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Many powders in our life
You know that bread and a cake are made from wheat flour. If I say that glass
is made from powder, you will say impossible. Or "that can not be". To
say nothing of Iron."It is a liar.
However, if you try to see a factory of glass manufacturing plant, you see
that the almost all raw materials are powder. The main row material, silica
rock crushed to fine powder that been carried to a the factory. In it mix powder
of soda ash with limestone and heat it by a high temperature equal to or more
than 1500 degrees. Then it changes to melt glass like bright red sweet candy.
The thing which cooled is glass you knowing well. China and a brick are crushed
soil and powdered stone and burnt to hardened it. A telephone pole and a building
of concrete are mixed sand and gravel with cement(powder) and hardened it. Plastics
product are powder, hardened with raw materials of powder, like powdered calcium
carbonate in a model. Then plastics is a binder of powdered calcium carbonate
particles. In this way , looking at everything in our appearance understand
as things which passed through powdered process in industry.
Powder of qurtz, lime and soda, all are white powder
Then why they they are powder ? What kind of convenience will expect from powder? For a example ,we will try to think the reason about a bread. A grain of wheat is covered with hard skin. Thus at first we powdered a grain of wheat, after there was a thing of a final performance with this hard skin. In a grain of the wheat, wheat bran ,which cannot eat are encroach to the grain. The part are separated by air blow as wheat bran. Next the size of grains are homogenize. Then. Sugar, yeast and water are mixed by kneading. Then even bread is a sweet roll, but can make the thing which I want to make in this way. Finally make to shape which you want and burn it for harden. In this way, you can get which you want. In addition, we can carry by person in a container, and therefore powder can simplify that we do.
Such relation of powder and the human history date back to old days more than 10000 years. In the prehistoric time, there were a lot of wild fruit or animal to eat, they did not think about to made it. However, population of persons increased gradually and just directly eating a wild thing came to lack. Thus they was going to eat seed of weed which only a small birds to eat. To eat them delicious somehow, and came to make powder of the device. The tool which formed powder was with a small stone to have in a stone (a porcelain dish) and the hand. Which became a stand at the start. The seed of grass on the under stone were strike or rub with upper stone on the under stone. It progresses gradually, and pass through an intermediate stage as in Fig. below. In about B.C. 2500 (the Egyptian era),A tool of Saddle curn put wheat on a big under stone and a the upper stone move front and back.
About B.C. 500 the stone of the upper stone was rotating movement, the tool of rotary qurn was invented. The rotary qurn is most important invention for human history. Epoch-making improvement such as a principle of a lever being used, it stand out, and being spent, the thing that powder seems to go out, and is devised is added to this tool.
Floure milling in present day
This technology were a base of windmill and a waterwheel in coming age. And it was became an opportunity of birth of the all machines. At the present age, technology to make powder becomes more and more important.
Many ceramics are used in your home
Technology to make fine powders is necessary for to make semiconductors for computers, and many new ceramics. Now it is possible to make a powder equal to or less than size of a one millionth of 1mm. Our society will invent increasingly a lot of superior things, furthermore, technology will develop in future. With it, new technology to make powder will become more and more necessary. Upper figure is a sketch of a process to making yellow powder to use for nuclear power generation.
At nuclear power generation plant, the fuel are after powdering it. It is only a simple ordinary process. If you look at It is a same process as making bread and china.