When Aluminium Cost More than Gold...
Вставка
- Опубліковано 12 бер 2019
- Check my other channel Biographics! / @biographics
→Some of our favorites: • Featured
→Subscribe for new videos every day!
ua-cam.com/users/TodayIFo...
Follow Simon on social media:
/ simonwhistler
/ simonwhistler
Never run out of things to say at the water cooler with TodayIFoundOut! Brand new videos 7 days a week!
More from TodayIFoundOut:
How Do They Make White Gold White Given That It's an Element?
• How Do They Make White...
In this video:
Aluminium is literally one of the most common elements on Earth. So how did it come to be that aluminium cost more than gold? Was it similar to how the relatively common and easily acquired mined diamond came to be seen as valuable in the last century due to strict control of supply to consumers and some of the best marketing the world has ever seen?
Want the text version?: www.todayifoundout.com/index.p...
Sources:
www.azom.com/article.aspx?Arti...
www.slate.com/articles/health_...
www.aluminiumleader.com/files/...
mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/a...
www.webelements.com/aluminium/...
education.jlab.org/itselementa...
chemistry.about.com/od/molecul...
www.bain.com/Images/PR_BAIN_RE...
books.google.co.uk/books?id=wi...
www.chemistryexplained.com/Va-...
Bonus fact: The top of the washington monument is made of a pyramide of aluminium. By the time of the construction it was the largest piece of aluminium in the world although only weighing about 2 kg. It was still at the time that the price of aluminium was exobitantly high so the use of such a high amount of a precious metal was seen as a remarkable fact back then.
Thats wild, I didnt know that and I see the monument every day
Amy Sternheim and then do what with it.. what did they have back then that was more valuable to us than even aluminum cans. “I’ll have that gold chamber pot please” lol I prefer plumbing.
Amy Sternheim . I often wondered what a time traveller could use for currency or profit from the past, that wouldn't be prohibitively expensive, and you provide an answer that I somehow overlooked, thanks.
Amy Sternheim sorry, that was not what I was talking about. When you go back in time and get fabulously wealthy what do you do with your wealth. As far as I see it, no matter how rich you are in 1800 you’re poorer than even the poorest people in America in 2019 because no amount of money can buy you indoor plumbing, a phone, tv, vaccines etc.
@@colwem the social wealth of the modern world is truly amazing. presumably a time traveler would take back soda cans to earn money, and then spend said money on objects and investments that would be incredibly lucrative today, such as land, or just plain old regular coinage and daily items.
Just knowing that demand for gold and land would dramatically increase is more then enough for a time traveler to make a fortune.
The main cost of aluminium is the cost of the electricity required to get it into its pure form
very true - I used to work in the electricity industry and had an insider tour of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter which produces the world’s purest aluminium - 99.98% pure - uses 13% of the national electricity and a power station was build by the government specifically for this process
Conversion of bauxite into aluminum oxide through electrolysis and then further purified right.... I'm studying to be a material engineer I'm trying to get better at comprehension and not retention.... and I still have so much more to learn.
One of the scariest places I’ve ever worked was a primary aluminum mill. So many ways to get killed. They use so much electricity in the Baehr process that it’s referred to as congealed electricity.
In most industries labor is your highest cost. In primary Aluminum manufacturing electricity is your highest cost followed by waste management as the entire process produces massive quantities of waste. Much of which is hazardous waste.
I spent a number of weeks at a mill sampling and analyzing spent potliner from aluminum production in a study to recycle the nasty stuff. It turned out to be an exercise in futility.
I got a job crushing aluminum cans... its soda pressing
Ha!
Very good, but don't quit your day job.
That was actually good
Get back to work... hehe
Dammit
The aluminum based deodorant doesn't remove body odor. It plugs your sweat glands so you can't sweat, which is what ultimately leads to the smelliness (the smell is actually caused by the presences of bacteria that eat the sugars and oils secreted in your sweat; no sweat, hence no odor).
