Industries debate elements, but gold standard always changing; tungsten battles titanium
Earlier this year, with the steel and aluminum industries duking it out in the auto industry, General Motors Co. marketed its Sierra truck as made of rolled steel like “the hulls of submarines.”
That raised the eyebrows of at least one metallurgist. “The reason those hulls are so strong is that they’re coated with titanium,” says John Tumazos, a longtime investor in metals companies.
The stone, iron and bronze ages have come and gone. Superman became known as the Man of Steel. Titanium Man was born in the 1960s. A platinum-selling album might inspire your heart of gold to make an ironclad promise. Some metallic words make you sound silver-tongued; others, tin-eared. Titanium trumps tungsten.
Metals and elements permeate language and culture, but the gold standard is constantly changing. These days, the use of metallic adjectives is more popular than ever, as makers of cars and airplanes tinker with alloys to reduce weight and enhance performance.