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Copper: An Indispensible Ingredient for Wind Energy
Of all the various alternatives to fossil fuels such as ethanol, hydropower,
and solar thermal energy, wind energy may have the longest history. People began to harness wind power for grinding grain and pumping water as early as the third century B.C. With today’s high demand for low-carbon electricity, wind energy has found a new importance. Wind energy will surely be a part of the carbon-free energy future, and copper will play a large role in making that possible. Copper is indispensible to the proper functioning and efficiency of wind turbines. The metal plays a central role in the inner workings of the generator, grounds the towers from lightning strikes, and carries the electrical current where it needs to go. In addition, copper is one of the most recyclable metals available, which makes it well-suited to contribute to energy development that is environmentally friendly.
Inside the familiar white shell of a wind turbine, is where the spinning of the blades turn into the energy that we use. This work is done by an electrical generator that transforms the motion of the turbines into electricity. The copper in the generator helps turn the natural energy of wind into power that consumers can use and afford. According to Dr. Ned Brush, an energy efficiency consultant with BBF &Associates, “Copper is the most cost efficient metal for generators because it is extremely conductive.”
Read the Complete Story »
Turning Showers Inside-Out
An outdoor copper shower can make a great addition for the summer months
As the weather gets warmer, it’s time to start prepping your house for the pool parties and BBQs that accompany the welcomed summer months. While you may think you have every backyard addition that makes your home the ultimate summer destination, there is one renovation that is quick, easy, inexpensive and will separate your house from the others on the block — an outdoor shower.
Whether you get your hands dirty from gardening, want to rinse off the chlorine from floating in the pool all day, or need to spray down the dog after a day of rolling around in the grass, an outdoor shower is practical and can make a unique home addition.
While it may seem like a complicated project, if you have the time and are handy around the house, follow these quick and simple steps to install a copper shower on your next free Saturday afternoon:
Step 1: Get the proper tools and material for the project.
Copper tubing is a good choice for an outdoor shower. It’s a durable option that is easy to work with, with an incomparable look and style. When using copper, you’ll need tubing cutters and a propane or other handheld torch, flux and solder for soldering the joints for the shower.
Copper Air Lines Handle the Pressure
Copper was the choice for engine repair shop after plastic systems fail
Since 1996, S&G Motor Repair has seen plastic come and go in their shop. Paul Yancey, the owner of the certified rebuild shop in Blackfoot, Idaho, installed PVC plastic pipe, Schedule 80, for his compressed air service – a system that operates all of their major equipment in the plant.
Unfortunately, the plastic system failed after just four years in service, and it was replaced with another plastic pipe system. Five years later, the PVC system failed again. Following this second failed attempt with plastic, Yancey decided it was time to move on to copper.
Copper tubing offers several benefits for mechanical systems including: corrosion resistance, durability, versatility, and workability when installing.
For Yancey, the longevity and workability were what convinced him to switch to copper. He wanted a system that his maintenance crew could install themselves, inexpensively in their downtime at the shop. Read the Complete Story »
Bridging Technology
Copper continues to be the standard for residential wiring needs
On any given Sunday, why would anyone brave sub-zero degree temperatures at a football game when they could watch it in the comfort of home on a giant plasma flat screen with Dolby surround sound?
Why drive to the mall to buy your favorite artist’s new album when, in seconds, it can be legally downloaded on your home computer?
Why wake up and log on to your desktop when you could stay in bed and surf the Web wirelessly on your laptop?
Advances in technology are enabling us to create new routines and cast off the old ones. Each is anchored in convenience, can be performed with a mouse click, and completed while still in PJs.
Even as power and prevalence of internet connections, home theater and entertainment systems grow, one constant remains the bridge to newer technology: copper. Read the Complete Story »
Copper Technology: The Link to CyberSpace
Early in the Computer Age, the first general purpose computers weighed 
about 27 tons and required the equivalent of a small studio apartment to support the thousands of vacuum tubes, crystal diodes, relays, resistors, capacitors and hand-soldered joints that made up the entire system.
Today ─ more than half a century later ─ computers are being made smaller, more compact, and designed to work faster in order to suit more mobile tech-savvy customers.
Surfing the Internet, checking e-mails or setting your fantasy sports lineup can now be done from the convenience of a laptop computer, cell phone or iPod Touch hand-held device. And many restaurants, coffee shops and neighborhood parks, including Manhattan’s own Bryant Park in Midtown, offer free WiFi access, so customers and visitors alike can sip their lattes or bask in the sun while shopping online or browsing the Web remotely.
One of the elements behind what many believe to be the greatest technological advancement of our time lies in the copper that makes all this always-on conductivity and connectivity possible. Read the Complete Story »
Copper Puts the “Power” in Power Tools
Today’s do-it-yourselfers have a bottomless toolbox of technology to help 
with any and every project. Air compressors, circular saws, biscuit joiners, jigsaws, impact wrenches – no matter which power tool you reach for, technology makes the job easier.
