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The author mentions "country bands" primarily in order to
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One surprising claim about the ancient terra-cotta warrior statues unearthed from pits in northwest China is that a supposedly twentieth century innovation, chemical chrome-plating, was used by the makers of the bronze swords carried by the figures. These swords' blades are free of rust, a state attributed to a coating of about 10 to 15 microns of chromium salt oxide. Yet there is some dispute about whether this was a deliberate process. Modern metallurgists carried out experiments in which they were able to replicate the coatings by using relatively simple methods to process chrome ore with mature vinegar and saltpeter. More skeptical experts theorize that chromic molecules in the soil of the pits permeated the blades' surfaces, thereby forming the chromic salt oxidation coatings.
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