History of aluminium
haomeialu > 01-04-2018, 03:16 AM
Aluminium is a comparatively new element in human applications. Its source ore, alum, has been known since the 5th century BCE; it was extensively used by the ancients for dyeing and city defense; the former usage would only be more important in medieval Europe. Scientists of the Renaissance figured alum was a salt of a new earth; during the Age of the Enlightenment, it was established that the earth was an oxide of a new metal. Discovery of this new metal was convincingly announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted; his work would be greatly extended on by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.
Pure aluminium metal was very difficult to refine and thus very rare. After its discovery, its price exceeded that of gold; the rarity of aluminium would only be reduced after the first industrial production was initiated by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. Aluminium became, however, much more available to the general public with the Hall–Héroult process developed by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886 and the Bayer process developed by Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer in 1889. These methods have been used for aluminium production up to the present day.
After these methods were applied for mass production of aluminium, the metal has been extensively used in industry and everyday lives. Aluminium has been used for aviation, architecture, and packaging among others. Its production grew exponentially in the 20th century and aluminium became an exchange commodity in the 1970s. In 1900, the production was 6,800 metric tons; in 2015, it was 57,500,000 tons.