Since its first publication in May 1943, Light Metal Age magazine has been collating the progress and the economic ups-and-downs of magnesium, the lightest of the commodity light metals. Starting with the first issue of Light Metal Age, its founder, Roy Fellom Jr. wrote about the magneisum production processes of the times (much the same today). This article summarizes the progress made in magneisum technology through the decades, with emphasis on the use of magnesium. The year 1943 was a watershed year for magnesium production, with worldwide production peaking that year due to the war effort and then falling precipitously at the end of WWII by a factor of 50 times. It took decades for the market to recover to where it is today-some four times the worldwide production level during its peak in WWII-with credit due in large part to the remarkable properties of this light metal and to the outstanding work of magnesium technologists in creating alloys and processes that offer advantages and value in commercial applications. These trends in magnesium technology as well as the uses of magnesium have been documented in Light Metal Age. Upon cursory examination of the many decades of magnesium usage, we at first sense a case of "history repeating itself" but, digging deeper into the magnesium archives, we see how critical the progress made by magnesium technologists have been in expanding its use in a wide variety of markets.

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