Aluminum

Aluminum (or aluminium, depending on where you live) was once more valuable than gold! In the 1800s, before scientists figured out how to mass-produce it, Napoleon III served his most honored guests with aluminum cutlery while everyone else got gold. It was first isolated in 1825 by Hans Christian Ørsted and later produced affordably using the Hall-Héroult process in 1886.

Today aluminum is everywhere — soda cans, foil, aircraft, smartphones, and window frames. It is the most abundant metal in Earth's crust, making up about 8% by weight. Aluminum is lightweight, does not rust like iron, and is infinitely recyclable. Recycling an aluminum can saves 95% of the energy needed to make a new one from scratch.

Aluminum's symbol 'Al' is a spelling favorite in Spellement. It appears naturally at the start of words like 'all,' 'also,' and 'always,' and its common letter pairing makes it one of the most useful two-letter symbols for building words.