8/11/2019 Commercialization of Aluminum Commemorative
Booklet
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chem is t ry
h e
American Chemical Society
the Commercialization of
all Aluminum Process a
c Chemical handmark
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on
2, 2001.
m o d e r n
e r
W h e n
aluminum was first
introduced to the public at the
Paris Exposition of 1855, a
writer
for National Magazine
remarked, just now, in
this
new
metal,
so long concealed
in
every
hill~side, and even in
the
verydust
of our
streets,
science
seems
aboutto
make
over to the
arts
one of her occa-
sional
bestowments,
by which
boththe
knowledge
and
power
of
our race are, at an
instant,
sowidely increased.
Th e
aluminum revolution
Aluminum,
the t h i r d most abundant
element i n the earth's crustand its
most plentiful metalis made f rom
bauxite,
a reddish-brown rock discov
ered i n Les Baux, France, i n 1821. In
1886,
chemists
f i n a l l y
discovered an
economical
way toseparate pure
aluminum f r om alu mi nu m oxide
(alumina) and twoyears later,
commercial
al um in um began to revo
lutionize
the w o r l d .
Th e
path
to p r o g r e s s
More
than 7,000 yearsago,Persians
made t heir strongest pottery out of
clay
containin g alu mi nu m oxide. But
because
alu min um has a high a f f i n i ty
for oxygen and never occurs in its
metallic f o rm in nature, it proved
d if-
f i c u l t
to isolate. I n 1825, the Dani sh
chemis t Hans Christi an Oersted f i n a l -
ly
produced a samplealbeit very
impureusing
heat and a potassium-
based
mixture.
Over the next 20
years,
Friedrich
Wohler, a German
chemist, im proved this
process
by
usingm etallic potassium.
Th e
Par is
debut
Henri Sainte-Claire Deville of France
substituted potassium w i t h lessexpen
sive sodi um in 1854 and created
enough a lu mi nu m for display at the
Paris Exposition of 1855. B i l l e d as
silver f r om clay, aluminumbars
were shown alongside
France's
crown
jewels.A t that
time,
pure aluminum
was valued at $115 per p oundmore
expensive than
gold.
Napoleon
I I I
proudly displayed alum in um cutlery at
his
state
banquets and even had an
aluminum and
gold
baby rattle made
for his son.
Young
s c ien t i s t s
I n 1886, Charles M a r t i n H a l l of the
United
States
and Paul L . T .Heroult
o f Franceboth age 22independ
ently
discovered the way to produce
aluminum economically.H a l l under
the i n i t i a l direct ion of his
Oberlin
College
professor, Frank Fanning
Jewett, developed a method for
reducing
alumina to pure alumi num
byelectrolysis. In the electrolyticc e l l
alumina is dissolved i n mo lt en
cryo
l i t e . A strong electric current
passes
through
the sol ut ion and removes the
oxygen, leavin g deposits of nearly
pure aluminu m,which are siphoned
off and
cast
into
pigs. This method is
s t i l l
used today.
Aluminum often r e p l a c e s s t e e l
in s t r u c t u r e s s u c h
as the E m p i r e
S t a t e B u i l d i n g .
S i n c e
1972 an
e s t i m a t e d 6 6 0 - p l u s
bil l ion
b e v e r a g e
c a n s
h a v e b e e n
r e c y c l e d p l a c e d
e n d - t o - e n d ,
they
c o u l d s t r e t c h to the
moon
n e a r l y
300
t i m e s .
8/11/2019 Commercialization of Aluminum Commemorative
Booklet
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American
Chemical Society
A t t i l a E. Pavla th, President
E l i M .
Pearce,
President-Elect
N ina I McCl ell and , Chair, Board of Directo
Alcoa
A l a i n
J. P. Belda, Chairman of the Board and
Chief
Executive
Officer
Richa rd B. Kelson , Executive Vic e President
an d Chief FinancialOfficer; Chief
Compliance Officer
Robert E Slagle, Executive Vice President
H u m a n
Resources
and Comm unicati ons
Pittsburgh Section, American Chemical Soci
Brian
R. Strohmeier, Chair
Mark E. Bier, Chair-Elect
Pamela
K. Kerriga n, Secretary
Jonna
M .
