Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum (Symbol Al) (see the spelling section below) is a silvery and ductile member of the poor metal group of chemical elements. Its atomic number is 13. Aluminium is found primarily as the ore bauxite and is remarkable for its resistance to oxidation (due to the phenomenon of passivation), its strength, and its light weight. Aluminium is used in many industries to make millions of different products and is very important to the world economy. Structural components made from aluminium are vital to the aerospace industry and very important in other areas of transportation and building in which light weight, durability, and strength are needed.

History

The oldest suspected (although unprovable) reference to aluminium is in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia:

Related Topics:
Pliny the Elder - Naturalis Historia

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One day a goldsmith in Rome was allowed to show the Emperor Tiberius a dinner plate of a new metal. The plate was very light, and almost as bright as silver. The goldsmith told the Emperor that he had produced the metal from ordinary clay. He also assured the Emperor that only he, himself, and the Gods knew how to produce this metal from clay. The Emperor became very interested, and as a financial expert he was also worried. The Emperor immediately feared that all his treasures of gold and silver would fall in value if people started producing this bright metal from clay. Therefore, instead of giving the goldsmith the recognition the latter had anticipated, he ordered him to be beheaded. Notes - Source

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The ancient Greeks and Romans used salts of this metal as dyeing mordants and as astringents for dressing wounds, and alum is still used as a styptic. Further Joseph Needham suggested finds in 1974 showed the ancient Chinese used aluminium (see the link for "Notes" above). In 1761 Guyton de Morveau suggested calling the base alum 'alumine'. In 1808, Humphry Davy identified the existence of a metal base of alum, which he named (see Spelling below for more information on the name).

Related Topics:
Greeks - Romans - Mordant - Alum - Styptic - Joseph Needham - 1974 - 1761 - Guyton de Morveau - 1808 - Humphry Davy

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Friedrich Wöhler is generally credited with isolating aluminium (Latin alumen, alum) in 1827 by mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium. However, the metal had been produced for the first time two years earlier in an impure form by the Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted. Therefore almanacs and chemistry sites often list Oersted as the discoverer of aluminium.Source Still it would further be P. Berthier who discovered aluminium in bauxite ore and successfully extracted it. The Frenchman Henri Saint-Claire Deville improved Wöhler's method (1846) and described his improvements in a book in 1859, chief among these being the substitution of sodium for the considerably more expensive potassium.

Related Topics:
Friedrich Wöhler - Latin - Alum - 1827 - Hans Christian Ørsted - Henri Saint-Claire Deville - 1846 - 1859

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The American Charles Martin Hall obtained a patent (400655) in 1886 for an electrolytic process to extract aluminium (which he smelted in Pittsburgh, USA) using the same technique that was currently being applied by the Frenchman Paul Héroult in Europe. The invention of the Hall-Héroult process in 1886 made extracting aluminium from minerals cheaper, and is now the principal method in common use throughout the world.

Related Topics:
Charles Martin Hall - Patent - 1886 - Hall-Héroult process

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Aluminium was selected as the material to be used for the apex of the Washington Monument, at a time when one ounce cost twice the daily wages of a common worker in the project. Source

Related Topics:
Washington Monument - Ounce

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Germany became the world leader in aluminium production soon after Adolf Hitler seized power. By 1942, however, new hydroelectric power projects such as the Grand Coulee Dam gave the United States something Nazi Germany could not hope to compete with, namely the capability of producing enough aluminium to manufacture sixty thousand warplanes in four years. http://www.phpsolvent.com/wordpress/?page_id=341

Related Topics:
Adolf Hitler - Grand Coulee Dam

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