Uplifting News: Good News in History, February 23 | Good News Today

Uplifting News: Good News in History, February 23 | Good News Today
Why this story matters: This piece offers a constructive counterpoint to the constant stream of negative news. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to this day in history, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. 140 years ago today, an American inventor used electrolysis to extract aluminum from aluminum oxide, a process that eventually resulted in reducing the price of aluminum by a factor of 200, making it affordable for many practical uses from soda cans to the Wright Flyer. As small grains amid clay, it was thought by medieval alchemists to be the grains of dirt from a second, currently forming, earth. Today, more aluminum is produced than all other non-ferrous metals combined. The process was discovered by Charles Martin Hall, who helped found the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which became the Aluminum Company of America. (1886) Petronius, the Roman author, joked of a story that upon being presented with a cup of metal that wasn’t …