Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville, ignorant of what…

Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville, ignorant of what Friedrich Wöhler had done ten years previously, first prepares inexpensive pure aluminum metal in 1855 and works to perfect a process for its commercial production by the aid of sodium, substituting its use for potassium in the manufacture of aluminum.

In the same year, crystalline elemental silicon is first obtained as a product of electrolysis.