Page 12 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

The aluminium industry begins
The history of the aluminium industry is quite short. The industrial method for separating aluminium from bauxite ore was only discovered in 1854, and the
first aluminium was produced in 1859. But it is
now one of the most important metal industries in the world.
How aluminium came to be refined
The aluminium industry had to wait for the development of electricity. In fact,
the person who first separated aluminium from its ore was Danish professor Hans Christian Oersted, one of the pioneers
of electricity.
However, only after discoveries in 1886
by Charles Martin Hall of Ohio, USA, and Paul L. T. Héroult of France, and in 1888 by Karl Joseph Bayer of Germany,
did it become possible to refine
large amounts of aluminium. Even then, large-scale processing did not get under way until the
early part of the 20th century. This is because relatively
cheap electricity supplies were needed and it took some time for the power generating industry
to build generators large enough for the needs
of an aluminium refinery.
So, while iron was the metal
of the 19th century, aluminium became the metal of the
20th century.
 In 1886 Charles Martin Hall (above) of the United States and Paul L. T. Héroult (below left)
of France, discovered a way
to dissolve alumina in molten
cryolite and so make aluminium commercially.
For this reason the process is called the Hall–Héroult
process, and it is still in use today.
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