The Romans, suggested Pliny the Elder, were the first to discover how to make aluminium. Or rather, a single unnamed Roman managed it.
Alas, when the unfortunate metallurgist took his invention to the Emperor Tiberius, far from being rewarded, he had his head cut off. Why? Tiberius, it is said, feared the new metal might lower the price of gold.
Thus did those with a vested interest in the status quo stifle innovation.
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