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From: al@gtx.com (0732)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Osmium?
Message-ID: <336@gtx.com>
Date: Mon, 15-Jun-87 15:02:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: gtx.336
Posted: Mon Jun 15 15:02:08 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jun-87 06:21:00 EDT
References: <1754@ames.UUCP>
Reply-To: al@gtx.UUCP (Al Filipski)
Distribution: na
Organization: GTX Corporation, Phoenix
Lines: 23
Keywords: osmium


->
->    I have a strange request ... does anyone in netland know where I can
->get some of osmium?  
->
->    I have heard it is the most dense substance on earth, denser than 
->gold or lead. I think it would be fun to have a baseball size hunk of it 
->on my desk as a paper weight.
->

I remember a few years ago (like maybe 20) that some brand of ball point
pen was advertised to have an osmium tip.  You could get a few hundred 
thousand old pens, castrate them, test them to see which balls are 
osmium (smell them?) and melt them down. But seriously, what property
of osmium would make it a choice for a ball-point pen tip?

	 --------------------------------------------------------------
	| Alan Filipski,  GTX Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona 85021, USA |
	|   {ihnp4,cbosgd,decvax,hplabs,seismo}!sun!sunburn!gtx!al     |
	 --------------------------------------------------------------
"The perversity of Nature is nowhere better demonstrated than by the fact
that, when exposed to the same atmosphere, bread becomes hard while
crackers become soft."