h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

why iron jewellry????

That's the question before you.

not more valuable than gold????

In a certain sense.

>>very few iron jewellry = rare value???<<

As the period wore on it became increasingly common so as pure bit of market economics, no.

was it pure iron or a type, like steel, stainless steel, ???

pure iron, not stainless steel from which it can be easily distinguished - the latter has a blue-grey colour where iron jewellery is heavy black in appearence.

(another reason why it's tricky to find in the dark! )

black iron jewellry is the most valluable????

was it presented to you by the king???

bit like maundy money???

a qualified yes to that.. DGI +1

and now good night.

was it fashionable because the king wore it???

Protection against something?

But old Fritz was rather an enlightened guy, I doubt he'd be that superstitious...

(I take it it's not cast iron, either, since thathas a *higher* carbon content than steel. Must be wrought iron, then, which was considered "pure" back then but still has too much carbon to qualify as such today.)

Not a royal fashion trend, no.

so the king gave the iron jewellry to people

Yes. +3

Why?

and my source says cats iron, Mal.

bugger.

lets just just enjoy the image of smelted cats.


cast iron.

rings for his lovers???

2xexpected

Nope.

Has it anything to do with who made the jewellery?

Some form of art jewellery?

It wast made from the iron of some enemy's weapons?

So then it's not "pure" iron; steel would, in fact, be purer. (The carbon helps lower the melting point and make it more fluid; you can't really cast the pure stuff.)

But that's beside the point. His enemies' weapons would certainly be forged, not cast, so all that tells us is that if he were indeed using those, the alloy would have to be changed for making the jewellery.

But if we're sneaking around his place at night when he's the one giving the stuff away, it must be only to his nearest and dearest - so his very good friends, the ones who get to sleep on his couch.

OK, let's see what I can Pick up here...

Toybox : Post 119 - Yes, you can deflect the path of a stream of water with a magnet. It's because of the polar nature of water molecules.

Re the jewelry made from weapons, the Victoria Cross medals are made out of bronze from a cannon captured during a battle with the Russians (The Crimean War?)

I'm glad Iron was mentioned before I came back with a suggestion for Iron Pyrite (Fools Gold), 'cos that's gotta be a !

It's a shame the jewelry was made really, I thought I was being original when I had a chainmail steel necklace made to order

Re the jewelry, is it a badge of office, without which the original owner cannot work, e.g. a tax collector?

OK, I looked up the iron cross in my encyclopaedia now, because I was curious to find out who first made it. It was said king Friedrich Wilhelm III von Preußen who designed the Iron Cross which bore his initials, was lined with slver and must have been quite precious at the time. However, you were asking for jewellery, and amongst other things, my encyclopaedia had the following to say: iron jewellery was created in France during the Napoleonic era for people to wear so that they could give their 'real' jewellery to support their home country. In Germany, it it was considered as a patriotic deed to wear iron jewellery during the revolt against Napoleon, and it soon even became a fashion.

Typical. In Europe they got jewellery to help the war effort. In England we got income tax.