Show more valuable than silver THE tand HE metal used in making pots and pans today was more valuable than silver a century ago A hundred years from now that queer element aluminum will probably be more common than iron the development of aluminum is one of the ou outstanding anding events in recent world history first isolated in 1825 by oersted a dane it originally cost a pound compare compared d with 20 cents a pound today it was valuable enough then to be used as jewelry by royalty napoleon III once gave a royal state dinner at which the more distinguished guests ate from aluminum plates while the lesser lights had to be content with plates of pure gold I 1 since aluminum will neither tarnish nor rust is lighter than glass and as strong ss as iron scientists very early appreciated its potential importance their problem was of finding a way to produce it ch cheaply a ply and in commercial quantities eliere h e re the greatest chemists in the world tried and failed a twenty two year old american youngster charles al hull hall succeeded in 1866 in a ramshackle barn out behind his house which he used as a laboratory hall found a way of producing pure aluminum by an electrolytic process within a few years he had made millions out of his discovery and raised aluminum to a place among the worlds most important metals but the story of aluminum is by no means closed even today at al though the earths crust contains more aluminum than any other metal over twice as much as iron it is still too expensive for many of its potential uses |