Materials · 1886

Aluminum (Hall-Heroult)

Electrolysis turns aluminum from a precious metal into a commodity.

Charles Martin Hall and Paul Heroult independently discovered the process in 1886. Prices fell over 90 percent within decades, making aluminum for aircraft, wiring and cans.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 3

Electric power grid 1882
Self-excited dynamo 1866
Voltaic battery 1800

What it led to 2

Rigid airship 1900
Douglas DC-3 1936

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

UK electricity output since 1896 Latest: 3.57M MWh (1998) Source: Our World in Data

US air passenger traffic, 1930-1993 Latest: 772B passenger-km (1993) Source: Our World in Data