The history of aluminium was shaped by the usage of its compound alum. The first written record of alum was in the 5th century BCE by Greek historian Herodotus. The ancients used it as a dyeing mordant, in medicine, in chemical milling, and as a fire-resistant coating for wood to protect fortresses from enemy arson. Aluminium metal was unknown. Roman writer Petronius mentioned in his novel Satyricon that an unusual glass had been presented to the emperor: after it was thrown on the pavement, it did not break but only deformed. It was returned to its former shape using a hammer. After learning from the inventor that nobody else knew how to produce this material, the emperor had the inventor executed so that it did not diminish the price of gold. Variations of this story were mentioned briefly in Natural History by Roman historian Pliny the Elder (who noted the story had "been current through frequent repetition rather than authentic") and Roman History by Roman historian Cassius Dio.... See full list on At the start of the Renaissance, the nature of alum remained unknown. Around 1530, Swiss physician Paracelsus recognized alum as separate from vitriole (sulfates) and suggested it was a salt of an earth. In 1595, German doctor and chemist Andreas Libavius demonstrated alum and green and blue vitriole were formed by the same acid but different earths for the undiscovered earth that formed alum, he proposed the name "alumina". German chemist Georg Ernst Stahl stated the unknown base of alum was akin to lime or chalk in 1702 this mistaken view was shared by many scientists for half a century. In 1722, German chemist Friedrich Hoffmann suggest earth. In 1728, French chemist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire claimed alum was formed by an unknown earth and sulfuric acid he mistakenly believed burning that earth yielded silica. (Geoffroy's mistake was only corrected in 1785 by German chemist and pharmacist Johann Christian Wiegleb. He determined that earth... See full list on In 1760, Baron de Hénouville unsuccessfully attempted to reduce alumina to its metal. He claimed he had tried every method of reduction known at the time, though his methods were unpublished. It is probable he mixed alum with carbon or some organic substance, with salt or soda for flux, and heated it in a charcoal fire. Austrian chemists Anton Leopold Ruprecht and Matteo Tondi repeated Baron's expereasing the temperatures. They found small metallic particles they believed were the sought-after metal but later experiments by other chemists showed these were iron phosphide from impurities in the charcoal and bone ash. German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth commented in an aftermath, "if there exists an earth which has been put in conditions where its metallic nature should be disclosed, if it had such, an earth exposed to experiments suitable for reducing it, tested in the hottest fires by all sorts of methods, on a large as well as on a smal Wöhler's method could not yield large amounts of aluminium, the metal remained uncommon its cost[f] had exceeded that of gold before a new method was devised. Prices followed: in 1852, aluminium was sold at US$34 per ounce.In comparison, the price of gold at the time was $19 per ounce. French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville announced an industrial method of aluminium production in 1854 at the Paris Academy of Sciences. Aluminium chloride could be reduced by sodium, a metal more convenient and less expensive than potassium used by Wöhler. Deville was able to produce an ingot of the metal. Napoleon III of France promised Deville an unlimited subsidy for aluminium research in total, Deville used 36,000 Frenme of an ordinary family. Napoleon's interest in aluminium lay in its potential military use: he wished weapons, helmets, armor, and other equipment for the French army could be made of the new light, shiny metal.While the metal w... See full list on Aluminium was first produced independently using electrolysis in 1854 by the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Deville. Their methods did not become the basis for industrial production of aluminium because electrical supplies were inefficient at the time. This only changed with Belgian engineer Zénobe-Théophile Gramme's invention of the dynamo in 1870, which made creation of large amounts of electri possible. The invention of the three-phase current by Russian engineer Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky in 1889 made transmission of this electri over long distances achievable.Soon after his discovery, Bunsen moved on to other areas of interest while Deville's work was noticed by Napoleon III this was the reason Deville's Napoleon-funded research on aluminium production had been started. Deville quickly realized electrolytic production was impractical at the time and moved on to chemical methods, presenting results later that year. Electrolytic mass production remained difficu... See full list on Prices for aluminium declined, and by the early 1890s, the metal had become widely used in jewelry, eyeglass frames, optical instruments, and many everyday items. Aluminium cookware began to be produced in the late 19th century and gradually supplanted copper and cast iron cookware in the first decades of the 20th century. Aluminium foil was popularized at that time. Aluminium is soft and light, but it was soon discovered that alloyiease its hardness while preserving its low density. Aluminium alloys found many uses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, aluminium bronze is applied to make flexible bands, sheets, and wire, and is widely employed in the shipbuild aviation industries. Aviation used a new aluminium alloy, duralumin, invented in 1903. Aluminium recycling began in the early 1900s a as aluminium is not impaired by recycling and thus can be recycled repeatedly. At this point, only... See full list on Earth's first artificial satellite, launched in 1957, consisted of two joined aluminium hemispheres. All subsequent spacecraft have used aluminium to some extent. The aluminium can was first manufactured in 1956 and employed as a container for drinks in 1958. In the 1960s, aluminium was employed for the pr the 1970s, high-speed trains have commonly used aluminium for its high strength-to-weight ratio. For the same reason, the aluminium content of cars is growing. By 1955, the world market had been dominated by the Six Majors: Alcoa, Alcan (originated as a part of Alcoa), Reynolds, Kaiser, Pechiney (merger of Compagnie d'Alais et de la Camargue that bought Deville's smelter and Société électrométallurgique française that hired Héroult), and Alusuisse (successor of Héroult's Aluminium Industrie Aktien Gesellschaft) their combined share of the market equaled 86%. From 1945, aluminium consumption grew by almost 10% each year for nearly three decades, g... See full list on See full list on
Get Price