Why was iron used earlier than aluminium?

Answer 1

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin(generally). In the ancient world these could both be found as pure metal in nature and they can be smelted using basic metallurgical skills. Aluminium on the other hand is only found in the combined form in nature, generally alumina in bauxite. To refine aluminium from its ore requires the melting of alumina and electrolysis to refine the metal. (this requires electricity which the ancients didn't have) In fact aluminium use to be valued higher than gold! That is why the Washington Monument's tip is an aluminium pyramid!!!

Answer 2

Iron can be refined using primitive methods involving little more than fire and a bellows. Aluminum smelters use large amounts of electricity, which was not commercially available before the late 19th century.

Answer 3

Bronze preceded iron as a widely worked metal due to the fact that the metals which make bronze are easily recovered from their ores, and the resulting alloy is soft enough to be easily worked with the raw materials which were then available.

Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper and is lower in the reactivity series than iron. This means Bronze is easier to get out of its ore than iron. So bronze was found first and once we got good at getting bronze it was easier for us to extract iron.

Iron is a common element in the earth's crust, but it almost always occurs as a compound, it is very rarely to find it naturally as metallic iron. Occasionally an iron meteorite will fall from space, to provide a 'magical' source of the metal. Such rare occurrences allowed a few smiths to discover the valuable properties of iron.

It is much more difficult to smelt iron than copper. In copper smelting, the copper flows as a liquid to the bottom of the furnace. The slag of waste material accumulates on top of the copper, and can be poured off to leave behind the copper. The copper is easily identified as copper, and the process is intuitive. But the physical chemistry of smelting iron from oxide or sulfide ores differs from that of copper, which may well have made iron smelting difficult to recognize even when it had happened. In principle, iron can be smelted from magnetite or hematite, which are comparatively common ores, but iron does not melt at the temperatures that can be reached in a primitive furnace: iron is still solid when copper and bronze are molten.

Answer 4

Copper is a very soft ore and bronze is harder. When using tools copper tools had to be sharpened over and over again. Often the workers had spares so they could keep working. Bronze solved all the problems.

Answer 5

Iron was used earlier than aluminium because iron is more abundant in nature and easier to extract and work with using ancient technologies. Aluminium is more difficult to extract from its ore and was not commonly available until the 19th century when new extraction methods were developed.

Answer 6

Iron is much easier to extract from its ore.

Answer 7

Copper and Aluminium are elements but Bronze is a compound of Copper and Tin

Answer 8

Pure copper is much softer than bronze, so bronze could stand much more wear and tear and was much more effective in weaponry.