Partezana,
Treasurer
Historical Site Committee
John H . Mazza, Chai r
Richard S. Danchik
Warren
Haupin
Raymond A . Kramer
W. Dale Richey
American Chemical Society Committee on
National Histori c Chemi cal Landmarks
Paul S. Anderson, Chair; DuPont
Pharmaceuticals
James
J. Bohning, Wilkes University
Mary Ellen Bowden, Chemical Heritage
Foundation
D . H . Michael Bowen, Consul tant
Jon B. Eklu nd, Nation al Muse um of Ameri c
History
Leon
Gortler,
Brooklyn
College
Ne d
D. Heindel , Lehigh University
Paul R.
Jones,
Uni versit y of New Hamp shir
PeterJ. T. Morris,
Science
Museum, Londo
Mary
V i r g i n i a
Orn a, College of Ne w Roche
Stanley I Proctor, Jr., Proctor Consulting
Services
John B. Sharkey, PaceUniversi ty
Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Merck & Co., Inc.
Edel
Wasserman, DuPo nt
Frankie K. Wood-Black, Phillips Petroleum
A m e r i c a n C h e m i c a l S o c ie t y
Officeof
C o m m u n i c a t i o n s
National H i s to r i c C h e m i c a l L a n d m a r k s
P r o g r a
1155
S i x te e n th S t re e t ,
NW
W a s h i n g t o n ,
DC 20036
202-872-6274
800-227-5558
w w w . c h e m i s t r y . o r g / l a n d m a r k s
me ric an Chemic al Society designated the produ ction of alu mi
nu m by
hemistry in Oberlin , Ohi o, a Nati ona l Historic Chemic al
Landmark on
17, 1997. The plaque commemorating the event reads:
23, 1886, in his w o o d sh e d laboratory at the family
h o m e
on East
Char les Mart in Hall succeeded in p r oduc i n g aluminum
metal
an
e lec t r i c cur ren t t h r o u g h
a
s o l u t i on
of aluminum
o x i de
in
c r yo l i t e .
Aluminum
was a
sem iprec ious metal
be fore
Hall s d i scove ry
e co no m i ca l m e t h o d to re lease it from its ore.
His
i n ven t i on ,
w h i c h
t h i s light, l us t rous , and
n on r us t i n g
metal readily available, was the
of the aluminum i n dus t r y in North Amer ica .
me ric an Chemi cal Society designated the commercial ization of
the H a l l
processi n Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a Nation al Historic
Chemical
rk on November 2, 2001. The plaque com mem orating the event
reads:
1886 Char les Martin Hall
i nven ted
an e co no m i ca l e lec t rochemica l process
o re lease
aluminum from its ore. Until
t hen , th is
light, l us t rous and
metal
was
rare
and
c o s t l y .
A
g r oup
of
P i t t s bu r g h i nves to rs ,
by metallurgist A l f red E. Hunt,
agreed
to s u ppo r t the
c ommer c i a l i z a
ion
o f
Hairs process
and f oun ded the P i t t s bu r g h Re d u c t i o n C o m p a
n y . In
1888Hall, ass is ted by
A r t h u r
Vining
Dav is ,
began to p r o d u ce aluminum in the
pilot plant on Smallman
Street.
In 1907 the
c omp an y bec ame
the
Comp an y of Am er ica (A lcoa) .
Aluminum
has s i nce
b e co m e
part o f
life with many usesfrom
teaket t les
in the early days , to aircraft,
l i nes , building materials,
f ood p ac k ag in g ,
and artwork.
the
NationalH is tor ic
Chem ica l Landmarks P rogram
he American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific
society w i t h more
ha n 163,000 members, has designated l andmarks i n the history
of chemistry
or more than adecade.T he process begins at the
locallevel.Members identify
ilestones in their cities or regions, docu ment their
importance, and nom in ate
hem for landm ark designation. A n internati onal committee o f
chemists, chem
cal
engineers,
museum curators, and historiansevaluates eachn omin ation.
For
ore information,
please call
the Office o f Commu nicat ions at 202-872-6274
r 800-227-5558, e-mai l us at [email protected], or
v i s i t
our Web site:
hemistry.org/landmarks.
non-p rofit organization, the Am eri can Chemical Society
publishes scientific
ournals and
databases,convenes
major
research
conferences, and provides
ducational,
science
policy and careerprograms i n chemistry. Its mai n offices
are in Washington, DC, and Columbus, Ohio.
cknowledgements
he Pittsburg Local Section gratefully acknowledges the support
of the Al coa Foundation.
rittenby Christina Curtain and Elizabeth Naab
Designed by The Rockbridge Group,
Bethesda,
Maryland
http://www.chemistry.org/landmarksmailto:[email protected]://chemistry.org/landmarkshttp://chemistry.org/landmarksmailto:[email protected]://www.chemistry.org/landmarks
