Chemical experimentation was at first the only way to separate aluminum from bauxite. In1845, after years of experimentation, Frederich Wöhler produced the first completely pure globules of aluminum and identified the new metal’s characteristics. The heat-based process used costly potassium and yielded only small amounts of aluminum. It would be another 9 years before Henri Saint-Claire Deville would replace potassium with less costly sodium, producing the first commercial quantities of aluminum in France.
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