![]() ![]() Generally defined, the process involves applying live electrodes to a liquid containing the compound to be electrolyzed. ![]() In 1800 the Italian Alessandro Volta invented the “pile” battery, which provided the source of stored power that pioneering Englishmen William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used to break a compound (water) into its constitutive elements through a process known as electrolysis. Anhydrous aluminum sulfate (Al 2(SO 4) 3) was used by the ancient Greeks as an astringent to stanch wounds-a use that continues to this day in styptic pencils.Įlectrolysis, a process central to the modern history of aluminum, has its roots in the early 19th century. Alum (aluminum potassium sulfate, KAl(SO 4) 2), was best known as a dye fixer (or mordant) first developed in Egypt over 5,000 years ago, and clays containing aluminum silicates appear to have been favored by contemporary Persian potters for their strength. While aluminum metal is a recent discovery, its compounds were fairly common in various industries throughout history. But neither Hall nor Héroult operated in a vacuum-their nearly simultaneous discovery of a process for aluminum extraction built on several decades’ worth of electrochemistry and, indeed, centuries’ worth of knowledge on the nature of metals. By then Alcoa was the undisputed world leader in aluminum production, and Hall himself was a multimillionaire. In reality both Héroult and Hall were participants in a much larger program of aluminum research that started in the 1850s and lasted until 1903, when the last major patent dispute was settled. A more complicated version reveals that Paul Héroult developed a similar process in France at the same time. The most familiar story of the first extraction of aluminum is that the youthful Ohioan Charles Martin Hall developed aluminum’s electrolytic extraction process in his family’s woodshed in 1886, patented the invention, helped found the company that would later become Alcoa, and died a rich man. The difference between scarcity and abundance (and between obscurity and ubiquity) of this metal depended solely on scientists’ ability to find the way to release it-the third most common element in the earth’s crust by weight-from its ore. Today aluminum is a critical component of modern life, found in airplanes, automobiles, soft drink cans, construction materials, cooking equipment, guardrails, and countless other products. Napoléon III’s most important guests were given aluminum cutlery, while those less worthy dined with mere silver fashionable and wealthy women wore jewelry crafted of aluminum. In the mid-1800s aluminum was more valuable than gold.
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