Russell
"Beryllium, in the 4th octave, which has a pressure intensity of 32,768, begat magnesium, which has an explosive pressure intensity of 262,144. Magnesium begat calcium, which has an explosive pressure of 2,097,152. Calcium begat strontium, at 16,777,216 units of pressure. Strontium begat barium, at 134,217,728, and barium begat radium which has accumulated the enormous power to eject its bullets of 1,073,741,824 times that which it had at birth 9 octaves back." [Atomic Suicide, page 39.]
January 21, 1941, Freeport, Texas. The molten magnesium glowing white hot at 1,292° F poured from the electrolytic cell into an iron ingot mold. Workers at the brand new Dao chemical plant watched as the first ingot of magnesium extracted from seawater solidified. A silvery white metal that would become critical to American air power within months.
This was the culmination of Herbert Dao's dream begun in 1924 to mind the ocean itself. For the first time in human history, a commercially useful metal had been extracted directly from seawater at industrial scale. The timing was extraordinary. This plant came online just 11 months before Pearl Harbor, exactly when America would need it most desperately.
Within a year, the United States would be at war and the Freeport plant would be producing 84% of America's magnesium supply. Without this metal, lightweight, strong, and essential for aircraft construction, the Allied air campaign might have been impossible. This is the documented story of how Dao Chemical turned the Gulf of Mexico into a mine, processing 800 tons of seawater for every ton of magnesium, and in doing so helped win World War II.
Magnesium is everywhere and nowhere. As the eighth most abundant element on Earth, it comprises roughly 2% of the planet's crust. It's the third most plentiful element dissolved in seawater at concentrations around 1,300 parts per million. Yet, despite this abundance, magnesium doesn't occur naturally in metallic form.
Its chemical reactivity is so strong that it exists only in compounds carbonates, chlorides, sulfates. To obtain pure magnesium metal requires chemistry and enormous amounts of energy. The metal's initial discovery is credited to Scottish chemist Joseph Black, who performed experiments with magnesium carbonate in the 1750s. In 1808, British chemist Humphrey Davyy reported that magnesia was the oxide of a new metal.
See Also
Calcium-Magnesium Balance
Table of the Elements - Russell Elements