Aluminum through the Ages

Pierre Berthier was born on this day in 1782. Even if you do not recognize the name. you owe him a debt of gratitude. He was digging around one day in 1821 near the French village of Les Baux du Provence, which was part of his job as a mineralogist for the Board of Mines. He found an ore nobody recognized. He modestly named it bauxite instead of Berthierite. Today, it is used to make aluminum and not much else.

Berthier also found many phosphate deposits valuable for agriculture and helped mine kaolin which is important in pottery. Because he was French, he also provides another excuse to explore French pop music, which for some reason I find fascinating.

Of course, our British friends insist on calling it aluminium (inserting a fifth syllable and emphasizing the third syllable), which is both charming and annoying. I was shocked to learn that professional cricket players are allowed to use aluminium bats. Or are they?

Some wonderful things are made of aluminum: beer cans, staples, folding lawn chairs, cookware (notably the Nordic Ware bundt pan), tent poles, the shovel used to pick up soil samples from the surface of the moon. The ceremonial Festivus pole.