askvoll

"Elektrokemiske Fabriker" (Danish for "Electrochemical Manufacturers") suggests they were using the Hall–Héroult process to electrolise Aluminium Oxide (obtained by the Bayer process) to obtain 97% pure Aluminium. It wasnt possible to extract aluminium by smelting Bauxite, its natural ore, because the temperature needed was exceedingly high and hard to achieve, and at that temperature the molten aluminium tended to ignite and burn. Only with the inventon of elctriticy was it possible to devise a method of extraction. Before this, aluminium was so rare it was more expensive than Platinum, such that at banquets only Luois XIV and Maria Antonette ate off aluminium plates, the rest of the rich people had to do with gold plates.

Thank you for releasing this photo into the public domain - we've used it in issue four of Guru, a free digital science / lifestyle magazine (page 24). gurumagazine.org

It's always interesting to see old photo's of such things. Thanks for posting these. -- Seen in the group"Bunad - Norske nasjonaldrakter" (?)

Just wonderful. Thank you so much for posting it.

Thank you for your comments mrpb27 and Isbjørn44 :). Elin

> love this old photo < Seen in: Traditional Scandinavian Folk Art - group

Thanks!