Educational page: Did you mention metals?
But what are they made of?
Enter into the matter…

Are those “atoms”?

Everything in the universe is made up of protons, electrons and neutrons. The particles combine with one another in the center of dying stars, forming atoms that make up our planet and everything that lives on it.

And when we speak of “matter”?

There are around 100 different types of atoms in the universe: iron, carbon, oxygen, gold, aluminium, etc. Atoms combine with other atoms, sometimes of the same type, to form more complicated structures, for example, molecules.

And what about the metal connection?

In linking with other elements (for example, oxygen, sulfur) metals loose one or more electrons: chemists call this oxidation.

How do we recognize them?

Since they have been present on Earth, they have had enough time to combine and to oxidize. Gold, a rare metal, is practically the only one that doesn’t combine with others, and that we find in its native state. We find the others oxidized in ore form that attracts man’s attention because of their density (heavier than an ordinary stone) and their color, which is often unique to the area where they are found. We can’t pass them by!

How do they change from an ore to a metal?

The history of mankind is full of wonderful inventions and discoveries: among them, those of metals! The oxidized metal must recover the electrons it lost during its combination; we know that loosing electrons is called “oxidation,” gaining them is called “reduction”… or how to make a concealed metal reappear.

Who figured this out?

Our ancestors, unaware chemists! They obtained fire and high temperatures in pottery ovens 7,000 years ago. A rock containing copper found its way into a hearth, and without really knowing, met the ideal condition for a “reduction”: the presence of carbon, a sufficient temperature et an oxygen poor atmosphere. That’s probably how the brilliant, colored metal that we know first appeared.

Is that how metallurgy was born?

At any rate, that’s how man discovered that he could cause this “reduction” by placing a mineral under high temperatures when a chemical element such as carbon (coal) is present. A metal could be hidden in the rock, but other existed as well, and it was left to determine in what ores and figure out how to extract the metals.

And as for aluminium?

Fascinated, man continued his research to unearth other metals: tin, lead, iron… But it took a long time to find aluminium. First of all, the ore from which it comes, bauxite, has a rather ordinary appearance. Furthermore, aluminium is so highly oxidized that the methods of our ancestors didn’t cut it. Only a reducing agent stronger than carbon (such as potassium or sodium) could chemically carry out this reduction. The other possibility to uncover the metal is to use electric current, the method used today, known to chemists as electrolysis.

In sum, “Al that jazz!”

The history of aluminium, highly linked to that of electricity, is the theme that the coordinators of this exhibition chose to explore, allowing you to experience many things.

The activities program for “The Aluminium Age” exhibition

A column of atoms, enlarged 7 million times

Aluminium under a microscope

Furnace at St Jean de Maurienne, Aluminium Pechiney