"Bauxing Day" (221b, ACD), Holmes Minor Monthly Promptfest for January 2022)

[gardnerhill]

Title: Bauxing Day
Author: gardnerhill
Fandom: ACD
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Word Count: 221b
Rating: G
Warning: None
Summary: A little metallurgic history.
Author's Notes: Written for the January 2022 Holmes Minor monthly prompt “foil.”

***


Holmes had toyed with Sir Peter Wentworth’s complaint for several days; a noble’s gradually-disappearing valuables was the best case he could find during Christmas season. But early on the 26th he called me downstairs and contacted Scotland Yard.

The leavings from the peer’s holiday table were covered in shiny tinfoil, ready for the servants’ households as was traditional. I smiled to myself; even a lord’s tinfoil was prettier and shinier than a common man’s.

That was what Holmes saw too. With a cry he leaped to the table and jabbed a finger at one foil-covered dish. “Watson! The foil!”

I touched one edge and gaped at how lightweight and thin the shiny stuff was. So much thinner and lighter than tin. It wasn’t tin, but–

I gasped. “Aluminium, Holmes!”

Aluminium foil covered every dish that had been destined to exit the house; a fortune in aluminium, the table holding more wealth than if every plate and tray were gilded. The servants had been trading Sir Peter’s goods for aluminium and had planned to smuggle his wealth out disguised as humble tinfoil covers for servants’ meals.

Holmes held one crinkly, costly sheet. “It won’t stay expensive much longer, Watson. New extraction techniques will transform a precious metal into a useful one soon. Light but strong, perfect for crutches! We shall conquer bauxite.”

Comments

[redders]

Ah! How fantastic! I appreciate the history and what a crafty plan by the servants! :)

[gardnerhill]

I never forgot seeing aluminum along with gold and gems in a rattle made for Napoleon's baby son in my chemistry textbook in school; aluminum was so hard to extract from bauxite till the 1890s that it was more expensive than platinum at the time.

[smallhobbit]

Ingenious, both the servants and the author. The title is brilliant!

[gardnerhill]

And that's your chemistry lesson for the day, kids.

[happyeverafter72]

I love the little allusion to the Aluminium Crutch! This is very good.

[gardnerhill]

That's the thing about that reference that a lot of people miss (including Mofftiss) - up until the late 1890s when a new extraction technique made processing aluminium ore profitable, aluminium was fiercely expensive because it was so hard to remove from bauxite ore. It was even used along with gold and gems to adorn a French prince's baby rattle. These days the singular affair would be about the Platinum Crutch.

[mightymads]

I really appreciate the historical accuracy bit, and such a clever plan too!

[gardnerhill]

I never got over how amazed I was to learn in my grade school chemistry class that aluminum used to be an expensive metal because of the difficulty in extraction.

That's why "The Singular Affair" was so singular - today someone with a platinum crutch would be just as amazing.