Anti-perspirant
British: Al-loo-men-nee-um foil
American: Al-loo-min-num foil
Southerner: Luma foil
Zavian Cannon my granma always called it “luman foil”
No people in the south would say Tin foil. I know I am from the south.
@@Delgen1951 bro I'm from Alabama and my folks and I say luma foil
@@Delgen1951 Bro I'm from Alabama and my folks and I say luma foil
I'm going to call it "Luma" henceforth.
Karl, when speaking of metals, to describe how shiny it is, (3:18) the word is "lustre". Come on Smallwood, did you write this on a Friday aka drinking day?
I kinda knew this already but to have all the history and details clarified is very satisfying.
The more rare it is to find a metal in its elemental state compared to its prevalence in natural chemical compounds, the more reactive it is. And thus, the harder it tends to be to try and convert that metal back into its metallic form and keep it there.
The prevalence of red iron oxide (rust) in nature, as well as on/in pieces of metallic iron that have been worked on by people, demonstrates iron's strong reactivity (in fact, sparks from a flint-wheel lighter owe much of their heat to iron's reaction with oxygen). But aluminum is even more reactive than iron. In fact, with a small investment of some heat, metallic aluminum will gladly steal the oxygen from the rust and a lot of heat is generated in the exchange. This is arguably the most popular chemical reaction in the "thermite" family, often used to destroy things and to weld things together (the metal oxide reactant is reduced to metal in liquid form).
I guess this could be what would happen to graphene once they figure out how to make it in bulk.
Isn't it as easy as stripping off the surface of a graphite surface with tape? It's the complex-shaped ones and probably the extra step of adding hydrogen borders thag make it hard.
As easy as that yeah. But that isn't easy enough for mass production on the scale of revolutionizing everything.
People on here talking about the pronounciation of Aluminium, and I'm just sitting here in Denmark having a laugh about the pronounciation of "Ørsted"
At least you are wise enough to sit back and have a good laugh instead of getting wound up over a silly little detail like how exactly aluminum/aluminium should be spelled and pronounced! People get worked up over the silliest details when it’s clear we all understand precisely what information was being conveyed, which is the whole point of language!
Dude we don’t even know what the Ø even does lol
I used to work in the electricity industry and had an insider tour of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter which produces the world’s purest aluminium - 99.98% pure - fascinating process
Literally just watched this to hear him keep saying "aluminium"
Interestingly this is similar to the situation today with titanium. The ore is very common but extracting the metal is very difficult and expensive. The most common use for titanium dioxide is to colour white paint!
IIRC, the Hoover damn building (on top) is covered with aluminum which looks kinda odd today. At the time, it was considered a tribute to an historic feat of engineering.
you're a patient man Simon Whistler for doing videos like these, interesting as they are.
👍☕🎈💓 THANKS VERY MUCH.
Backhanded compliment?
@@216trixie NO, NOT AT ALL.
Hi there! I was wondering on how does the medicinal tablets which you put on your rectum woks since most other are taken through mouth.
Well done!
Time to invent a time machine. Bring my aluminum cans to the past and make a fortune 🤓
Don’t forget your crucible to melt the cans and moulds to shape he ingots.
Oh and also don’t forget that like half the cans weight is paint and plastic lining. Probably should melt the cans into ingots before you leave.
They won't know what 'Aluminum' is.
Make sure you take payment in "pieces of eight" or some other rare-in-the-21st century coins or stamps. (I recall reading a fictional tale about "wild west outlaw loot" that wasn't worth much in 1880, but is worth much more in the 20th century due to the now-rare coins and stamps on the mail envelopes.)
We need a time machine that can go both directions. Bring aluminum to the past and then bring gold back to today. Rinse and repeat.
8% of the Earth's crust? Sounds about right with all of the pop cans laying around lol.
Trout1996 underrated comment of the day
used to pick them up as a kid and as a teenager with my brother and cash them in at the scrapyard. Was nice making 50 to 100 dollars a week. These kids now would rather play fortnite [I game(d) as well] like it's their life. It's practically free money laying around and was a decent workout walking the highway.
