Short answers, pulled from the story.
Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted completed the first successful isolation of aluminium in 1824, producing a small lump of metal by reacting anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium amalgam. He demonstrated his sample publicly in 1825. German chemist Friedrich Wöhler was credited as the discoverer for many years afterward, as he refined the isolation method in 1827 and produced small solid pieces by 1845.
The Hall-Héroult process is the electrolytic method independently developed in 1886 by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall to convert alumina into metallic aluminium. It dissolves alumina in molten cryolite and calcium fluoride at 940-970 degrees Celsius and passes an electric current through the mixture. It remains the basis of all modern primary aluminium production and, when paired with the Bayer process for refining bauxite to alumina, made mass production economically feasible.
The -um spelling became dominant in the United States partly through Charles Martin Hall's advertising material in 1892, where he used aluminum despite consistently using aluminium in his patents from 1886 to 1903. The American Chemical Society officially adopted aluminum in 1925. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry standardized aluminium internationally in 1990 and recognized aluminum as an acceptable variant in 1993.
Producing one kilogram of aluminium requires the energy equivalent of seven kilograms of oil, compared to 1.5 kilograms for steel. The Hall-Héroult electrolysis process is inherently energy-intensive, and electric power accounts for 20-40% of total production costs depending on the smelter's location. Aluminium production consumes roughly 5% of all electricity generated in the United States.
Aluminium surpassed copper in 1954, becoming the most produced non-ferrous metal in the world. Copper had historically ranked second in production only to iron among all metals. Global annual aluminium production, which was 6,800 metric tons in 1900, exceeded 50 million metric tons in 2013.
Aluminium is classified as a non-carcinogen by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and a 2014 review found no harmful effects from consumption up to 40 mg per day per kilogram of body mass. The hypothesis that aluminium causes Alzheimer's disease has been studied for over 40 years without producing good evidence of a causal link. People with kidney insufficiency face elevated risk because impaired urinary excretion can allow aluminium to accumulate in the body.