Titanium was only mentioned in passing in a couple of places - IIRC it is strong and much lighter than steel. I’ve got a platinum band and since I am somewhat active I’m considering getting a ‘backup’ titanium plain band that I can thrash - they are only like $150.
Anthracite, you mentioned platinum/ruthenium. Is ruthenium just used for hardening platinum or does it also have a cosmetic effect? I mainly got a platinum band because I like it better than white gold, but I was not aware of any alloying of platinum at the time. What’s the straight dope on platinum/ruthenium?
I am typing this reply with a stainless steel ring on my finger. It shows no signs of failure and very little sign of use. Where did I get it? From the Order of the Engineer. $7 got me a ring, a nice wallet card with a pompous oath
And a contact address:
Order of the Engineer
c/o Arizona Society of Professional Engineers
7207 N. 19th Avenue, Suite 7
Phoenix, AZ 85021-7977
If you are lucky someone can tell you where they get their rings without being snippy about you not using them and symbols of your obligations as engineers.
As far as I am aware, Engineers (the “build bridges” kind, not the “whoo whoo” kind) who graduated in Canada have worn “iron” rings for decades as a symbol of their profession. I have put the “iron” in quotes, as what was actually used was a mild steel. The problem with mild steel on a sweaty, salty finger was that it didn’t last, so by the time I graduated (1971) virtually all of the rings were being made of stainless steel.
During my father’s time (he graduated in the 1940s), making your ring was a part of your metallurgy class exercises. By my time, this was no longer required.
According to the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, the ring and the graduation ceremony where it is officially presented were developed by Rudyard Kipling, who was a great admirer of the “Sons of Martha” and their achievements. The ring is worn on the little finger of the working hand, and after almost 30 years of wearing mine, it shows no signs of distress, rust, or other degradation (other than a few scratches).
I believe that the Iron Ring tradition is unique to Canada, but Epeepunk’s post shows that it seems to have migrated to Arizona, at least in some form (the “oath” is certainly nothing like the ritual I went through or the oath that I swore).
A large number of the platinum rings I looked at were alloyed with ruthenium, iridium, or combinations of all three. From what I can see, all three metals look identical. From what I learned in my searching, the ruthenium and iridium are only to add hardness to the platinum. Which seems odd, considering how hard platinum is to begin with.
My ring is exactly 95.2% platinum, 4.8% ruthenium. Kinda neat. From when I looked, I did not see any pure platinum bands, they were all alloyed with some other exotic metal. But I’m sure they are out there…
Neat link! So what does your ring look like? There were no pics on the site.
After reading the first sentence in the Engineer’s Oath, I was expecting the second one to rhyme. But I guess it wasn’t written by a humanities major, was it? Here you go:
“I am an Engineer, in my profession I take deep pride.
My bridges sway from side to side.
To it I owe solemn obligations.
I’ll never work for outlaw nations.
Since the Stone Age, human progress has been spurred by the engineering genius.
We stand proud and tall, just like a penis.”
Please have the Order of the Engineer send me ten dollars for this service, care of Cecil Adams at the Chicago Reader. For another sawbuck, I’ll compose music for it and you guys can sing it at the next convention.
Anthracite: my theory about the alloying of platinum. Could it be because it would be difficult to separate out the pure platinum from chemically/physically similar elements? It’s like trying to get pure ethanol…after a while it’s more trouble than it’s worth to get rid of the last bits of water. I have no idea in reality how hard it would be to get pure platinum…
Ukelele Ike: The rings looks a lot like their ring graphic. Thin with a curved outside.
SavageNarce: The Order of the Engineer started from the Canadian Ring Ceremony in Cleveland I think (the history is on the web page). I got mine from Boston University. But not every School of Engineering has a chapter (or link as they are called). The web page has list of participating schools on it too. Mandja JO - maybe you can contact a local chapter.
One of the best parts about belonging is that there are no dues, no meetings, no nothing after the ceremony. You just wear the ring.
I stumbled on the attached while surfing one day; it’s a truly gorgeous site (requires Flash) from chemsoc, a UK-based international network of chemistry societies.
Included is a brief summary of each element’s name, such as for osmium: “Origin : The name is derived from the Greek ‘osme’, meaning smell - the metal surface gives off a volatile osmium tetroxide, which has a characteristic odour.”
Bingo! I got a positive response on the second number off of Lunasea’s list. The woman who answered the phone said she could make a couple of plain steel bands for $60, which is about as good as I think I am going to do. Gotta go get fingers sized now. Thanks, all of you. The stuff about the engineering societies is pretty cool, and I am glad to know that stainless steel rings have been worn sucessfully. And Ukulele Ike, that was pretty damn funny.
It was, but it is no longer standard. The standard metre is the distance travelled by a certain kind of laser light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458th of a second.
A second is, of course, defined as the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of vibration of the caesium-133 atom.
The kilogram is, IIRC, the only unit still defined with relation to an artifact, specifically a platinum-iridium (aha!) cylinder kept at Sèvres, France.
Also, a titanium ring will keep your finger from being cut off when the water-tight door closes on it.
(In case you do not get the reference, in “the Abyss”, this is exactly what happens. The set-up earlier in the film that established it as a titanium ring was removed, so most people thought that it was a science error since a typical soft gold ring would have been crushed.)