50 yrs. of Star Trek!

[Chuck Guzis]

On 09/10/2016 07:31 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:

> Transparent aluminum  exists.  It is called sapphire.  Sapphire is
> the crystalline form  of aluminum oxide.  If you recall, Apple was
> thinking of using it for  the touch screen face of the iphone.

Pardon my pickiness, but sapphire isn't aluminum, any more than ruby or
corundum is.  One might was well refer to it as "oxygen".

Sappire is a combination of oxygen and aluminum.  In fact, there's more
oxygen than aluminum in sapphire.

Very thin (micron-thick) layers of metallic aluminum can be transparent,
but that's true of many metals.

--Chuck