Quoth John Betmanis:
>As for people not familiar with bicycle construction thinking a frame made
>of Reynolds tubing was aluminum because it was very light and painted
>silver, I'm not surprised. When I was a kid I assumed "Reynolds 531" was
>some kind of high strength aluminum alloy. This was back in England. Was I
>ever surprised when I found that a magnet would stick to it!
I suspect that this confusion is even more common in the U.S. due to the former existence of Reynolds Metals Co., which was always primarily an aluminum manufacturer. They were merged with ALCOA (ALuminum COmpany of America) only in 2000.
Reynolds Metals did much to promote the use of aluminum foil for food storage and other applications, featuring they're Reynolds Wrap brand.
As a result of their former heavy advertising, many Americans have a strong association of the name "Reynolds" with aluminum.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/
Sheldon "Aluminiminmiumium" Brown
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