Ladies and gentlemen I am about to reveal how King Arthur removed the sword from the stone. Its easy and it wasn't magic, it was vinegar.
The stone in this case was almost certainly a form of cement since there was a sword in it, it wasn't ancient. Primitive cement is easy to make and usually was made from caliche which is a natural cement. Romans made cement with Lime and ash. Sand and burned dirt also works. So does harvesting caliche and rewetting it.
Anyway the way to dissolve cement and most rocks is acid. In those old days everyone had vinegar. So Arthur could have gone to the stone every day for a month at night and sprinkled some vinegar where the sword met the stone. If he wanted he could have "apple jacked" the vinegar to produce acetic acid. Simply take your vinegar and freeze it and remove the ice to keep increasing the acetic acid concentration of the vinegar. This would have eaten through the "stone" much quicker. Once he had it loose he could make a big public declaration he would remove it in front of a big group of people to convince them he was superhuman. Chemistry still seems like magic to many people today.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your feedback! Sharing your experience and thoughts not only helps fellow readers but also helps me to improve what I do!