Aluminum has fascinated military strategists from its very earliest days. Most histories of the metal begin by noting that French emperor Napoleon III financed experiments by chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in the 1850s with the hope of developing light helmets and armor for his cavalry, but it remained so expensive that all he got was a breastplate for himself. However, with the establishment of the modern industry, production soared, prices plunged, and as early as 1892 the French military ordered several aluminum torpedo boats.
“United States cavalrymen fighting in the Spanish-American War,” notes a history of Alcoa Corporation, a major early producer of aluminum and the book’s publisher, “tethered their horses to aluminum picket pins, and infantry troops slept in tents pegged to aluminum stakes,” while Teddy Roosevelt himself carried an aluminum canteen as he “led his troops up San Juan Hill.”
This article is adapted from Mimi Sheller’s book “Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity.”
