September 12, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



413 



but there was at the time no known process 

 by which it cotild be applied to this ele- 

 ment. The problem as enunciated by the 

 investigator was this: To find a form of 

 electrolyte rich in aluminium which should 

 be comparatively easily separated into its 

 elements, and to discover a substance for 

 the solvent which should prove a satisfac- 

 tory 'bath.' To meet the requirements of 

 the case, this latter substance must be a 

 good conductor of electricity, must readily 

 dissolve the proposed electrolyte and must 

 have a higher resistance to electrolytic dis- 

 ruption than the electrolyte. This was 

 the scientific statement of the fundamental 

 facts to be brought into use, and, these re- 

 quirements being met, it was obvious that, 

 if the current should not prove too ex- 

 pensive, the process would unquestionably 

 produce the then rare and costly metal at 

 a remarkably low cost. 



To discover the needed substances for 

 electrolyte and solvent was a problem of a 

 different sort; it involved the examination 

 of all available compounds of aluminium, 

 so far as obviously not suitable, the study 

 of the various possible solvents for the 

 compound selected and the determination 

 of electric conductivities— a series of solu- 

 tions of problems by ' trial and error. ' By 

 virtue of rare familiarity with the chem- 

 istry and the physics of the subject, the 

 search was, after a time, rewarded by com- 

 plete success. It was discovered that 

 beauxite— the oxide of aluminium, alumina, 

 in fact — is dissolved by molten cryolite, the 

 double silicate of aluminium and sodium, 

 and that the latter, while dissolving the 

 former freely and serving as an ideal sol- 

 vent, also itself broke up under the action 

 of the electric current at a much higher 

 voltage than alumina. So far as known, 

 these are the only substances in nature 

 which stand to each other in such relations 

 as to permit commercial production of the 

 metal, and Charles M. Hall, the inventor of 



the process which now practically gives to 

 the world its whole annual product of 

 thousands of tons of aluminium, was at 

 once inventor, discoverer and scientific and 

 successful investigator. The incident of 

 the discovery of a method of production of 

 a new commercial metal for employment in 

 the useful arts in enormous and rapidly in- 

 creasing quantity thus illustrates the char- 

 acteristic element of each of the great de- 

 partments of research. 



The instrumentalities of successful re- 

 search are essentially three, genius, appa- 

 ratus, organization ; yet valuable work: may 

 be done, where the problem is simple and 

 definite, by the steady worker, well-in- 

 formed, intelligent and industrious, even 

 though not a genius. The first and high- 

 est class of work is illustrated by that of 

 a Davy, a Faraday or a Rowland or a 

 Rankine ; the second is daily exemplified 

 by the investigations of the engineer, the 

 metallurgist, the industrial chemist or 

 even by the average business man collecting 

 facts relating to his vocation and reducing 

 to practical application the results of ordi- 

 nary every-day investigations of the state 

 of the market, the condition of the crops, or 

 the accumulated stocks of the trade. The 

 now common method of graphical record of 

 the course of prices, wages and production 

 permits every business man to discover the 

 trend of change and the probable values of 

 the immediate future. This is as truly 

 research as is much of the scientific work 

 of the chemist, the physicist or the astron- 

 omer. 



Yet, for successful revelation of the pre- 

 viously mysterious secrets of nature, the 

 highest genius, the most complete equip- 

 ment for investigation and the perfect 

 organization of a staff must often be made 

 to conspire. 



The provision of extensive organizations 

 for the special work of research is now 

 coming to be an established and recognized 



