Speaking of legends and birds, I have been trying to remember the name of the legend of Scandinavian origin (or other area of northern Europe) in which the details of the then-current sword-making technology is described. The saga says that metal (?iron) filings were fed to the domestic fowl (? chickens) and then extracted from the bird droppings before being forged into a sword blade, thus producing a weapon of superior quality. The legendary process was tested using state-of-the-art equipment by an undergraduate (or graduate) metallurgy student at Purdue University; his tests revealed that the process of cycling the metal ore through the chickens did in fact result in a metal of higher strength or forgability (i.e., it was either less brittle or would hold a sharper edge, or something like that...). I recollect phosphorus being involved...either being added or being removed during passage through the birds...Alas, I long to recall the correct details, but it has been 30!
+ years since I was a grad student at Purdue myself and heard about this phenomenon!

Any one know the piece of literature to which I refer...or can reference the modern research?

Cheers!
Judy

--
Judy Rowe Taylor
Mukilteo, WA
Art is a voice of the heart, a song of the soul.
judyrowetaylor at comcast.net
www.enduringibis.com


> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: MurrayH at aol.com
Subject: [Tweeters] Legend and Myth
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 01:13:14 +0000
Size: 2535
Url: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20050727/5020065c/attachment.mail