Free money
There's all kinds of trash laying around everywhere you go - But not pop cans. They still have value. People pick them up and sell them to recyclers. They fish them out or garbage cans and sell them to recyclers. They steal them out or recycling bins and sell them to recyclers.
@@Trout-kc2xr I dunno about fortnite in particular, but people do farm and sell stuff in game as well. I think that's even a thing in pubg, which was the hype before fortnite.
Aluminium being expensive at the time is why the Washington Monument has an aluminum cap at its peak.
Awesome Karl
I think I read that the cap to,the Washington Monument in DC is aluminium because it was so precious at the time. Not sure if this is 100% correct.
During the Civil War General Grant was given a medal made of aluminum for the same reason.
Yes, smelting Al (chemical symbol for element 13) takes a BUNCH of power. In the USA it was done in the Columbia river valley (border of Oregon and Washington) where hydro power is plentiful. As I understand it, the Al smelters moved out (import economics?) and big disk farms have taken up residence, again for the cheap power.
There’s an aluminum pyramid on top of the Washington monument because it was so rare and expensive, don’t remember what year though.
It sounds like the same road that graphene is undertaking
So I'm applying precious metals to my armpits?
And get cancer
@@CroxlD yep
I have several antique music boxes that are made of aluminum. Valuable at the time but not so much so now.
I'm disappointed that you didn't mention, perhaps as a bonus fact, that the top of the Washington Monument is aluminum because they wanted to use something fancy.
Devil RedHD majority of his audience is in the USA though
I have the impression that they have staff skilled at researching for both sides of the pond. You'll notice the US and UK are generally both well covered.
Fortunately for the designers who used that metal Aluminium's protective oxide coating will keep it shiny ish for many years to come
Fun fact is that thanks to how difficult it is to extract the stuff that it's still cheaper to recycle then mine raw aluminum, hence the reason there's such a large market for doing so.
I love this man 💙
Aluminum was once used as a precious metal for jewelry, now we throw it in the trash when the cookout is over.
I've worked on the construction of two aluminum smelters. One in Qatar and one in Saudi Arabia. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to convert bauxite into alumina which is the raw product which looks like talcum powder. It also takes a lot of energy to smelt it into aluminum. Once this is done though it takes almost nothing to melt it down again and recycle it. It only takes 4% of the energy to remelt it and recycle it than to take the raw alumina and smelt it into aluminum. That is why recycling aluminum cans and anything else made from aluminum is really only one of the very few products that is actually cost effective to recycle.
What about speculators like Goldman Sachs buying huge quantities and storing it in warehouses? Good video, thank you..
Lord Edgar Covington: “Aluminium.”
Andy Dwyer: “Alumalum!”
Ruff and Ready: "Muni Mula" www.bcdb.com/cartoon/13212-Mastermind-Of-Muni-Mula
bonus fact: 3 years ago, i worked at a company that made large sapphire crystals, second hardest mineral on the planet, sapphires can only be cut by diamond saws. sapphires are made with aluminum oxide, melted at 3740F and slowly cooled/crystallized. i operated the largest sapphire furnace on the planet, making sapphires 5 feet long, 1-1/2 feet wide, 3 inches thick.
What about Bauxite?
I have a topic for you to cover.....Why is "happy hour" a thing that bars have and where did it start at???
It’s like how antimatter is probably extremely common in some parts of the universe, but it is insanely hard to get on earth and thus is absurdly expensive.
Great video, though I was hoping for a bonus fact as to why it's pronounce with an extra syllable in the UK.
Not only in the UK but many other European countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France and Poland.
And the Oxford Dictionary say to the suffix -ium
"The Latin names of metals were in -um, e.g. aurum, argentum, ferrum; the names of sodium, potassium, and magnesium, derived from soda, potassa or potash, and magnesia, were given by Davy in 1807, with the derivative form -ium; and although some of the later metals have received names in -um, the general form is in -ium, as in cadmium, iridium, lithium, osmium, palladium, rhodium, titanium, uranium; in conformity with which aluminum has been altered to aluminium."
