Aluminum - The Metal History

Minerals with aluminum are very difficult to decompose. Discovered in 1825 HCOersted a Danish scientist, as potassium metal could be used to chemically reduce aluminum from one of his connections. The cost of aluminum in the early days was produced 250.00 pounds per kilo, much more than gold.


Even Napoleon was reported, had used the privilege of aluminum knife and fork to eat. French nobility had to settle for silver or gold plated?

Steelworkers Hall (USA) and Héroult (France) discovered the process for extracting aluminum from bauxite ore in 1886, but the metal is not cheap stayed until the early 1900s.

The two world wars, first and second, saw a great demand for this metal robust, lightweight and flexible, particularly in aircraft manufacturing. Modern technology has pushed the annual production of Al second in terms of world production of iron.

The ore of aluminum is used as bauxite, alumina containing Al203. Bauxite ore itself can not be reduced to metal by heating with coke as iron, for the simple reason that the Al atoms combine with oxygen atoms too strongly to be separated by carbon.

An electrolytic process is used to decompose bauxite and leave the aluminum, producing about 91 mega-joules consumed I. Electricity lb. metal Al, large quantities of cheap electricity must be available for booths.

The majority of aluminum in the world was made in the United States, Canada and Norway. But Australia also has large deposits of bauxite, and large ovens close to major power producers located in the country.

This abundant supply of aluminum has the effect of producing an easily accessible resource of aluminum scrap, where it is not difficult for the foundry hobby easy to break the metal to a manageable size, then the Gas hobby or small in electric melting furnaces had.

Cast steel, raw or processed cleaned by blowing oxygen through it, burning the impurities, which is not possible with aluminum as the metal would simply burn and walk away with unnecessary dirt.

A chemical process is first used to purify bauxite, which are pure alumina is decomposed by electrolysis. Alumina has a melting point very high, it is mixed with other aluminum minerals such as cryolite electrolyte, the molten metal is formed at low temperature.

The next time you break a piece of scrap aluminum in your city melting pot, you think a trip for which he traveled so far before you look!