Solved cryptogram
Aluminum was once worth more than gold, until electricity made it cheap to pull out of ore.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
The metal is abundant in the ground but bonded so tightly to oxygen that chemical methods could barely free it. In the eighteen fifties an aluminum bar was displayed beside the crown jewels in Paris, and Napoleon the Third is said to have reserved aluminum cutlery for his more important guests. An electrolytic process found in 1886 collapsed the price within a few years.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 73 letters over 19 different ones, graded hard.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length73 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 68 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 71 letters
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Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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