Anyway, his opening anecdote struck me as humorous, but factually incorrect.
The French Monarchy ended in 1793, with the famous beheading of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
But Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville didn't invent the process for extracting aluminum from bauxite with sodium until 1855.
So the lesson for Oliver Cornock is clear: next time you use an anecdote, check your facts first. You never know when someone with a little extra time on their hands might be checking up on you!!!
Only in its pure metallic form is sodium rare. It is, otherwise, a plentiful element. 50 quadrillion tons of salt in the oceans represents most of the planet's supply.
Sodium is so chemically active that it cannot exist, for long, as a free element unless it is kept from exposure to air, water, etc. Because it is a much more active element than aluminum, it can replace it in aluminum compounds and thus free the metal.
Bad guys use metallic sodium for IED’s also....boom when properly applied. .
The French Monarchy ended in 1793, with the famous beheading of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. But Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville didn't invent the process for extracting aluminum from bauxite with sodium until 1855.
It turns out that Napoleon III was made Emperor of France in 1852 and held this position until 1870 under the Second French Empire. It seems reasonable that he may have had some utensils made from the newly available aluminum.
