On Mon, 12 Jun 2000 23:02:30 EDT SW6079@....... writes:
> I must confess, I have not a clue what this stuff is, but am 
> intrigued.  
> Would anyone be able to enlighten me?  Thanks,  also nice to see 
> another 
> astronomer here.  Mike.

It is a metal that stops magnetic fields, like shielding. It is magnetic,
in that magnets are drawn to it, but the field does not pass through it.
If you were to try to pick up a sting of paper clips made from Mu-Metal,
only the first one would be picked up, the rest would not follow.

It was discovered quite accidentally by a (retired Colonel) immigrant
German steelworker in Pittsburgh named Otto Von Sherberg, who hurled a
sack of kittens into an open hearth furnace on a day that they were
making high permiability magnet iron, hence the rather unusual name. "Mu"
is the German for "mew" and is pronounced the same way.
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