Hall. Charles Martin

Hall-Heroult process -> aluminum production, -> Hall, Charles Martin, and -> Heroult, Paul Louis Toussaint... 

Hall, Charles Martin. (1863-1914). A native of Ohio, Hall invented a method of reducing aluminum oxide in molten cryolite by electrochemical means. This discovery made possible the large-scale production of metallic aluminum and resulted in formation of the Aluminum Company of America. The process requires high electric power input. Hall is generally considered the founder of the aluminum industry. 

Hall, Charles Martin (1863-1914). Invented method of aluminum manufacture by electrochemical reduction of alumina. Parallel discovery by Heroult in France. 

Half-wave potential potential Hall, Charles Martin... 

In 1885, Charles Martin Hall invented his aluminum process and Hamilton Young Castner in 1890 developed the mercury-type alkali-chlorine cell, which produced caustic (sodium hydroxide) in its purest form. Edward G. Acheson in 1891, while attempting to make diamonds in an electric furnace, produced silicon carbide, the first synthetic abrasive, second to diamond in hardness. Four years later, Jacobs melted aluminum oxide to make a superior emeiy cloth. Within two decades, these two abrasives had displaced most natural cutting materials, including naturally occurring mixtures of aluminum and iron oxides. 

This picture changed in the 1886 when an American chemist, Charles Martin Hall (1863— 1914), and a French chemist, Paul Louis-Toussaint Heroult (1863—1914), both discovered, at about the same time, a new process for extracting aluminum from molten aluminum oxide by electrolysis. (It might be noted that both discoverers have the same birth and death dates as well as the same date of discovery.) Hall was inspired by his teacher to find a way to inexpensively produce aluminum metal. He wired together numerous wet cells to form a battery that produced enough electricity to separate the aluminum from the melted aluminum oxide (mixed with the minerals cryolyte or fluorite), by the process known as electrolysis. Hall formed the Pittsburgh Reduction Co., which is now known as the Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa. His company produced so much aluminum that the price dropped to about sixty cents per kilogram. 

When the Abbe Hauy pointed out the close similarity and probable identity of beryl and the emerald, Vauquelin analyzed them carefully, and found in 1798 that they are indeed identical, and that they contain a new earth, which he named glucina, but which is now known as beryllia The metal was isolated thirty years later by Wohler and Bussy independently. Boron was isolated in 1808 by Gay-Lussac and Thenard in France and by Davy in England by reduction of boric acid with potassium. Although amorphous silicon was prepared by Berzelius in 1824, the crystalline form of it was not obtained until about thirty years later, when Henri Sainte-Clarie DeviUe prepared it by an electrolytic method Aluminum was isolated in 1825 by the Danish physicist, Oersted, and two years later Wohler prepared it by a better method. Successful commercial processes for the manufacture of this important metal were perfected by Henri Sainte-Claiie Deville, by Charles Martin Hall, and by Dr. Paul L. T. Heroult. 

The next scene of the aluminum drama is laid in the United States. Henri Sainte-Claire Deville s process had made the metal a commercial product, but it was still expensive. Charles Martin Hall, a student at Oberlin College, inspired by the accounts which Professor F. F. Jewett had given of his studies under Wohler, decided that his supreme aim in life would be to devise a cheap method for making aluminum. In an improvised laboratory in the woodshed, and with homemade batteries, he struggled with this problem. On February 23,1886, this boy of twenty-one years rushed into his professors office and held out to him a handful of aluminum buttons. Since these buttons led to a highly successful electrolytic process for manufacturing aluminum, it is small wonder that the Aluminum Company of America now treasures them and refers to them affectionately as the crown jewels A beautiful statue of the youthful Charles M. Hall, cast in aluminum, may now he seen at Oberlin College (11, 55). 

Charles Martin Hall, 1863-1914. American chemist, inventor, metallurgist, and philanthropist who developed a highly successful electrolytic process for manufacturing aluminum. This cheap method of obtaining the metal from its ores made possible the present widespread use of aluminum for domestic, industrial, and transportation purposes. 

Birth of P.-L.-T. Heroult and of Charles Martin Hall, independent discoverers of the electrolytic process for preparing metallic aluminum. 

Charles Martin Hall produces electrolytic aluminum. Dr. H6roult made the same discovery independently at about the same time. 

Charles Martin Hall. [Photo courtesy of Alcoa.]... 

Today we use aluminium in very large quantities. The annual production in the world is 19.5 million tonnes. The commercial extraction of aluminium has been made possible by two scientists, working independendy of each other, who discovered a method using electrolysis. The two scientists were Charles Martin Hall (USA), who discovered the process in 1886, and the French chemist Paul Heroult, who discovered the process independendy in the same year. The process they developed, often called the Hall-Heroult process, involves the electrolysis of aluminium oxide (alumina). The process involves the following stages. 

Born in Thompson, Oregon, on December 6, 1863, Charles Martin Hall was interested in minerals since the age of twelve. While enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio, Hall took a class from distinguished professor Frank Fanning Jewett, who had a sample of the precious metal to show the class. After a stirring lecture on the topic, he finished with, Any person who discovers a process by which aluminum can be made on a commercial scale will bless humanity and make a fortune for himself. Inspired by such a win-win challenge, Hall reportedly said, I m going for that metal. ... 

Craig, Norman C. Charles Martin Hall and the Electrolytic Process for Refining Aluminum. Oberlin College Chemistry Department. Available from Chttp // www.oberlin. edu/ chem/history/cmh>. 

The electrolysis process for producing aluminum was developed by Charles Martin Hall while he was a student at Oberlin College. His work in aluminum chemistry eventually led to the formation of the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). The reduction process for aluminum can be represented as... 

Some metallic oxides do not readily yield to chemical reduction reactions like those in the blast ftimace process described above. The reduction of aluitrinum oxide to aluminum metal is an example. Until 1886, no economically satisfactory method for carrying out this process had been discovered. Then a young college cheirristry student, Charles Martin Hall, invented an electrical method for reducing aluminum oxide. 

In 1881, Charles Martin Hall was a 22-year-old student at Oberlin College, in Ohio. 

Charles Martin Hall, of the United States, and Paul-Louis H roult, of France, independently discover the process for extracting aluminum from aluminum oxide. 

In 1886, 22-year-old Charles Martin Hall (1863-1914) developed a process to produce aluminum by electrolysis using heat from a blacksmith... 

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