[Sca-cooks] Aluminum
Chris Stanifer
jugglethis at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 28 16:18:44 PST 2004
--- margaret <m.p.decker at att.net> wrote:
> > It's my understanding that Aluminum, in it's metallic state, was first
> > achieved by Hans Oersted in
> > 1825...some 4 years after Napoleon's death.
> >
> > William de Grandfort
>
> The question might be more properly which Napoleon? Napoleon I was dead
> before aluminum was extracted experimentally. Nappy II was a non-entity.
> Napoleon III reigned from 1852 through 1871, when he was deposed at the
> close of the Franco-Prussian War. Since the first practical extraction and
> production process was developed in 1857 by Henri Etienne Saint-Claire
> Deville (a French guy, funny huh), I would suspect the Napoleon mentioned
> above was Napoleon III.
>
> Bear
Yes, and at the time of the discovery, the price of aluminum was through the roof, so it's
entirely possible that a 'man of influence' like Napo 3 might have had the street cred to obtain a
service set or two of the precious metal. However, I wouldn't call Deville's discovery a
'practical extraction and production process'. It wasn't until well into the 1880's that aluminum
was being produced in 'industrial' quantities, using a process (the name of which escapes me) of
extraction through molten cryolite (as has been mentioned) and an electric charge. Funny, I just
saw a show on this on the History channel a few weeks ago.
I guess we should ask WHICH Napoleon was flashing around Aluminum plates???
William de Grandfort
=====
Through teeth of sharks, the Autumn barks.....and Winter squarely bites me.
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