Iron

Iron oxide forms liesegang patterns in sandstone.

Iron is not only fascinating chemically, having six more oxidation states than silver, but it has a rich biological chemistry too, forming the core of the oxygen-carrying proteins in blood — myoglobin and haemoglobin — and playing centre field in many enzymatic systems. It is also hard to imagine a more important metal for industry than iron. Approximately 1.1 x 10¹³ moles of iron atoms — that’s more than 600 million tonnes of the element — are used by the world’s manufacturing industries every year. Only hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and calcium are consumed in larger amounts.
— David Bradley, New Scientist book review, 5 June 1993, 44.

Not by speeches and majorities will the great questions of the day be decided — that was the mistake of 1848 and 1849 — but by iron and blood.
— Otto von Bismarck (1815 – 1898), speech to the Prussian Lower House of Parliament, September 30, 1862.

Gold is for the mistress — silver for the maid —
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
‘Good!’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
‘But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all.’
— Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) Cold Iron.

All that is moulded of iron
Has lent to destruction and blood;
But the things that are honour’d of Zion
Are most of them made from wood.
— Herbert Edward Palmer (1880 – 1961), Woodworker’s Ballad.

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