The road to plentiful aluminum was long, and literally dozens of important scientists were involved over a period of centuries in the effort to purify the metal. In the end, the solution would come almost simultaneously from two scientists, each just 22 years of age.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.