Aluminum (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a lightweight silvery white metal having atomic number 13 and chemical symbol Al. The name is derived from the Latin name for alum, 'alumen' meaning bitter salt.
Aluminum has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel.
Aluminum is a strongly electropositive metal and extremely reactive. In contact with air, aluminum rapidly becomes covered with a tough, transparent layer of aluminum oxide that resists further corrosive action. For this reason, materials made of aluminum do not tarnish or rust.
Ancient Greeks and Romans used aluminum salts as dyeing mordants and as astringents for dressing wounds.
A Roman goldsmith may have discovered aluminum metal 1800 years before modern chemists did. Pliny the Elder recorded a story about a metal that was bright as silver but much lighter, which was presented to Tiberius (reigned 14–37 AD) but the Emperor had the discoverer killed in order to ensure the metal would not diminish the value of his own gold and silver assets.
During the Middle Ages, its compound alum was traded in international commerce.
The metal was first produced in 1825 (in an impure form) by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted. He reacted anhydrous aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam and yielded a lump of metal looking similar to tin.
Between 1827 and 1845, German chemist Friedrich Wöhler improved Oersted’s process by using metallic potassium. He was the first to measure the specific gravity of aluminum and show its lightness.
In 1854, Frenchman Henri Sainte-Claire Deville obtained the metal by reducing aluminum chloride with sodium. Aided by the financial backing of Napoleon III, Deville established a large-scale experimental plant and displayed pure aluminum at the Paris Exposition of 1855.
Aluminum was originally as valuable and expensive as silver. It was so cherished that Napoleon III held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminum utensils, while the less distinguished made do with gold.
The Washington Monument was topped in 1884 with the world's largest piece of aluminum. It had earlier been on display at Tiffany's in New York and stepped over by visitors who could say they had "stepped over the top of the Washington Monument."
American inventor Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of man-made aluminum on February 23, 1886 after several years of intensive work. The process involved passing an electric current through a bath of alumina dissolved in cryolite, which results in a puddle of aluminum forming in the bottom of the retort. He was assisted in this project by his older sister Julia Brainerd Hall.
The Monadnock Building is a skyscraper in the south Loop community area of Chicago. The north half of the building was built in 1891, and its decorative staircases were the first use of aluminum in building construction.
In 1911, Bern-based Tobler began wrapping its chocolate bars in aluminum foil, including the unique triangular chocolate bar, Toblerone.
Richard S. Reynolds, Sr., nephew of tobacco king R. J. Reynolds, founded The Reynolds Metals Company in 1919 as the U.S. Foil Company. Initially, the new company supplied lead and tin foil wrappers to cigarette and candy companies. By the late 1940s his company was convinced of the home market for their aluminum foil and in 1950, the Reynolds Company started selling it in rolls to home consumers. Today it is the leading manufacturer of aluminum foil in North America.
Right before launching the two Voyagers in 1977, NASA scientists used kitchen-grade aluminum foil to cover critical parts of the probes to protect it from unanticipated radiation at Jupiter. It worked.
There are two pieces of aluminum from the destroyed World Trade Center on the surface of Mars. They were quietly built into two of the Mars Rovers.
Aluminum was the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron.
Aluminum was originally as valuable and expensive as silver. It was so cherished that Napoleon III held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminum utensils, while the less distinguished made do with gold.
The Washington Monument was topped in 1884 with the world's largest piece of aluminum. It had earlier been on display at Tiffany's in New York and stepped over by visitors who could say they had "stepped over the top of the Washington Monument."
American inventor Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of man-made aluminum on February 23, 1886 after several years of intensive work. The process involved passing an electric current through a bath of alumina dissolved in cryolite, which results in a puddle of aluminum forming in the bottom of the retort. He was assisted in this project by his older sister Julia Brainerd Hall.
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| Aluminium Wikipedia |
The Monadnock Building is a skyscraper in the south Loop community area of Chicago. The north half of the building was built in 1891, and its decorative staircases were the first use of aluminum in building construction.
In 1911, Bern-based Tobler began wrapping its chocolate bars in aluminum foil, including the unique triangular chocolate bar, Toblerone.
Richard S. Reynolds, Sr., nephew of tobacco king R. J. Reynolds, founded The Reynolds Metals Company in 1919 as the U.S. Foil Company. Initially, the new company supplied lead and tin foil wrappers to cigarette and candy companies. By the late 1940s his company was convinced of the home market for their aluminum foil and in 1950, the Reynolds Company started selling it in rolls to home consumers. Today it is the leading manufacturer of aluminum foil in North America.
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| By Lewis Ronald Wikipedia Commons |
Right before launching the two Voyagers in 1977, NASA scientists used kitchen-grade aluminum foil to cover critical parts of the probes to protect it from unanticipated radiation at Jupiter. It worked.
There are two pieces of aluminum from the destroyed World Trade Center on the surface of Mars. They were quietly built into two of the Mars Rovers.
Aluminum was the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron.
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, and the third most abundant element, after oxygen and silicon. It makes up about 8% by weight of the Earth's solid surface.
Aluminum ranks as the second-most-consumed industrial metal in the world after iron.
It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials.
Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today due to recycling.
Tin foil is made from aluminum.
Aluminum ranks as the second-most-consumed industrial metal in the world after iron.
It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials.
Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today due to recycling.
Tin foil is made from aluminum.
Despite its prevalence in the environment, aluminum salts are not known to be used by any form of life.
Transparent aluminum, the sci-fi material concocted in Star Trek IV as a lighter material to use for tank glass, is now actually a real thing. Aluminum Oxynitride (AlON) is a ceramic composed of aluminum, oxygen and nitrogen.
In 2019 the People's Republic of China was the top producer of aluminum with a world share of fifty-five percent, followed by India, Russia and Canada.
Source Funk & Wagnells Encyclopedia
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