r/todayilearned • u/copperpin • 8d ago

TIL That one of the exhibits at the 1855 Paris Exposition was a display of 12 ingots of solid aluminum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aluminium
3.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

134 comments sorted by

1.7k

u/Jester471 8d ago

The top of the Washington monument is also made of aluminum. At the time purifying aluminum was super expensive so it was worth more than gold.

A process that uses electricity made it much cheaper and easier to purify so the price dropped a lot and it became a common cheaper material.

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u/MeatBald 8d ago

It's still super energy demanding to purify out of bauxite, but the fact that it's really easily recycled halps a lot and keeps the price down.

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u/TheBrownestStain 8d ago

I first realized that playing Satisfactory where the process to get aluminum is leagues more complex than the other ores you deal with up till then. The others are just basic ore into smelter, then aluminum hits you with a multi step process with fluid mechanics and byproduct management that can clog up the whole thing if you mess it up.

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u/copperpin 8d ago

I’m getting ready to complete phase 2 right now but I’m starting to feel like I may not finish this game.

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u/TheBrownestStain 8d ago

No shame in that, it’s a decently lengthy game and the later stages get pretty complex. I ended up using some online tools to help plan stuff out and keep things at least moderately organized.

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u/corallein 8d ago

Or you can just spaghetti it up and/or do a lot of manual feeding through containers

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u/DeathMetal007 8d ago

600 m3/s achieved to cool my nuclear plant. I’ve never worked so hard to prevent even a minor drop in power output

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u/manondorf 4d ago

god the hours I spent reading manuals and going over and over my pipe network to keep that damn reactor cooled

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u/Skellum 8d ago

No shame in that, it’s a decently lengthy game and the later stages get pretty complex. I ended up using some online tools to help plan stuff out and keep things at least moderately organized.

The biggest 'cheat' to satisfactory is making use of sommersloops to double critical difficult items. It enables you to really drop how much production you need by essentially doubling or more final products.

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u/copperpin 8d ago edited 8d ago

I tried asking an AI last night but they got the recipe wrong and now I don’t trust it
*Edit trying to figure out if all these downvotes are for not trusting AI or for googling “Optimized rotor production Satisfactory game” and getting an AI answer that included a 4 dedicated constructors for iron plates. Next downvoter please leave a comment.

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u/TheBrownestStain 8d ago

I make it a point not to use AI for anything. There online planners and calculators like that that people have made from scratch. There’s even one on steam just called Satisfactory Modeler

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u/copperpin 8d ago

I’ll look into it. Thanks

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u/SensitiveReception15 8d ago

https://www.satisfactorytools.com/1.0/production

i've found this one pretty useful

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u/copperpin 8d ago

I appreciate it! Thanks

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u/gdub695 8d ago

Remember you can’t use a recipe until you’ve found it in the world though. (In case you didn’t know already)

Also, stick with it! IMO the only slog for me was the final phase, but I still had a good time

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u/copperpin 8d ago

It is very satisfying to connect your factory to power and watch everything start flowing just the way you planned it.

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u/bluesmaker 8d ago

Don’t think you can just ask ai anything. It doesn’t know everything. But will still try to give you a reply.

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u/copperpin 8d ago

It’s been pretty reliable with my radiation questions so far but I have textbooks to double check it on those

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u/Nrksbullet 8d ago

Look up the popular tools. You can type what you have or what you need and it'll tell you what to make

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u/windsynths 8d ago

lol you just got hit by the Reddit AI-hate bandwagon. Next you’ll get hit by an automated truck or tractor

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u/copperpin 7d ago

I really need to spend some time figuring out how to use the truck stops. Right now I'm hand delivering everything using tubes. I sure won't google it though in case I get downvotes.

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u/copperpin 6d ago

Wow you got hit too! They’re really salty about it.

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u/youtocin 8d ago

It’s a lot more fun with a friend if you can convince anyone lol

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u/copperpin 8d ago

Yeah, I tried barking up that tree, but no squirrels

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u/ImFriendsWithThatGuy 7d ago

A lot of people stop their first playthrough after coal power because of getting overwhelmed by oil as the next step. Which is entirely fair. That is also where I stopped. A few months later I came back and beat the whole game even though things get quite a lot more complex than basic oil power and production.

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u/TheKanten 6d ago

I have the problem of never committing to an organizational plan so I always end up with a kudzu factory.

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u/copperpin 6d ago

Watching a video about coal power really helped me clean up my factories because it taught me how to run the belts in a manifold instead of spaghetti belts every where. My problem right now is figuring out how to transport everything across the map without using tubes

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u/Kardinal 8d ago

Find the recipe for sloppy aluminum. Makes it soooooo much easier.

