|
|
Aluminum was discovered by a Danish physicist named Hans Christian Oersted in 1825. Oersted was the first to be able to isolate aluminum from its oxide alumina. When Oersted first created a tiny bead of aluminum it was virtually ignored by the scientific community. Twenty years later a German scientist, Wohler, also produced a small sample of aluminum and showed its low density yet still ignored. Finally 30 years after Oersted, a French chemist by the name of Herni Sainte-Claire Deville debuted the first block of aluminum at the 1855 Paris Exposition.
Napolean's Aluminum Adventures
Aluminum caught the interest of Napolean III, who envisioned the use of aluminum for military purposes. Napolean ordered Deville to produce more of this metal immediately, but instead of armoring an army he was only able to produce a set of silverware. Despite these scientists’ efforts, the production of aluminum was still too costly to make readily available to the public.
Charles Martin Hall and Paul L.T Héroult
Charles Martin Hall, a student at Oberlin College, was the first person to make the production of aluminum a reality. Urged by his professors, Hall began to search for ways of extracting aluminum from its ore, bauxite. Hall tried various fluorides to dissolve the alumina but none of his attempts were successful until he tried sodium aluminum fluoride (Na3AlF6), a mineral called cryolite. Hall believed he had discovered a reasonable way to extract aluminum, but the cryolite that was supposed to dissolve the alumina ended up dissolving the clay, of which his crucible was made. Finally Hall became successful when he made a new crucible out of carbon. Once the mixture cooled there were tiny beads of pure aluminum formed. Without either of the men realizing the situation Paul Heroult discovered the same process a month or two later in France. In addition to this, Hall discovered the electrolytic method of producing aluminum cheaply, this is now called the Hall-Heroult process. Hall developed a company that helped produce airplanes and cars. Hall and his friend Hunt teamed up to make the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which later became The Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). By 1914 he had brought the price of aluminum down to 18 cents a pound. Aluminum, once a precious metal used for fine jewelry is now inexpensive enough for everyday packaging.
These days Cryolite, a natural ore found in Greenland, is no longer widely used in commercial production, but has been replaced by an artificial mixture of sodium, aluminum, and calcium fluorides (Na3AlF6). Aluminum can now be produced from clay, but the process is not economically feasible right now.
Fun History/Name Facts
Before Aluminum was truly discovered it was identified by Sir Humphrey Davy and named Alumium, but obviously it was changed to Aluminum in at least the U.S.
Shortly after being named Aluminum,the name aluminium was adopted to conform with the "ium" ending of most elements and this spelling is still used elsewhere today such as England.
The Aluminium spelling above was used in the United States until 1925 until the American Chemical Society decided to use Aluminum in their publications.
Every wonder about the family side of Aluminum?
Of course you do and Charles Martin Hall didn't do it all himself, he had help from his older sister Julia who attended Oberlin College with the young lad.
Hall died a multimillionaire when at the young age of 51. He left a small chest behind at the Alcoa company containing a scattered handful of aluminum pellets, produced in 1886 by the Halls' first success. Alcoa calls those worthless little fragments its crown jewels.
T
