why wasnt alliminuim used instead of iron in the seventeenth century?

Answer 1

Large amounts of electrical current is necessary to produce Aluminum. This was not available in the 17th century. In the early 19th century Napoleon Bonaparte had dinner dishes made of aluminum. Aluminum even at that point in time was more valuable than gold.

Answer 2

I don't know about alliminuim, whatever that might be, but the manufacture of aluminum requires an electrolytic refining process, where a DC current is passed through molten alumina (aluminum oxide), extracted chemically from bauxite oar, to "plate out" pure aluminum. The TVA built dozens of hydroelectric dams in Tennessee so Alcoa could refine aluminum economically in the United States after World War II. The availability of inexpensive aluminum products (ingots, bars, sheets, etc.) played a huge role in the growth of the American aircraft manufacturing industry.

There was no electricity adequate for aluminum refining during the seventeenth century.

Answer 3

Becasue PG&E threatened to shut down the power for using so much of it in the Aluminium Electolytic Converters. Iron was (and still is) a better metal than Aluminium. Now their airplanes did not go very far back then with all the iron on board but that was before the homeland security made you wait in long lines and so people were willing to put up with a little delay in flight ( airplanes were limited to subsonic speeds on account of the heavy aircraft).

So today we have aluminium,and electricity, and even have faster airplanes but the government has made up for it by creating security checks on security check for security checks at airport checkpoints.

Answer 4

Aluminum was discovered until the early 1800's. Aluminum is highly reactive so you only find aluminum oxide in nature. Early production was very difficult, having to reduce the oxide to the metal under an inert atmosphere. Today, electrolysis is used to produce the metal. The electric current readily drives the conversion from oxide to metal. Much more info is on Wikipedia.

Answer 5

aluminum is very hard to refine from ore,they did not have the technology to refine big quantity's,,pure aluminium more valuable than gold at that time



Ancient Greeks and Romans used aluminium salts as dyeing mordants and as astringents for dressing wounds; alum is still used as a styptic. In 1761 Guyton de Morveau suggested calling the base alum alumine. In 1808, Humphry Davy identified the existence of a metal base of alum, which he at first termed alumium and later aluminum

Answer 6

possibly because aluminium was not a well known or researched mineral and it is usually combined with other metals to give it the required properties. It would have cost far too much to research and develop production techniques and they probably didn't have the technology.

Answer 7

because aluminum wasnt around until till the 19th century

Answer 8

Cost - aluminium used to be too expensive for general use. Iron is more plentiful in england than aluminium to.

Answer 9

They didn't know how to mine aluminum. The process is much more complicated than Iron.

Answer 10

If youmean for armor and weapons, aluminum is far weaker a material than iron, thus, provided less defense.