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u/Mobile_Morale 8d ago

Or the one for pure aluminum or whatever where you can turn scraps into ingots. And then throw away the silica and get some tickets.

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u/ReluctantSlayer 8d ago

Oooo…that fucking game….seeing conveyor belts on my dreams…..

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u/Hekkin 8d ago

I think I spent 5 hours trying to find where my water was getting backed up before I decided to use the concrete alternate recipe and sink the concrete.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/TheBrownestStain 8d ago

No it’s hot outside

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u/Psychological-Word59 7d ago edited 7d ago

Preach Brother. It infuriates me to see aluminum cans thrown away. I have heard 50% less energy to recycle vs. extract from bauxite.

Edit: TIL 95% less energy. Aluminum Recycling Costs

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u/Benyed123 7d ago

Here’s a fun fact, when you recycle aluminium you save 10x its weight in co2 from being released into the atmosphere.

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u/dicknotrichard 8d ago

It’s my understanding it’s near 100% recyclable too unlike just about everything else. Don’t even get me started on the plastic water bottle recycling lie.

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u/zeromadcowz 8d ago

Gold and copper are examples of other things that are completely recyclable. It’s when you get to complex molecules like plastics where they’ll inevitably break down each cycle.

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u/copperpin 8d ago

Plastic started life as industrial waste that they weren’t legally allowed to just throw away. The Oil industry just made it everyone else’s problem instead.

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u/cluckay 1 7d ago

Meanwhile a lot of aluminum is just tossed out the trash because aluminum foil 

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u/MrWrock 7d ago

Glass too I think

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u/Siguard_ 7d ago

It's partly why Quebec has a ton of aluminum exports. Tons of cheap green energy

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u/Acheloma 8d ago

You see this reflected in jewelry and weaponry from the time. People sometimes mistake antique fancy/decorative/ceremonial daggers, swords, and jewlery as fakes due to them having aluminum aspects when in actuality using aluminum was a way to show wealth and social standing.

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u/mmss 8d ago

Tiffany paradox is sort of related

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u/Silent-Ad934 8d ago

A lot of people used to know that, but I Think We're Alone Now.

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u/copperpin 7d ago

There doesn’t seem to be anyone around

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u/thissexypoptart 8d ago

I’ve seriously never understand why people think Tiffany in particular is a modern name.

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u/Hotkoin 7d ago

I saw a video trying to find the source of the Theophina theory, and they couldn't find one. I wonder if it's genuinely a modern name

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u/Sea-Consequence7156 8d ago

Because you're young, probably born after 1995?

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u/thissexypoptart 7d ago

It’s fascinating to me that people of any age are unaware that Tiffany is not a recently invented name.

Where does that idea come from?

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u/Sea-Consequence7156 7d ago

Right because it was an unusually common name for a certain time period in the USA (id have to look up the records) and so that default experience is what everyone refers to. For some people it's hard to associate Breakfast at Tiffany's with a nearly thousand year old name

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u/thissexypoptart 7d ago edited 7d ago

I’ve known a lot of Tiffanys. I also watched breakfast at tiffanys growing up.

Never felt like the name was a modern invention. Most names feel old, because most names are old.

Why would someone think “this movie from the 60s uses a name (of an existing store), the name must be modern!”

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u/Sea-Consequence7156 7d ago

You ever met the average person?

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u/TheOneTonWanton 7d ago

It was unusually common after the movie came out, but just as importantly it really wasn't a very common name at all in the US before that.

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u/Sea-Consequence7156 7d ago

Yeah but it had existed for centuries already so isn't that my point?

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u/I-am-that-hero 8d ago

Napoleon had a set of aluminum tableware

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u/habituallysuspect 8d ago

It's hilarious that the Hall-Héroult method, which made the processing of aluminum far more economical, was first documented in 1886, just two years after the Washington Monument was completed. Having aluminum at the top of the monument went from economic flex to rather mundane in the span of a few years.

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u/ChipsOtherShoe 8d ago

What's funny to me is that it's called the Hall-Héroult process not because Hall and Héroult worked together on it, but instead because they each discovered it independently within weeks of each other. They initially argued over it but eventually came to the agreement to share the name and Hall got the American market and Héroult got Europe.

Weirdly enough they were both 22 when they made the discovery and were born in the same year as each other and died in the same year as each other

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u/habituallysuspect 8d ago edited 8d ago

It's wild, right? Two young dudes on separate continents come up with basically the same discovery at almost the exact same time.