With most power tools, improvements in technology usually start at the motor, and virtually all electric tool motors, both cordless and plug-in, depend heavily on copper for power. As it turns out, “heavily” is not an understatement.
“Generally speaking, the more copper mass in the motor, the more powerful the motor is,” explains Deborah Brown, the component design manager for Bosch Tool Corporation. “To increase the power of our motors, manufacturing is challenged to fit more copper wire into the motor.”
A motor’s expected service lifetime is also strongly influenced by the size and number of copper components it contains, says Brown. Power tools now include sophisticated electronics – all requiring copper circuitry – to monitor tool performance and optimize tool usage and life.
Locker Room Infections a Growing Threat
Studies Find a New Way to Kill Bacteria*
What do the Washington Redskins, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Browns, St. Louis Rams and Atlanta Falcons have in common?
They are all professional sport teams that have millions of dollars invested in their franchises. And they’ve all recently made headlines for having to battle a costly, and potentially deadly, infection in their locker rooms or among their players—namely, a virulent pathogen called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
This particular bacterium not only can be lethal, it has also proved extremely resistant to antibiotics, making it very difficult to treat. As a result, MRSA has become an all-too-common source of infection in hospitals. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospital acquired infections now kill as many as 100,000 people each year in this country alone. And the MRSA microbe is the cause of many of these fatalities.
Hospitals are not the only place these dangerous bacteria live. Health experts are beginning to recognize that places like locker rooms, gyms and other public sports and recreation facilities—even schools—can also harbor MRSA and similar disease-causing organisms.
Bronze Age Discovery Mirrors Modern Era
Shipwreck exhibit reveals the alchemy that forged our civilization
Ten parts copper, one part tin. It sounds like a simple equation, but the discovery of this formula — the essential proportion of bronze metal — set in motion world-changing events, forever altering life on our planet by ushering in the modern era of metalworking, mechanical invention and more.
The questions of exactly when, where and how the Bronze Age actually began remain unanswered, lost in time—archeologists date the era somewhere between 3300 and 1100 B.C. But an exhibit that was at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a revelation as to why the discovery of bronze alchemy helped to unite and elevate the disparate mud-walled kingdoms of that time, literally forging civilization as we know it today.
The exhibit centered around a shipwreck found in the Mediterranean Sea off Uluburun on the coast of Anatolia, or what is now Turkey. Among the artifacts recovered from the ship, a trading vessel dating from the late 13th century B.C., were two consignments of metal—10 tons of copper and one ton of tin.
Portable GPS – Moving Beyond Location, Navigation and Information
Will We Ever Be Lost Again?
Men won’t admit to many things. They rarely acknowledge that they’re going bald, gained a few pounds, caught a cold or are ever wrong.
One thing you almost never hear a man say is that he’s lost, especially when he’s behind the wheel. What’s worse (as many women will attest) is that men typically refuse to pull over and ask for directions—even if it means driving in circles for hours.
But thanks to modern technology, men no longer need to ‘fess up to their shortcomings on the road, or wander aimlessly hoping to stumble across a familiar street or the correct exit to get them back on track.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have made life on the highway easier to navigate, improved time management and made traveling less stressful for road warriors today.
A key component of these and many other electronic devices is highly refined, ultrapure copper. Although individual GPS units do not contain a large amount of copper, they would not be able to perform critical functions without it.
Copper: An Element of Good Design
Copper and its alloys have long played an important role in the design and architecture of residential and commercial buildings. Today, more than 10,000 years after the discovery of the “red metal,” new and innovative ways to utilize copper, brass and bronze are being employed, especially in interiors.
A key aspect of interior design is that it can evoke certain emotions in occupants. Copper’s warm, organic, natural appearance is said to promote an atmosphere of tranquility, peace and calm. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, recently stated, “Copper and the varied-color copper alloys invite a nurturing feeling, and in the stressful times we are living in, the need to embody warmth resonates with a lot of people.”
Many interior fixtures and decor items like door handles, doorknobs, faucets and furniture embellishments are made from copper and brass. Copper countertops, range and fireplace hoods, sinks and other accessories are commonplace in many homes. In addition, copper laminates are often found on many types of furniture and even used as wall coverings. It is not uncommon to find beautiful ornamental copper in commercial buildings along with accents on elevators, doorways, window frames and lighting. Recent technological developments have enabled the use of these materials in innovative ways. For example, copper and brass metal is now woven into textiles used in draperies and other furnishings.
Copper in Art through the Ages
The usefulness of copper in metalwork is known to all, but few people realize how much it has contributed to art and painting throughout history. Copper-based pigments were an important ingredient in ancient paints, and the metal itself was frequently employed as a “canvas” on which Renaissance artists painted. Copper also served as an engraving plate for etchings and prints by master artists such as Rembrandt.
As an ingredient in paint, natural copper ores such as azurite (blue) and malachite (green), add a depth and dimensionality to paintings that cannot be duplicated by man-made substitutes. As for copper’s use as a canvas, there was virtually nothing else available to artists in pre-technological times that approached its smoothness and durability.
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