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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Eyeglass frames, optical instruments, and many everyday items. Aluminium cookware began to be produced in the late 19th century and gradually supplanted copper and cast iron cookware in the first decades of the 20th century. Aluminium foil was popularized at that time. Aluminium is soft and light, but it was soon discovered that alloying it with other metals could increase its hardness while preserving its low density. Aluminium alloys found many uses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, aluminium bronze is applied to make flexible bands, sheets, and wire, and is widely employed in the shipbuilding and aviation industries.[101] Aviation used a new aluminium alloy, duralumin, invented in 1903.[102] Aluminium recycling began in the early 1900s and has been used extensively since[103] as aluminium is not impaired by recycling and thus can be recycled repeatedly.[104] At this point, only the metal that had not been used by end-consumers was recycled.[105] During World War I, major governments demanded large shipments of aluminium for light strong airframes. They often subsidized factories and the necessary electrical supply systems.[106][107] Overall production of aluminium peaked during the war: world production of aluminium in 1900 was 6,800 metric tons; in 1916, annual production exceeded 100,000 metric tons.[105] The war created a greater demand for aluminium, which the growing primary production was unable to fully satisfy, and recycling grew intensely as well.[103] The peak in production was followed by a decline, then a swift growth.[105]The first aviation flight was performed by the Wright brothers in 1903. A strong light material was needed for the engine of the Wright Flyer; light aluminium alloyed with copper for strength was used.[108]During the first half of the 20th century, the real price for aluminium fell continuously from $14,000 per metric ton in 1900 to $2,340 in 1948 (in 1998 United States dollars). There were some exceptions such as the sharp price rise during World War I.[105] Aluminium was plentiful, and in 1919 Germany began to replace its silver coins with aluminium ones; more and more denominations were switched to aluminium coins as hyperinflation progressed in the country.[109] By the mid-20th century, aluminium had become a part of everyday lives, becoming an essential component of housewares.[110] Aluminium freight cars first appeared in 1931. Their lower mass allowed them to carry more cargo.[107] During the 1930s, aluminium emerged as a civil engineering material used in both basic construction and building interiors.[111] Its use in military engineering for both airplanes and tank engines advanced.[112]Aluminium obtained from recycling was considered inferior to primary aluminium because of poorer chemistry control as well as poor removal of dross and slags. Recycling grew overall but depended largely on the output of primary production: for instance, as electric energy prices declined in the United States in the late 1930s, more primary aluminium could be produced using the energy-expensive Hall–Héroult process. This rendered recycling less necessary, and thus aluminium recycling rates went down.[103] By 1940, mass recycling of post-consumer aluminium had begun.[105]During World War II, the
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