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Proof of aluminum’s existence as a metal did
not come about until Englishman Sir Humphry Davy named it in 1808, but clays
containing aluminum oxide, now known as alumina, were used by Persian
potters as long ago as 5300 BC. Other aluminum compounds known as
"alums" were used widely in Egypt and Babylonia as early as 2000
BC. It would take the advent of electricity 4000 years later and scientists
from the United States and Europe to isolate aluminum making it the most
widely used and economical commercial metal.
Aluminum is too reactive in its natural state to exist as a free metal like gold or silver, but like iron and tin, it is found as a compound. More than 270 different minerals contain aluminum, but the ore bauxite contains the highest concentration of aluminum. Bauxite is highly accessible and produces one to two tons of aluminum per four tons of ore. Once aluminum is separated from bauxite its true characters emerges. |
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