@@TheTerrorHamster Well stated, but not answering my question as to why? Also, why not Alumium, then? The word was derived from Alum.
@@digitalranger4259 perhaps the question really is why the US says it wrong.
@@tmarritt Oh, I never said the US version was right. It's different, and I"d like to know how it happened.
Fezz say it wrong? We say it exactly how we spell it, and how it was originally spelled (after it was changed from alumium).
Never knew you guys had background music
New to the channel. What's the name of the song playing in the videos?
You made this video just so people would get upset and comment about the pronounciation and spelling of a certain metal, didn't you?
No. They would be wrong.
He's pronouncing it correctly. U.S. journalist/writers deliberately misspelled it and propagated the use, as aluminum.
The difference between these two words comes down to the differences between American and British English. “While aluminum is the original word, British editors standardize around aluminium, to preserve consistency with elements like sodium, lithium, and titanium.”
They are both correct, it doesn’t really matter.
"The Latin names of metals were in -um, e.g. aurum, argentum, ferrum; the names of sodium, potassium, and magnesium, derived from soda, potassa or potash, and magnesia, were given by Davy in 1807, with the derivative form -ium; and although some of the later metals have received names in -um, the general form is in -ium, as in cadmium, iridium, lithium, osmium, palladium, rhodium, titanium, uranium; in conformity with which aluminum has been altered to aluminium."
- Oxford dictionary about the suffix -ium
It's frustrating that he didn't even take an extra 10 seconds to mention the separate names and the historical reasons for this. He even had a perfect lead in, with the naming. It does seem like he did it just to annoy Americans.
@@aaronpreston47 I'm not sure where you got that from, but originally it was called "alumium", then changed to "aluminum" and finally "aluminium".
The US does like middle things, so it makes sense they stuck to that.
I ask a question to everyone with knowledge On Aluminium and its market.. Where do you think is the market and demand headed in the future??
How much money you guys get off of bottles/cans? We get 10/15cents for aluminium can, 0,2 and 0,4 euros for 0,5l/0,95l and 1,5l bottles. Plus 10cents for glass bottles of all size.
Hey Simon, I have a question for you... How was time, namely in years, arranged before the BCE/ CE or BC -AD arrangement? There must have been a reference point... This is something I just don't know
Depends on your location. In Rome, from the founding of the city. In China, from the founding of the dynasty. It was a dynasty in Egypt as well. And you have to have a fairly well- organized civilization for it to matter.
@@patpatterson12 Thanks man... I actually found out the Rome part after I posted this but the others I didn't know...
Fun fact, this is why the Washington Monument is capped in aluminum. It was completed in 1884, just two years before the Hall-Héroult process was developed.
Before plutonium the strategic metal of WW2 was aluminum. Because the USA had a enormous surplus of hydroelectric power there was enough aluminum produced near these dams to build during the war aircraft in the hundred thousand range. The largest electric generating station was Grand Coulee in nearly unoccupied eastern Washington State.
I always think they are playing system of a down's chop suey in the background
Can you do one on why they started dying cheddar yellow
Hey Simon could you do something about Christchurch, Its video is online and many people have watched it. Its haunting and there are so many questions about it... If its to much to ask then thats ok, you would likely need to watch it and I wouldn't wish that on anyone... but we have and the questions about ourselves... and the world we live in. Thank you
That must have been amazing, being the first person to isolate pure aluminum metal.
It takes more energy to process aluminum. Napoleon got his queen jewelry made of you guessed it aluminum. Same thing happened with Vinyl flooring, it was once a luxury item only elites could afford, once it was mass produced its price went down along with elite status.
I just want to listen to Simon Whistler say aluminium over and over forever. Someone please make a super cut of this video. You will be my hero forever.
Also "keelogram".
