Why wasn't Aluminium used until the beginning of the twentieth century?

Answer 1

because we didnt have the technology to extract it and because it was thought to be a metal that killed you on touch until scientist T. McHisFake discovered that it was infact a very helpful metal.

Aluminum is most easily separated from its bauxite ore by electrolysis. A/C electricity wasn't even invented until the late 19th century. Industrial quantities of dependable, affordable electricity weren't available until well into the 20th century. Aluminum smelters are usually located where bauxite is close by and electricity is cheap, e.g., near dam sites, or coal fired power plants.

Answer 2

Aluminum is very difficult to bring to high purity without a lot of electric power. Lots of electric power did not exist before the 20th century. Aluminum, the most abundant metal in the earth's crust, waited all that time until it could step up and assume its place as one of the most useful metals we have. Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earths crust, but it doesn't exist on its own as a free element. It is normally found bonded to many different compounds in the crust, mainly oxygen. It is very difficult to extract and separate the aluminum from its original components, and even involves electricity.

Technological innovation has made it easier to extract aluminum and roll it into nice sheets, but before the 20th Century, people didn't have the resources to mass produce it. It was even once the most expensive metal ($115 per pound), more expensive than gold. Napoleon was even said to have a crown of aluminum to display his wealth.

Answer 3

It wasn't used due to the difficulty of purifying it. Only in the 20th century has a process been developed to commercially produce purer aluminum without extraordinary costs and hellish labor !

The top of the Washington Memorial is graced with an 8 pound piece of "exotic", expensive, pure aluminum (erected in the later 1800's). Extremely expensive at the time ... even though the outside has since "tarnished" with Al2O3 (aluminum oxide)

Answer 4

Because it is much more difficult to refine. Aluminium is almost never found pure naturally; instead it is found as an oxide with a long and costly refining process.

To illustrate how valued the metal was until modern refining processes were developed, in Napoléon's time (around the beginning of the 19th century) the most honoured guests in his court were sometimes served meals on aluminum plates while lower-ranking attendees had to settle for gold and silver.

Answer 5

ANSWER: Aluminum is the most common metal. The problem is that it is not found in an elemental form of aluminum like iron or gold. It is found as a combined form like an oxide or silicate and has to be refined before the actual aluminum can be used in metal form. Its wasnt even named until 1808. Which is why we had an iron age, a bronze age and no aluminum age. See the related link for more information. The refining process was very difficult and even now requires great amounts of energy to convert to metal. That is why recycling aluminum is such an environmentally good thing to do. It isn't the aluminum that is being saved so much as it is the vast quantities of electricity necessary to purify it. Napoleon had one of the most valuable sets of knife, fork and spoon in existence in his day. It was made out of aluminum.

Answer 6

There are a lot of electric energy needed to produce aluminum. Such amount of electrical energy become available only in the beginning of the 20th century with discovering of electromagnetism and building big power stations.

Answer 7

Because its extremely difficult to separate Aluminium from its compounds because it forms extremely stable compounds. It needs lots of electricity to do so - the technology - to make large quantities wasn't available until the 20th century - although it was known in small quatities in the 19th century

Answer 8

Aluminium is a relatively reactive metal, meaning that it readily bonds with other elements to form a compound. For this reason, it is seldom found in nature as pure aluminium. Recent methods of extraction such as electrolysis has enabled reactive metals, such as aluminium, to be separated from its ore to its pure form. In summary, Al wasn't discovered till much later due to its reactivity and difficulty to extract.

Answer 9

because it was silver