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Old 22nd December 2007, 10:53 AM   #15
spiral
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Splatt
Spiral, you are a bit off I'm afraid. In the mid 1800's aluminum was more expensive than gold but by 1880 it was about the price of silver. In 1886 the Hall-Heroult electrolysis method made it cheaply and in industrial quantities. By the mid 1890's it was so cheap it was used as a building material. It was a quite heavily used in the tropics because of its corrosion resistance. A prime example of this is the aluminum dome on the Chief Secretaries Building in Sydney Australia completed in 1895. So I don't think the aluminum is a problem with the date.

Thankyou Matt! Yes I was clearly mistaken on that dating. Apologies. Ill look at my sources again but it was probably just my memmory at fault!

Spiral
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