Live data from Hacker News

Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

theaviationgeekclub.com

191–200 of 213 posts

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#191

What puzzles me is that I think titanium dioxide was already widely used as a pigment for paint in the 1950s, which would make me think it was widely available here.

Simply, titanium dioxide and aerospace grade titanium alloys are not the same thing at all.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#192

What puzzles me is that I think titanium dioxide was already widely used as a pigment for paint in the 1950s, which would make me think it was widely available here.

Simply, titanium dioxide and aerospace grade titanium alloys are not the same thing at all.

True, but the article said they were not importing refined titanium alloys. They were importing ore, specifically rutile, which is what TiO2 pigment is made from.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply, titanium dioxide and aerospace grade titanium alloys are not the same thing at all.

True, but the article said they were not importing refined titanium alloys. They were importing ore, specifically rutile, which is what TiO2 pigment is made from.

That part of the article is wrong- I just opened my copy of Ben Rich's memoirs and it says they needed alloy, not ore. Apparently their US supplier had insufficient quantities.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#194
post #42

Does any know any more details about this? It's a fun tidbit that gets a link/article on social media every few weeks, but it's never anything more than a tidbit. "The US needed titanium for the SR-71. The only supplier of titanium was the Soviet Union. So the US bought it from the Soviet Union through a shell corporation." But that's it. It's those 3 facts and only those three facts expressed in anywhere between one…

There is something garbled or simply wrong about this story. The US was the first country to produce metallic titanium on an industrial scale. It has more than adequate domestic ores. Titanium is one of the most common metals in the earth's crust; only the conversion from ore to metal is difficult. Here's a good primer on industrial titanium (see chapter 3): "Titanium: Past, Present, and Future" from National Academi…

I found a bit in Ben Rich's memoirs that said their US supplier for titanium alloys didn't have enough available for them, so they had to purchase from worldwide sources.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but the article said they were not importing refined titanium alloys. They were importing ore, specifically rutile, which is what TiO2 pigment is made from.

That part of the article is wrong- I just opened my copy of Ben Rich's memoirs and it says they needed alloy, not ore. Apparently their US supplier had insufficient quantities.

Ah, that would explain it. ;-)

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple Georgian restaurants in the Bay Area, in Palo Alto and Los Altos.

I know I can easily Google this, but if anyone stumbles upon my comment and can recommend a delicious place serving it in NYC please let me know.

Old Tbilisi on Bleecker.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PRC waging opium war on US comparison only works if PRC was militarily coercing the US to not enforce domestic drug policies. Things can be similar even if they're not identical. If a state actor supports criminal forces to transport harmful substances into a country, it's not so different from supporting the East India Company in doing so. Also, the purpose matters. When the EIC sold opium in China, the motive was…

The British committing navy for East India company is not remotely similar to PRC inaction to curtail organized crime operations in LATAM when they'd rather direct resources domestically or in ASEAN. The primary attack vector of Opium War was military force, i.e. an actual war. The primary victim throne and treasury not civil society via gunboat diplomacy. One is a state actively investing large diplomatic and milita…

Why blame Hong Kong protests on America, tho?

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#198
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, China isn't doing it now. American capitalism is. That's what's different - the opium wars required the exercise of force, today's opium crisis simply requires the wealthy to bribe the powerful.

It was capitalism then too. It was only when China tried to regulate it that the narco-state of Great Britain stepped in with military force.

Yes, fair point, imperialism's jobhas always been to protect and extend capitalism.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#199
post #42

Does any know any more details about this? It's a fun tidbit that gets a link/article on social media every few weeks, but it's never anything more than a tidbit. "The US needed titanium for the SR-71. The only supplier of titanium was the Soviet Union. So the US bought it from the Soviet Union through a shell corporation." But that's it. It's those 3 facts and only those three facts expressed in anywhere between one…

That is what China is doing to US now . Decades from now , Chinese will joke about how they get chips and other secret tech from shell companies in us. They will also joke about how they secretly sell drugs to America to make them useless and make society unstable.

> The [CIA] will also joke about how they secretly sell drugs to America to make them useless and make society unstable.

Re: Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh, so the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma are Chinese? The more you know…

1. Oxycontin much weaker than fentanyl 2. China is still actively doing it https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/chinas-role-in-the-fen...

But who got all those people hooked on opioids to start with? Nobody wakes up one day and says hey, I’m going to try fentanyl.
Post reply on HN