Charles Martin Hall (1863-1914) - Aluminum
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
History of Science and Technology Manufacturing Engineering Materials Engineering Mineral and Mining Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Mary Bellis |
| Description: | "According to Jefferson Lab, "Scientists suspected than an unknown metal existed in alum as early as 1787, but they did not have a way to extract it until 1825. Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish chemist, was the first to produce tiny amounts of aluminum. Two years later, Friedrich Wöhler, a German chemist, developed a different way to obtain the metal. By 1845, he was able to produce samples large enough to determine some of aluminum's basic properties. Wöhler's method was improved in 1854 by Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville, a French chemist. Deville's process allowed for the commercial production of aluminum. As a result, the price of the metal dropped from around $1200 per kilogram in 1852 to around $40 per kilogram in 1859. Unfortunately, the metal remained too expensive to be widely used." Then on April 2, 1889, Charles Martin Hall patented an inexpensive method for the production of aluminum, which brought the metal into wide commercial use. n 1888, together with financier Alfred E. Hunt, Charles Martin Hall founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company now know as the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). By 1914, Charles Martin Hall had brought the cost of aluminum down to 18 cents a pound and it was no longer considered a precious metal." |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | Charles Martin Hall Charles Hall aluminum manufacture ALCOA Aluminum |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
History of technology with interesting links. |
| Difficulty: |
Very easy |
| Interactivity Level: |
Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | February 2008 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blaluminum.htm |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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