Friday, January 25, 2008
That's Amore.
Sir Robert Murray aka Moray appears in a cameo at a meeting of the Royal Society in Quicksilver which I'm reading now, volume 1 of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. It's one of those historical novels in which the narrative fictional characters, Waterhouse and Steptoe, names already known to readers of the Crytonomicon, run into dozens (so far) of historical characters, Newton, Leibnitz, Hooke, Boyle, Charles II, James II, and so forth.
Quicksilver aka mercury was used in conjunction with low grade silver ore to form amalgam, like I have in my teeth, which could then be broken down into pure silver and recovered mercury, hence the name. I enjoy learning, and Stephenson enjoys telling, the back-stories behind common words. Quicksilver is used as an analogy to liquidity in the marketplace, and the characters are often exchanging foreign coins or melting down silver or smuggling goods to trade for shares of mines or ships or such. Today I've done nothing besides read the book, and consider it a day well spent.
Sir Robert Murray aka Moray appears in a cameo at a meeting of the Royal Society in Quicksilver which I'm reading now, volume 1 of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. It's one of those historical novels in which the narrative fictional characters, Waterhouse and Steptoe, names already known to readers of the Crytonomicon, run into dozens (so far) of historical characters, Newton, Leibnitz, Hooke, Boyle, Charles II, James II, and so forth.
Quicksilver aka mercury was used in conjunction with low grade silver ore to form amalgam, like I have in my teeth, which could then be broken down into pure silver and recovered mercury, hence the name. I enjoy learning, and Stephenson enjoys telling, the back-stories behind common words. Quicksilver is used as an analogy to liquidity in the marketplace, and the characters are often exchanging foreign coins or melting down silver or smuggling goods to trade for shares of mines or ships or such. Today I've done nothing besides read the book, and consider it a day well spent.
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