Here's the story about this item ...
As a family we have collected together a large and varied range of items from the creative world of the arts and I personally, while also being very absorbed by the art world, have a passion for the sciences - particularly physics and the world of electrons.
Some time ago I spotted this item at the home of a family member who had passed away and as I was showing some interest, it was offered to me. Upon first seeing this item my initial thought was "Oh my goodness! What on earth is that thing!" Forever after I then referred to this item as "The Thing" (nothing to do with the Adams Family)
Art or created pieces of art more specifically, is a very personal thing - we like hand crafted English chinaware and ceramics, not so much because it is English but it is far easier (usually) to identify than the excellent china and ceramics that come from Japan and China.
This item just doesn't "cut it" for us, in fact personally I view this piece as rather violent perhaps even aggressive in design. It reminds me of an old "bunger" that we used to light as kids on Fire Cracker night and when it explodes, one or both ends self destruct in the process of going "BANG!"
Needless to say, my wife detests it!
I felt 'sorry' for this piece (it was screaming out "nobody loves me, nobody loves me") so, in pity, I took it into my workshop with a view to using it NOT for the purposes of art but as a source of the base metal, Copper. As often is the case these days, my intentions do not make reality and I have simply no time to undertake the experiments that I intended so I am now offering "The Thing" to someone who either a) appreciates it from an art viewpoint OR b) wants a source of Copper to "play around with"
Lastly, but by no means least ... I am really into sustainability. Producing a finished pure Copper product takes a LOT of hard work and the yield from the earth at Copper deposits is typically a measly 0.5 ~ 0.7% of the mined earth by weight. That means the miner needs to dig out a LOT of earth to get production quantities of the Copper Oxide and then convert it to pure metal. A really rough guide (it depends upon the mine site yield) is to dig up 10 tonnes plus of raw earth to produce a 1Kg block of pure Copper. For us to just throw such things in the local landfill is an incredibly wasteful thing to do.
"THE THING" - Metal Art Piece (Or Just A Lump Of Metal)
Country of origin is unknown
There are no markings or stampings anywhere on this piece ... although right down inside at the base I "think" I can see something printed or stamped but no matter how close I look, I cannot figure out if they are characters or just my imagination!
Material: Copper, although I have no way of determining the purity of the Copper.
I have made basic tests ...
It is does NOT react with a magnet at all
The colouring is consistent and "Copper like" all over, a Reddish-Orange colour - it is certainly not an alloy such as Brass
It is definitely NOT plated at all - I "took" to The Thing (in a discrete area on the underside, inside one leg) and used a metal file to my hearts content! No matter how much I filed, the colour remained the same and the filings were all of the same colour - this has not been plated to look like Copper.
It is very heavy for it's physical size ... see below for these details
I am 99.9% convinced that this item is pure Copper but the only way to establish the true purity would require tests such as those using spectroscopy instruments, I don't have one of those lying around!
"The Thing" does not have any type of lacquer protective coating applied, it is bare unprotected metal.
THE DESIGN:
The best description I can give is that you are looking at a Copper tube with five "leaf-like" pieces of metal at both ends, they really do look as though they are intended to represent a plant leaf.
The Copper tube is hollow, open at the top but completely sealed at the base using a round disc of the same looking Copper.
There is a type of patterning to the metal-ware but it has not been applied or created, to me it looks to have been caused by the manufacturing process.
DIMENSIONS:
I have taken a photograph of The Thing with an Australian $2 coin next to it ... some people have problems converting numbers into real world "sizes" so I hope this helps, this is quite a tall item.
Main tubular section
175mm length x 57mm OD
"Leaves" (top & bottom)
These extend the length a further 25mm at each end and due to the spread of the "leaves", the outside diameter at these points increases to 130mm
This all means that the effective height of The Thing is 225mm (around 9 inches in the old money)
The same thickness of Copper is used for the whole piece, measuring 3.5mm - in fact it appears to be just ONE piece of metal, not sections joined together.
WEIGHT:
978g
COSMETIC CONDITION:
For one thing, there are no dents or other physical damage such as bent "leaves" and truly this is not surprising, Dang! this is one very tough beastie (I tried moving one of the leaves by hand but it just doesn't budge)
NO scratching
NO discolouration due to use, such as a flower vase (OMG!) - even the inside of the tube remains very Copper coloured.
Yes, I can see signs of light oxidisation occuring due to the reaction with "air" over a long period of time but nothing of any consequence (in these areas, mainly the leaves, the Reddish-Orange Copper has changed to a darker Brown with slight hints of Green - I would expect this with Copper)
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ABOUT "THE THING"
I am perplexed as to how this piece was created! My initial thought was "a sheet of Copper, rolled into shape and then cut the leaves to shape" so I hunted all over this piece for joints, any joints ... I could find NONE, NADA ZERO! I am no metallurgist but I can only think that at least the main tubular body was extruded, much like Aluminium is.
Those "leaf-like" pieces also appear to be part of the main tube, NOT add-ons as again I cannot see any joins at all, not even any slight signs of metal stress from the bending.
The "leaf-like" pieces are all so perfectly formed in both shape and angles that I would have to say that a machine did the work here - not a human.
ART or BASE METAL?
I have already given my thoughts about the artistic value (to us) of this piece so now I will go into a little detail about why this interested me from a science viewpoint.
This is a pretty decent lump of Copper and I had two thoughts on how I may use it (but never did)
a) By slicing rings from the main tubing and using in some experimentation I have been undertaking using Supermagnets - you know, those incredible rare earth based elements (truly amazing)
Never heard of these experiments? Take a look HERE
b) As a LARGE, VERY HIGH CURRENT series pass resistor of very low resistance. It is not easy finding decent very high power, low Ohm resistors and I saw this piece as being a possibility. I have made some basic resistance tests, although not highly accurate as my current equipment is not good at VERY LOW sub 1 Ohm measurements and I read a DC resistance of 0.83 Ohm from one end of the tube to the other.
Another thought was to simply put it in my friend's furnace and melt the whole thing, I do not have a furnace capable of reaching 1084 °C - although for me, this would have been very satisfying but I didn't know what I would do with a 1Kg lump of Copper in any case.
There you have it, hoping that all of this information has started someone else thinking "outside of the box" about possible alternative uses for such a creation!
