Chapter 5

Summary:
          Sam Kean, writer of The Disappearing Spoon, starts this chapter off informing us on the history of chemical warfare. He dates back to the 400s B.C. when Sparta put a siege on, rival city, Athens. Apparently, the Spartans tried to smoke the Athenians out of their homes, but this attempt failed, for it was not strong enough to drive the Athenians from their city. He goes onto to explain that chemical warfare doesn't gain any and that it remain unused up until World War I. The French used chemical's even though they were not supposed to causing war with the Germans. The French thought it best to gas them, but the gassing did not work. The Germans did not even know they were gassed.
          Continuing on, Kean brings up a German researcher by the name of Fritz Haber. Haber was a genius figuring out how to make a fertilizer to help keep everyone fed during wars. He then altered his plans and made bombs for the Germans which were then mass produced. The bomb failed, leaving no pain to the people that were bombed. Haber was a failure to Germany and it cost the country a pretty penny.  The Germans moved on to build another bomb that was to be used on the Russians, but the temperature in Russia was so cold that the liquid bromine that was supposed to be gas instead froze. In addition to Haber failing, he was excommunicated for being a Jew.
          He further explains why the element Tungsten's symbol is a W. The W comes from the German name, Wolfram, which was the wolf that was used during the war. Tungsten soon ran low in Germany, so they asked Portugal, whom was neutral in the war, to supply them with Tungsten. Portugal also supplied Tungsten to the other side of the war which pretty much ran it's economy. Furthermore, Kean pulls out the fact that most of us have tantalum or niobium in our cellphones which came from Congo. Instead of Congo prospering, everyone went crazy. 5 million people died in the 5 years that they were the major contributor.

Reflection:
          I liked that this chapter was more about history that I can better relate to. It was so simple to understand. I really disliked that there wasn't a piece on Haber's whereabouts after his excommunication. I learned that chemical warfare had been on the minds of people since the 400s B.C. when Sparta tried to smoke out Athens. If I was having a conversation with bae, I would bring up the history of the symbol, W, for the element Tungsten just because it is so interesting that it is called the wolf.