It seems to me that most of these spheres must either have formed during the fires, or been present even before 9/11 and released during the collapses.
Indeed! There is evidence that some of the iron-rich micro-shperes came from brake dust shed by the cranes used for construction, when they were actually building the buildings. (There is a thread on here somewhere, where this is discussed).
My questions thus are:
- What do we know about this already?
- Can ironspheres form during "normal" fires, and if so, how?
- Did Jones and Harrit really find ironspheres, and did they really form when they burned their chips?
- How many such spheres are already contained in building materials, such as concrete?
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As far as what we know about it already: the spherules in question, have been made into a religion in the "truth" movement - largely because they ["truth"ers] don't really have a clue what the iron-rich spheres actually mean. The incessant spamming of the iron-rich spheres by them, has become extreme hyperbole on their part.
As far as iron-rich spheres forming during "normal" office fires: 1st, it is a bit of a misnomer on the part of conspiracists to call the fires in the buildings that day "normal." However, given that iron was in abundance in most of the office contents, as well as the building materials themselves: yes, it very much IS possible for these spherules to form during such conditions and even R.J. Lee said so in their report. Iron is found in pigmentation (particularly red pigmentation - of which there was plenty in the buildings on account of the red primer paint applied to the steel elements).
As far as Jones and Harrit actually finding anything: the jury is still out on that one. Jones never had his samples verified by any independent labs or bother to offer a chain of evidence for his samples. That said, it wouldn't be surprising if he did. As mentioned above, the buildings were packed with iron, both from the components themselves, as well as office contents (such as ink) and as the buildings collapsed, friction certainly caused formation of spheres as the components collided with each other during collapse. The other part: when Jones and Harrit "tested" their samples: they only tested them in open air, which precludes their results from proving a reaction. They didn't conduct full testing on the samples and ignored elements that were inconvenient to their claims.
Between the fires affecting office contents such as ink and electronics, as well as the iron content in paint and pigmentation, along with the fact that the processes of welding the steel during construction and the cranes shedding brake dust, the sources of the iron, are well in abundance and are in NO WAY exclusively explained by thermite reactions. The claim of thermite based on iron-rich micro-spheres, is one of the most scientifically fraudulent arguments a person can make.
