The book's ancient pages were so brittle, he feared they would crumble before he finished.

By the tension between the two, their alliance was brittle at best.

It is extremely magnetic and almost non-magnetic; as brittle as glass and almost as pliable and ductile as copper; extremely springy, and springless and dead; wonderfully strong, and 1 The word " iron " was in 0.

These are cementite, a definite iron carbide, Fe 3 C, harder than glass and nearly as brittle, but probably very strong under gradually and axially applied stress; and ferrite, pure or nearly pure metallic a-iron, soft, weak, with high electric conductivity, and in general like copper except in colour.

Moreover, this same carburizing action of the fuel would at times go so far as to turn part of the metal into a true cast iron, so brittle that it could not be worked at all.