Futility Closet

Apparently Rust Does Sleep

Posted in Oddities by Greg Ross on December 18th, 2005

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iron-pillar.jpg

This iron pillar, part of a complex of monuments in Delhi, India, has stood for 1,600 years without rusting, despite harsh weather.

Metallurgists think it’s protected by a thin layer of “misawite”, a compound of iron, oxygen and hydrogen, that formed shortly after it was made.
(Image: Wikimedia Commons)