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Dovaldo83 t1_j65hzqd wrote

Reply to comment by Lithuim in ELI5: Is aluminum common enough that it’s not a concern, or are we just really good at recycling it? by RestrictedCervical

To add to this, despite being in 8% of the Earth's crust, aluminum used to be very rare in it's natural state. Producing aluminum from ore used to be so difficult that it was more expensive than silver.

When the Washington Monument was finished in 1884, they placed atop it an aluminum primid lighting rod. It was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time. 2 years later the Hall-Héroult process was discovered, which allowed aluminum to be made quite cheaply.

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ffrkAnonymous t1_j66gunk wrote

I vaguely recall seeing a museum exhibit on cutlery. When royalty had guests, they brought out not silverware but the aluminum-ware.

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