Aluminum is also a fairly recent metal. That is to say, it only became available to humans recently. Although it is abundant in nature, it never occurs naturally in its metallic form. It was first hypothisized to exist in 1808 by Sir Humphrey Potter. It was only then that people started to refine aluminum ores to make metallic aluminum. Since it was rare, it was also expensive (about the price of silver) until 1886, when Charles Martin Hall began using electricity to refine the aluminum metal. This led to the eventual inexpensiveness of aluminum that we know today. Unfortunately, it would take a little while for a market to appear for this "new" metal.