A Conversation for Swords
Like :cheap: aluminium???
Gaurav Started conversation Jun 21, 2000
In the 12th Century, there was nothing called 'cheap' aluminium ... it was fantastically expensive, since to extract pure aluminium required heating to over 2000 degrees C. In the 19th Century (I think) two scientists, Hall and H... I forgot his name ... developed a technique of purifying it at under 1000C ... within a week, Aluminium prices dropped by almost 200lbs/gm!
Like :cheap: aluminium???
Icarus Posted Jun 21, 2000
Right. Napoleon had a set of aluminum silverware that he let his really important guests use. The lower-end guests got gold silverware. Go figure. Irregardless of that interesting bit of trivia, I think the point was that the armor didn't put up much in the way of resistance to being cut.
Like :cheap: aluminium???
identify_me_by_long_nick_with_underscores_;-) Posted Oct 5, 2000
And it got really cheap after they
used electrolysis for purification.
Just BTW 
Like :cheap: aluminium???
Pete, never to have a time-specific nick again (Keeper of Disambiguating Semicolons) - Born in the Year of the Lab Rat Posted Feb 8, 2003
Aluminium was completely unknown until 1808, so there wasn't even such a thing as *expensive* aluminium.
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Like :cheap: aluminium???
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