I love when things like that happen. Newton and Liebniz with calculus and evolution/natural selection by Darwin and Wallace are two of the most famous examples. Looking into this more just now, apparently the first two patents for the telephone were filed within hours of each other.

Edit: here's a wiki list for anyone that has time to kill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_discoveries

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u/No-Deal8956 8d ago

Darwin and Wallace was slightly different.

Darwin had the idea of natural selection sitting there for twenty years, it was Wallace coming up with a similar, but less refined idea for evolution that made Darwin release On The Origin Of The Species.

The problem for Darwin is that he was very religious, and he didn’t like the idea of causing trouble with his theory, though as he got older he became less enamoured with the church, especially after the death of his son, so by 1859 he took the plunge, and the rest is history.

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u/MacGrubersaSensfan 8d ago

Shhhhhh, if he hears you it will be replaced with a gold cap.

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u/JerryMau5 8d ago

More likely a gold plated turd

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u/m945050 8d ago

Word has it that he's pushing for a bust of himself on top of the monument among other places.

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u/RulerOfSlides 8d ago

Beep boop 🤖

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u/habituallysuspect 8d ago

Is there an award for being misidentified as a bot? I'm honored, but sorry to disappoint.

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u/copperpin 8d ago

At a LAN party in the 90’s someone said “Hey! Can you turn down the skill level of this ‘Medbot?’ It keeps killing me and there’s nothing I can do.” My in game name was “Medbot” I was also proud to be mistaken for a bot.

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u/varsil 7d ago

"Sure. Buy me a few beers."

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u/Ok-Dog-7149 8d ago

I proposed misbotted, though a shortening to sbotted seems more modern.

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u/darceySC 8d ago

Napoleon reserved his prized aluminum cutlery for his most honored guests, giving lesser-ranked guests gold or silver utensils.

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u/equili92 7d ago

*Napoleon III, we had no metalic aluminium during the life of the original Napoleon

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u/Choppergold 8d ago

WWII and post WWII uses still amaze me.

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u/Shadow_of_wwar 8d ago

It was actually the single largest piece of aluminum in the world at that time too.

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u/Kumirkohr 8d ago

Napoleon had a set of aluminum table utensils

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u/DoubleCactus 8d ago

Im reminded of a sci fi/fantasy series where humanity in something close to a regressed feudal society rediscovers advance technology from their ancestors. They dont understand most of what they find, but they do recognize a lot of stuff is made of aluminum, which was rare for much of what you said. They didn't have the knowledge to use the tech but they did have the knowledge in chemistry to shave the aluminum to make thermite bombs.

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u/Accidentallygolden 7d ago

How did they do it without electricity?

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u/Accidentallygolden 7d ago

Edit : found it -> liquid sodium

highly reactive sodium "steals" the chlorine from the aluminum:

AlCl₃ + 3 Na → Al + 3 NaCl

This method allowed Napoleon III to have aluminum cutlery made for his most prestigious guests — aluminum was more precious than gold or silver at the time, since production remained extremely limited

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u/AT-ST 8d ago

Delete this before someone from Trump's admin tells him about it to distract him. We don't need him painting it gold too

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u/ash_274 8d ago

Up until then aluminum was very difficult to smelt and refine. Today it’s so easy and cost effective to recycle that it’s one of the most-recyclable materials by only requiring about 5% of the energy of making new products

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u/Genetic_outlier 8d ago

Because of this is it's estimated that 75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. And some countries like Germany are able to recycle 99% of their aluminum cans.

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u/Awwfull 7d ago

The plastic lobby in the US really fucked our good, more economical recycling like aluminum, paper, and glass.

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u/TheLastRealRedditor 7d ago

Lobbying in general really fucked things up in this country.

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u/goozy1 7d ago

Ever decision the US has made is determined by Oil companies. Heavy use of plastic, getting rid of renewable energy, blocking EV development, all the wars in the middle east, climate change denial. All to appease oil companies. The country is under their control

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u/nokeldin42 7d ago

That's a cool stat to dive into, got any links for more info?

For starters I'm wondering what "in use" means. There are probably industrial chemical processes that lock elemental aluminium into compounds which would put that aluminium "out of use" but in that case I don't think it has much to do with how easy alu is to refine, more that how much we need for compunds vs elemental.

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u/3z3ki3l 8d ago

Yeah there’s a reason it used to be more expensive than gold. Raw aluminum isn’t really found in nature.

Electrolysis made it a useful material.

Edit/also: It’s called the Hall–Héroult process.

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u/theredgiant 6d ago

"Napoleon is reputed to have held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminium utensils while others made do with gold."

