9781422279434

Aluminum: CHAPTER 1

Discovery and History

W hile aluminum is essentially never found in its pure and natural state, it is nonetheless found throughout the Earth. In fact, aluminum ranks as the most abundant metallic element on Earth, making up eight percent of the mass of the Earth’s crust. Even including nonmetallic elements, aluminum is the third most common element found in Earth’s crust (after oxygen and sili- con). With all this aluminum, it might seem odd that there wasn’t an “Aluminum Age” at some point in humanity’s history. After all, the Gold Age saw gold smelted as long as 8,000 years ago; the Bronze Age saw the flourishing of copper, tin, and zinc 6,000 years ago; and silver and iron had their days about 3,000–4,000 years ago. So, why was there no Aluminum Age?

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