Aluminum (Civ4)/Civilopedia

A silvery-gray metal, aluminum has a staggering number of uses and applications in the modern age. Just a few benefits include the fact it never rusts, is lighter than copper (and almost as effective in electricity transmission), and is soft enough to easily mold for nearly any purpose. Though the dominant metal in the Earth's composition, aluminum wasn't discovered until 1825, thousands of years after copper and iron. The primary reason for this was the difficulty in extracting the metal from the ore (bauxite). Charles Hall, a 22-year-old American, created what was to become the most cost-effective method of separating aluminum in 1886. His process involved passing an electrical current through aluminum oxide, resulting in separate components of pure aluminum and oxygen.