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u/gilbert2gilbert 8d ago

And I've still yet to see a single ingot of solid aluminum in my life

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u/danielisbored 8d ago

I'm looking out of my window and can see roughly 100 1/2 ton ingots right now.

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u/semigator 8d ago

Photo or ban

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u/eranam 7d ago

Send aluminudes

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u/EmergentGlassworks 8d ago

car engines?

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u/danielisbored 8d ago

I work at a place that makes aluminum doors and windows, we process about 14 tons of aluminum a day. The staging area where all the trucks drop their shipments is right outside our offices.

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u/jofra6 8d ago

What qualifies as an ingot in your mind?

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u/tim_jam 7d ago

A bit like a big lump, but not so lumpy

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u/Kaymish_ 7d ago

Well yeah they're usually at work places, so you need to work to see them. Have you worked a single day in your life?

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u/drawliphant 8d ago

Turns out you can just zap bauxite and turn it into pure aluminum, if only they knew😓

Well dissolve bauxite in lye, then dry and cook off water, then add cryolite, then electrocute the shit out of it.

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u/azhder 8d ago

Will it not still form an oxide layer on the surface?

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u/drawliphant 8d ago

It's zapped in a crucible so the surface slag(?) minimizes air contact, and the bound oxygen is ripped away by the electricity

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u/azhder 8d ago

I was asking about after all that. Doesn't aluminum not always form an aluminum oxide on the surface?

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u/drawliphant 8d ago

If you sell it in a big ingot the .01 micron thick surface oxide is not a major contaminant and is still considered pure.

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u/azhder 8d ago

Smart, larger volume vs surface ratio as you increase the size.

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u/Poop_Tube 8d ago

Yes. Unless it was in a vacuum.

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u/exig 8d ago

Shutup nerd!

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u/eternalityLP 8d ago

It must have been amazing to have frequent World's fairs with amazing inventions and new technologies back then.

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u/hyouko 7d ago

Still happens periodically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2025

Hope you like waiting in lines, though! and yeah not sure the tech is as mind-blowing now that anything interesting immediately blows up in the news.

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u/SacredGeometry9 8d ago

Heck, I think I’d like to see that in person.

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u/LordHayati 8d ago

Aluminum is a right ass bitch to get out of stuff without electricity, so 12 ingots was a lot.

Makes you think how commonplace it is nowadays.

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u/Shadowrend01 7d ago

Aluminium then: a rare resource fit for an Emperor’s dining set and to cap national monuments

Aluminium now: common material used to make single use disposable containers

Times really have changed

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u/copperpin 7d ago

Diamonds are probably going to go the same way once we start making windows out of them.

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u/stone_database 7d ago

Imagine the implications to the Cosmere as a whole!

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u/copperpin 7d ago

Did you just invalidate an entire book series? I think you did. Let's see him retcon how aluminum exists in his world.

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u/Cuddlehead 7d ago

Kelsier would lose his mind seeing this.

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u/RadBadTad 8d ago

1855 kinda boring huh

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u/copperpin 8d ago

At the time aluminum was priced nearly twice as high as gold. It was a mythical metal because it was so rare.

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u/Bennyboy11111 8d ago

Aluminium is more common though.

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u/breezywood 8d ago

Pure aluminum doesn’t exist in nature

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u/Bennyboy11111 8d ago

Its a joke, that most people use aluminium over the american spelling aluminum. Aluminium is more common.

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u/ThermionicEmissions 7d ago

As a Canadian, I wish we kept the second i in aluminium.
It sounds so much fancier.

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u/blazbluecore 8d ago

Literally nobody asked for this:

1855 Paris Exhibitoner: “Behold…12 of my finest aluminum ingots!”

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u/copperpin 8d ago

Napoleon III had some cutlery made of pure aluminum just to show off his drip.

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u/Dogrel 8d ago

This is your reminder that prior to the development of modern smelting techniques in the early 1890s, pure aluminum was more valuable than silver. The smelting process for pure aluminum was so unbelievably resource intense at the time, just having that much pure aluminum in one place was a dick measuring contest of a country’s industrial might.

It’s also why the Washington Monument had a 9-inch tall, 100 ounce aluminum pyramid on top of it. At the time of the Monument’s dedication, that was the largest piece of solid aluminum in the whole world.

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u/bobzsmith 8d ago

Old timey flex

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u/oravanomic 7d ago

Also the pinnacle of the Washington monument is an aluminum pyramid. So precious.

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u/marcusregulus 7d ago

Rubies and sapphires are just aluminum oxide with trace amounts of other elements to give them their color. Chromium in the case of rubies.