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			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.
		 
				 Last edited by Matt Splatt; 22nd December 2007 at 07:22 AM.
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