I love you, Simon.
"oodles of aluminium"
Oh, my heart
I remember one of Isaac Asimov's essays on this subject. A metal with really useful properties but until somebody found a more economical way to refine it, not useful for large-scale application.
First time I've actually noticed Karl Smallwood being credited in another video it's crazy to think I've been listening to him long before I ever was listening to him
I always fantizied about taking a bag of aluminum cans back in time before the civil war and selling them for gold too bad I don't have a time machine
Amazing.
This is very interesting. I was under the impression that aluminum appeared naturally on the planet because of a couple survival games. I have been played the fool
Zack Sherman
The designers of the gane probably don’t even know. This has been a problem with artists over a hundred years.
I never want to hear "aluminium" this many times in a short video again.
@Ungregistered User You're on the internet where all the world's knowledge is stored, and you still make factual errors like that. XD
@Ungregistered User www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aluminum
If you're going to try to be a comment section smart guy, make sure you know what you're talking about.
LOL
@SimonWhistler
Why is a majority of alcohol triple distilled?
Having watched the Mythbusters episode on running a car on moonshine, I think I can answer that one.
The more times you distill an alcoholic beverage, the more water you take out of it and the stronger the proportionate alcohol content. I'd presume that this also concentrates the flavour.
The Mythbusters had trouble running most of their test cars on moonshine precisely because there was still too much water left in it, but they did manage to get a car to run on high-concentration moonshine eventually.
The process used to produce aluminium, is one of the reasons its so important to recycle it. It requires immense amounts of energy compared to most other common "everyday" metals used in huge quantities. It takes on average 5% of the energy to recycle it.
That makes one ton of recycled aluminium save about 14 *megawatt* hours of energy, about equivalent to 40 barrels of oil / 130 billion BTU (depending on where in the world this takes place, that energy might very well com from _the actual burning of those 40 barrels of oil, or the equivalent in coal). The whole chain of manufacturing eg. A ton soda cans from _recycled_ aluminium, saves about 21 megawatt hours. It also avoids about 10 _cubic meters_ of landfill mass.
Today I found out why the British pronounce aluminium correctly and Americans are ignoring the last letter "I".
Now you can make similar video about titanium. It's practically the most common thing but still available only to airplanes F1 cars
You can buy it. Stuff is super expensive though and the cost / benefit of switching to it over another material just wouldn't add up for most applications. It is used in knife making quite often and a few firearms as well I think.
Viewer Question: why do bodyguards always wear sunglasses?
So people don't know where they're looking and can't attack the person they're protecting when the bodyguards are looking away.
That’s it I give up!! It’s obvious none of the questions I ask are going to get answered in a video
@Ungregistered User Maybe something like, "Why are there sunglass wearing bodyguards around my anus?"
What were the gold prices in 1852 before aluminum fell?
Speaking of antiperspirant, can you do a vid about the aluminum zirconium teteachlorohydrex gly stuff they use nowadays? What the heck is it really?
You look like a British V-Sauce
A relevant historical fact is that the US payed Napoleon for the Louisiana Purchase using bars of Aluminium. You illustrated nicely just why Napoleon was willing to accept payment that day. :-)
its a SOAB to separate from its ores
I actually heard about this on the Black List.
My lips are getting in contact daily with aluminum - BEEEEER TIN
@3:10, "bequest" should have been "behest".
I was told this when I went to engineering college but my lecturer didn't explain it completely.
Make a video on David Rice Atchison. President for one day
Simon Whistler
Morgan Freeman
And the voice from
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings Bernard Cribbins.
The three best voices for narration.
I about lost it when I heard the price drop at the end of the video.
Upon hear the "alum" i immediately conjure visions of a tom and jerry characters accidentally eating some and his mouth immediately shrinking, lips disappearing.
If you ever get the chance to take a chemistry class from an English person, do it! Words like aluminum and equilibrium are much more delightful with an English accent. Thank you, Simon!
