In this post we will see a book titled On Rare and Scattered Metals by S. Venetsky, which is a sort of sequel to the book titled Tales About Metals.

This book tells about some rare metals (including those called trace elements) and can be regarded as a second part of S. I. Venetsky’s Tales About Metals (It was published in English by Mir Publishers, Moscow, in 1981).
The author follows the same principle as in his previous work: rather than giving the reader any exhaustive information about every chemical element he describes, to tell him some interesting facts, curious incidents and tales associated with rare metals, to tell about the thorny path of any major scientific discovery and about some paths yet to be trodden in the amazing world of metals.

There is a Marathi translation of the prequel Tales About Metals titled घातुंच्या नवलकथा and was one of the first Mir Books that I read.  I do not know if there are translations of this book in any other Indian language, if you know of any, please let us know.

Update: Hindi translation titled काहानियां धातुओं की for Tales About Metals is there and Marathi translation of On Rare and Scattered Metals titled दुर्मिळ आणि विखुरलेले धातु is there.

Will try to post Tales About Metals soon is posted.

This book was translated from the Russian by by N. G. Kittell, and was first published by Mir in 1983.

Many thanks to gnv64 for making this available.

You can get the book here.

To get torrent for this file go here.

Contents

About This Book 6
The Triumpth of a Great Law (Gallium) 8
An Evil Genie (Rubidium) 17
The Secret of the Bengal Priests (Strontium) 24
A Find in an Old Quarry (Yttrium) 31
Dinosaur Resurrected (Technetium) 39
An English Scientist’s Joke (Palladium) 47
Named After Cadmus of Phoenicia (Cadmium) 55
Associated with the Land of Wonders (Indium) 64
Once in Schtalhausen Monastery (Antimony) 70
Two Blue Strangers (Cesium) 77
The Good Luck of a Shoemaker from Bologna (Barium) 85
Only a Trace (Hafnium) 93
The Secret of Old Waste Dumps (Rhenium) 100
An Insult to a Noble Metal (Osmium) 107
All the Colours of the Rainbow (Iridium) 114
Budding Twig (Thallium) 121
A Space Mission (Bismuth) 127
The Rarest of the Rare (Francium) 136
Eternal Rays (Radium) 143