 2013 from Michigan State University Press, bids fair to be luminescent.
It tells the life story of a miracle metal, magnesium, that percolates up from brine wells and also is distilled from sea water.
MSU touts: "During World War I, in 1916, Herbert Dow, founder of The Dow Chemical Company, received news of 'star shells,' weapons that glowed eerily as they descended over the trenches of the enemy, making them easier to attack. The critical component in these flares was magnesium, a metal that was suddenly in great demand."
Dow, along with a half-dozen other U.S. firms, swiftly began manufacturing magnesium, but by 1927 Dow was the only U.S. company still in the business.
Dow's key innovation was a method of extracting the metal from seawater, an engineering accomplishment finally achieved at Freeport, Texas, only eleven months prior to the Pearl Harbor attack.
Dow was the principal supplier of magnesium for U.S. and British planes during World War II, a distinction that ironically yielded an indictment from the U.S. government on monopoly charges.
The company eventually became the world's largest manufacturer of magnesium until 1990, when the Chinese entered the market and offered the metal at rock-bottom prices. Dow quietly ended its production of magnesium in 1998.
Brandt's history is an engaging look at Dow's eighty-three-year romance with this remarkable metal.
E. N. Brandt has been the company historian of Dow Chemical since 1983. A journalism graduate of Michigan State University, he served as a U.S. Army officer in World War II, as a United Press correspondent and a U.S. State Department employee in Europe before joining Dow in 1953.
His other books are "Growth Company: Dow Chemical's First 100 Years," and "Chairman of the Board: A Biography of Carl A. Gerstacker," both published by MSU Press, and "The Papers of Herbert H. Dow."
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