Quote:
	
	
		| 
					Originally Posted by Matt Splatt
					
				 Spiral,  you are a bit off I'm afraid.  In the mid 1800's aluminum was more expensive than gold but by 1880 it was about the price of silver.  In 1886 the Hall-Heroult electrolysis method made it cheaply and in industrial quantities.  By the mid 1890's it was so cheap it was used as a building material.  It was a quite heavily used in the tropics because of its corrosion resistance.  A prime example of this is the aluminum dome on the Chief Secretaries Building in Sydney Australia completed in 1895.  So I don't think the aluminum is a problem with the date. | 
	
 
Thankyou Matt!  Yes I was clearly mistaken on that dating. Apologies.  Ill look at my sources again but it was probably just my memmory at fault!
Spiral