The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, yet hidden in ore so tightly bound that for most of history no one could extract it cheaply — once more precious than gold, now so cheap we throw it away — aluminum is the metal that electricity made, a parable of energy as the true hidden cost of modern materials.
In the 1850s, Napoleon III reportedly reserved aluminum tableware for his most honored guests, while more familiar precious metals were used for others. The Washington Monument, completed in 1884, was capped with aluminum — both a technical choice and a prestige object. Then electricity arrived and changed everything. Within a generation, the rarest metal on the table became the foil around your leftovers. The substance did not change. The energy cost of getting it did.