Aluminum is a lightweight, silvery metal that makes up about eight percent of the Earth crust by mass, more than any other metal, yet remained rarer and more expensive than gold or silver until the late nineteenth century because it never occurs as a pure metal in nature and resisted every extraction method available before electricity. It is refined from bauxite ore into alumina and then reduced to metal by the Hall-Heroult electrolytic process, developed independently by Charles Martin Hall and Paul Heroult in 1886, which cut the cost of production by orders of magnitude within a decade. A thin, self-healing layer of aluminum oxide forms on exposed surfaces and protects the metal from further corrosion, a property that combines with a density about a third that of steel to make aluminum the standard structural metal of aviation, from the first all-metal aircraft of the 1910s through the modern airliner fuselage.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearHans Christian Orsted produced impure aluminum metal in 1825; Friedrich Wohler produced a purer sample in 1827, and priority for the first true isolation is disputed between the two. Primary UseAircraft and vehicle structures, packaging such as beverage cans and foil, and electrical transmission cable, chosen for its combination of low density and corrosion resistance. 2 Classification
Material Class FAQs
Who discovered aluminum?
Hans Christian Oersted announced the element in 1825; Friedrich Woehler isolated the pure metal in 1827.
The Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted announced the discovery of aluminum in 1825, but the sample he produced was impure. The German chemist Friedrich Woehler is generally credited with first isolating and thoroughly describing the pure metal a couple of years later, in 1827, refining Oersted own method. The two names are usually cited together for this reason: Oersted announced the element, and Woehler proved out the metal itself. Decades later, the Hall-Heroult electrolytic process of 1886 is what actually made aluminum cheap enough for everyday use, which is why this atlas own entry on aluminum leads with that process rather than with the 1825 to 1827 discovery story.
Connections
Associated With
Source Anodizing (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Anodizing, Methods Anodizing thickens the natural oxide layer on aluminum for corrosion and wear resistance.
Source Die casting (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Die Casting, Methods Aluminum alloys are among the most common metals for die casting.
Duralumin is an aluminum alloy, aluminum with roughly four percent copper plus small amounts of other elements, age-hardened after quenching.
Source Duralumin (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Friction stir welding (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Friction stir welding was developed to join aluminum alloys that are hard to fusion weld.
Heat Treatment, Methods Many aluminum alloys are strengthened by solution heat treatment and aging.
Aluminum a third the density of steel with a corrosion-resistant oxide layer made it the standard structural metal of aviation from the first all-metal aircraft of the 1910s onward.
Held Differently
Friedrich Wohler, Engineers Wohler improved on Hans Christian Orsted's 1825 method, substituting potassium metal for potassium amalgam, and isolated aluminum powder in a purer metallic form in 1827; often credited as the first true isolation of the element (see the Aluminum entity origin-year dissent).
Source Friedrich Wohler (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Orsted reduced aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam in 1825, producing small impure lumps of metallic aluminum, the first reported isolation of the metal; Friedrich Wohler produced a purer, better-documented sample two years later, and priority for the first true isolation is disputed between the two (see the Aluminum entity origin-year dissent).
Source Hans Christian Orsted (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In Field
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Open Questions
Source Aluminium (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954material-class sentenceQuote, material-class sentence
Aluminum is a lightweight, silvery metal that makes up about eight percent of the Earth crust by mass, more than any other metal, yet remained rarer and more expensive than gold or silver until the late nineteenth century because it never occurs as a pure metal in nature and resisted every extraction method available before electricity.
2. Technology: A World History
Aluminium (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Aluminium (the Commonwealth and preferred IUPAC name) or aluminum (North American English)
In Group: Aerospace Metals and Composites, Introduction
Aluminium (the Commonwealth and preferred IUPAC name) or aluminum (North American English) is a chemical element; it has symbol Al and atomic number 13.
View the Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.In Field: Aerospace EngineeringView the Source Duralumin (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: DuraluminView the Source Anodizing (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Anodizing, Aluminium sectionQuote, Associated With: Anodizing, Aluminium section
Anodic films are most commonly applied to protect aluminium alloys, although processes also exist for titanium, zinc, magnesium, niobium, zirconium, hafnium, and tantalum.
Friction stir welding (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Friction Stir Welding, IntroductionQuote, Associated With: Friction Stir Welding, Introduction
It is primarily used on wrought or extruded aluminium and particularly for structures which need very high weld strength.
Die casting (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Die Casting, IntroductionQuote, Associated With: Die Casting, Introduction
Most die castings are made from non-ferrous metals, specifically zinc, copper, aluminium, magnesium, lead, pewter, and tin-based alloys.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Does priority for isolating metallic aluminum belong to Hans Christian Orsted, whose 1825 sample was first but impure and never fully confirmed, or to Friedrich Wohler, whose 1827 sample was purer and better documented?
Orsted's 1825 method was not fully published or independently repeated at the time, while Wohler's 1827 work is the first isolation historians can verify in detail; whether "first isolation" should credit priority in time or the first confirmable result is a genuine, unresolved editorial question, not a missing fact.
What would resolve this A surviving, dated laboratory record of Orsted's exact 1825 method and result, sufficient for modern chemists to confirm what he actually produced, would settle whether his claim meets the same evidentiary bar Wohler's does.
History of chemistryWikipedia contributors, Aluminium (Wikipedia)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Origin Year
Danish chemist Hans Christian Orsted is generally credited with the first isolation of metallic aluminum, in 1825, by reducing aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam, though the sample he produced was impure and contaminated with potassium. German chemist Friedrich Wohler, working from a similar but refined method using potassium metal directly, produced a purer sample of aluminum powder in 1827 and is credited by some historians of chemistry with the first reliable, repeatable isolation, since Orsted himself never fully published his method or confirmed his result to later chemists' satisfaction. Wohler went on to characterize aluminum's basic properties, including its low density, in enough detail that some accounts credit him rather than Orsted as the metal's true discoverer. Neither claim is seriously disputed as fraudulent; the disagreement is over whether a first, unconfirmed and impure sample or a later, purer and better-documented one should carry priority, the same shape of dispute this atlas already records for the mechanical clock, the compass, radar, the microprocessor and vulcanization.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneWikipedia contributors, Aluminium (Wikipedia), Wikimedia Foundation
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