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Home · On This Day · Jan. 23, 1947

The new rainbow colours of aluminum

Broadcast Date: Jan. 23, 1947

Aluminum as we know it has shifted into an entirely new dimension. No longer limited to shiny silver, new aluminum products will hit the post-war Canadian market in an array of fadeless colours. This will, as reported in this CBC Radio interview, change the face of home decor. Linen bins, coffee tables, trays, dinner plates, bowls and vases will hit the shelves in shiny black, silver, pink, gold and green.

The new rainbow colours of aluminum

• Aluminum is a malleable silver metallic element. Not easily tarnished, it is found in nature in igneous rock, shale, clay and soil. It makes up approximately eight per cent of the earth's crust.

• Aluminum was discovered by the English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy in 1807. He named the element "aluminum," which it is still called in North America, but it was later renamed "aluminium" by other European scientists. Davy also created the safety lamp which sits at the front of miner's hats.

• In 1885, world production of aluminum was approximately 200 tonnes. In 1998, production hovered at roughly 22 million tonnes.

• In modern production, aluminum is used in light fittings, rescue blankets, food and pharmaceutical packaging, power transmission lines and more.


Also on January 23:
1831: The Lower Canada Assembly votes to extend legal rights to Jews.
1922: In Toronto, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson becomes the world's first diabetic to receive a successful insulin injection.
1949: Fire in Regina's transit barns destroys much of the city's public transit system: 38 buses and streetcars.
1995: After a 10-year battle, Guy Paul Morin is acquitted of the 1984 sex slaying of his nine-year-old neighbour, Christine Jessop of Queensville, Ont. The Ontario Court of Appeal clears Morin on the basis of new DNA evidence.

The new rainbow colours of aluminum

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC News Roundup

Broadcast Date: Jan. 23, 1947

Guest(s): Lofty Powell


Reporter: Bill Herbert

Duration: 2:29

Photo: Ronny Jaques / National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada

Photo: Ronny Jaques / National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada

Last updated:
Jan. 6, 2009


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