Industrial Research 



33 



Hall and Aluminum 



Shortly before Acheson built his plant at Niagara 

 Falls for the manufacture of carborundum, another 

 industry resulting from the persistent research of an 

 individual had located there. As a schoolboy, Charles 

 M. Hall received his first knowledge of chemistry from 

 a textbook that his father had studied in college during 

 the lS40's. Aluminum was mentioned in this book, but 

 Hall did not begin experimenting to find a process for 

 making it cheaply until the fact had dawned upon him 

 that although every clay bank was a mine of aluminum, 

 the metal was as costlj' as silver. The first experiments 

 were not imdertaken very seriously because he was then 

 a student in college and already working on "three or 

 four other attempted inventions." An introduction to 

 the subject of thermochemistry and a close association 

 with his professor in chemistry, Frank Fanning Jewett, 

 increased his knowledge and led him gradually to the 

 idea that aluminum could be obtained by electrolysis. 

 Beginning in 1886 to experiment on such a plan, he 

 made manj^ tries, until finally he "took some cryolite 

 and found that it melted easily and in the molten con- 

 dition dissolved alumina in large proportions." Putting 

 some of this molten mass in a clay crucible, he passed 

 an electric current through it from a small electric bat- 

 tery rigged mostly from parts borrowed from Professor 

 Jewett. At the end of 2 hours he pom-ed out the melted 

 mass but found no alummum. A repetition of the 

 experiment with a carbon crucible enclosed in a clay 

 crucible brought greater success, for in the bottom of the 

 carbon crucible were a number of small globules of 

 aluminum. Hall was convinced that he had found tbs 

 process he was seeking, but it was not easy to convince 

 others. Within 3 years two groups of backers became 

 discouraged and gave up. A third group formed the 

 Pittsburgh Reduction Company — now the Aluminum 

 Company of America — and in the summer of 1888 began 

 to build and operate a commercial plant in Pittsbm-gh 

 which produced 50 pounds of metal a day, that sold for 

 $2 a pound. Soon the company erected a larger plant 

 at Niagara and, by 1911, had a third plant and was pro- 

 ducing 40,000,000 pounds a year. The price had fallen 

 to 22 cents a poimd. 



From 1888 until 1914, the experimental development 

 of the company's various manufacturing processes was 

 carried on in its plants and chemical laboratories under 

 Hall's direction. After his death experimentation con- 

 tinued in the different plants under the direction of the 

 superintendents, and in certain plants imder the direc- 

 tion of the central engineering organization, but in 1917 

 it was decided to centralize this work in one organization 

 reporting directly to the management. In January 

 1918 Francis C. Frary was hired to organize the research 

 work of the company. The war delayed his plans, and 



it was not until he was released from military service 

 in December 1918 that he really started to build up the 

 research organization for the Aluminum Company of 

 America. 



Baekeland and Bakelite 



In 1889, as part of his reward for winning a prize in 

 chemistry. Dr. Leo II. Baekeland, professor of chem- 

 istry and physics in the Government Normal School 

 at Bruges, Belgium, was able to make a trip to the 

 United States. An enthusiasm for i)hotography and 

 an mterest in the new photographic processes which 

 were being developed had already brought him some 

 reputation in this branch of the chemical industry. 

 Once in New York, Baekeland was offered a position 

 as chemist in the factory of E. and H. T. Anthony & 

 Co., makers of photographic films and bromide paper. 

 He accepted the position, resigned his post at the 

 Government Normal School, and decided to remain in 

 America. 



After 2 years with this company, he left it to become 

 a consulting research chemist and to try, as he ex- 

 pressed it, "to work out, without sufficient financial 

 means, several half-baked inventions, the development 

 of each of which would have required a small fortune." 



During a long convalescence Baekeland reached the 

 decision that he would focus all his attention upon the 

 project which seemed most likely to bring liim the 

 quickest results. With the financial backing of Leonard 

 Jacobi, he tackled the problem of manufacturing some 

 new types of photographic paper. Although the tech- 

 nical difficulties were soon overcome, the business did 

 not at once become a profitable one; it took 6 years to 

 convince the picture-taking public that Velox was a 

 good product. Once that was done, the Eastman 

 Kodak Co. offered Baekeland cash for his interest in 

 the enterprise, and he accepted it. 



After an interlude of study and work during which he 

 helped to perfect a process for manufacturing caustic 

 soda and chlorine, Baekeland began the work which was 

 to bring him fame — the study of the action of formal- 

 dehyde upon phenols. Other chemists had sought to 

 fathom the mysteries of tliis reaction, but had obtained 

 like Kleeberg a worthless, insoluble mass of material, or 

 like Blumer and De Laire special resinous substances 

 with practically all of the general properties of natiu-al 

 resins. Baekeland was not much mterested in syn- 

 thetic resins, which at that tune cost more to produce 

 than the natural products and were in some respects 

 inferior to them, but he was fascinated by the hard 

 mass for which Kleeberg had been unable to find a 

 solvent. After many attempts, Baekeland, too, had 

 to give up as hopeless the search for a solvent. 



Making a fresh start, he studied exliaustively each 



