That’s some pricey metal

This is a great example of when the march of technology works for us. Early use of aluminum was very cost-prohibitive. In 1852, a kilo of aluminum was $1,200 US dollars. For perspective, at the time a kilo of gold was $664. This was all down to the expense of processing the aluminum from the ore.

Those processes changed and matured quickly. By 1859, the price had already dropped to $37 per kilo. And in 1895 it had fallen to just $1.20 per kilo. This was in large part due to the adoption of the Hall–Héroult process for smelting aluminum. As I type this, the price is right around $1.77 per kilo.

And one final number just to boggle your mind. A Boeing 747 contains over 66,000 kilos of aluminum. If we do the math, that means you could take that old 747 to the recycler and cash in for about $117,000!

Our photo today is totally relevant. That is the aluminum diamond plate of our dock plate, in a tasteful black and white style.

Listed in General

Comments are closed.

• < previous
• next >