One of the surprising things I learned was that the word "aluminum" actually came first. Unlike honour/honor or the like, this isn't a case of Americans simplifying words, but the English complicating them.
I immediately think of Dwarf Fortress.
So aluminum was the bitcoin craze of its time
I have 500lbs of aluminum cans. Let's hope the price goes up
Wouldn't matter, pop cans are made from terrible quality metal.
I think this video alludes to "knowing the value versus the price of something". Keep this up and next thing on the radar is bottled sunshine, I kid you not 😂. Bottled air is already a reality. They are called Oxy Clinics😂😂😀😀😎 I understand your center page, commodity price, trader mindset but this was a history lesson. You can read or watch Jim Rogers to trade.
So, the first possibility of Time Travel we'd better bring a few kilo's of Aluminium Ingots back in time to sell :)
I'm predicting that the same thing will happen to gold when we start asteroid mining. lol
The price of gold will plummet, making gold real cheap.
That assumes that there are easy-to-find/acquire Gold-bearing asteroids. It's more likely that there's more Iron and, yes, Aluminum and Iridium-bearing asteroids in this solar system. But then, when people start living in the asteroid belt, water-bearing asteroids will be worth their weight in...some rare element not found in "near space.";)
Stars produced gold when it's went supernova. That made gold quite rare, even on asteroid or earth's core.
ALCOA and Niagara Falls is also a bit of interesting history.
Why are there two pronunciations for aluminum and is it aluminum or aluminium cause I’ve seen both spellings being corrected and even the wiki and google just says aluminum or aluminium I’m kind of curious as to whichever spelling or pronunciation actually came first and why there is more than one pronunciation
Where would the beverage industry be wo it ?! One of the metals constantly recyclable yet so much of it is thrown out in the US, a waste that costs the US $$$$$ every year in commodities trade.
@todayifoundout how do banks pay their customers if the bank is robbed
Thanks for the video
How about the more recent price increase for aluminum? Here in the States, aluminum foil has doubled in price, and fetches 40 cents a pound when recycling!
The question that really should be asked is, why is gold so expensive? It's not very useful (note that I didn't say useless). Copper, steel, aluminum are all far more useful. People use it for investment, but if society collapses, I'd rather have tons of aluminum or copper, or even wood.
Scarcity, and application. Gold has properties that can not be replicated. AL and CU are abundant and do the job well enough.. unless they don't. If you need something that will never corrode for example, you need Gold. Silver is better at conducting electricity than CU, but it's not cost effective.
@@adamrose5690 Oh, I completely agree that gold IS valuable, but the true value is inflated more because of the -it's pretty- property. And it seems to mostly be the prepers who try to horde it, which makes no sense, because most other commodities will be worth far more to people trying to live in whatever post-something-stupid event they're prepping for.
Please butter up your Bascetti in in Aluminium pan, prior to storing in the Friggerator.
i immagine because more practical applications
We actually still use Allum to tan animal hides. It is actually much cheaper than using other tanning chemicals specifically sold for tanning. I still have some skins hanging on the wall that i did almost 20 years ago and they stoll look great. My dad told me that prostitutes used to take Allum and make a cream or paste out of it then apply it to their vaginas because it would make the tighter. It would seem like over time it would have the reverse affect and basically turn their vaginas into leather.
I wonder if that was the biggest switch in an item/objects worth? $1200 a Kilo down to under $1 is an enormous difference.
No way. Consider how much dinosaur bones are worth today, and realize they were worthless back when they were first made.
Never mind the way you pronounced aluminium told me our British 😊
So, the moral of the story is don't invest in gold. Some scientist can just discover a cheap way to mass produce it and crash the market.
That is not how chemistry works. You need stellar fusion to generate more gold
Great protection against allomancers, too.
Took me 5 seconds to regret watching this most of the time his accent is relaxing not today
I'm going to start hoarding crushed cans until I can invent a time machine.
The top pyramid of the Washington monument in Washington DC is made of aluminum, and was cast while the metal was still super expensive!