MANUFACTURE OF ALUMINIUM. 
055 
which give issue to the sodium, produce this metal at a low 
temperature, perhaps near to the fusing point of silver. At 
present our cylinders are heated much less than the vessels 
which are employed in the manufacture of zinc. I am, at 
this moment, occupying myself with the production of sodium 
in continuous apparatus. 
I have entirely suppressed the distillation of sodium, which 
is now obtained pure from the first jet. 
As regards the reaction of chloride of aluminium on so- 
dium, it is performed also in metallic tubes, whose form and 
management are not very industrial. In this last operation, 
my yield still leaves something to be desired ; but 1 think 
that these difficulties, which can be solved only by experi- 
ments, the plan of which is already devised, will not long 
impede my progress. I shall soon, 1 hope, have the honour 
of submitting them to the Academy. 
The specimens mentioned in this note were submitted by 
the Academy of Sciences to a Committee composed of MM. 
Elie de Beaumont, Dufrenoy, Babinet, and De Senarmont. 
M. Dumas, in presenting the note and the specimens 
(large and beautiful masses of chloride of aluminium, and 
metallic sodium, and aluminium in bars), on the part of 
M. H. Sainte-Claire Deville, made the following obser- 
vations : 
The manufacture of chloride of aluminium having already 
been carried to the extent of between 200 and 300 kilo- 
grammes, we may be satisfied that it has become susceptible 
of a completely industrial progress. 
That of sodium, so happily transformed by M. Deville, 
furnishes this metal with surprising regularity and facility. 
As both the chloride of aluminium and the sodium are pure, 
the aluminium which they furnish is equally so. 
The materials for making one kilogramme of aluminium, 
that is to say, ammonia-alum, the alumina which results from 
it, the chlorine, the charcoal, the carbonate of soda, and the 
chalk, are all very cheap ; it w ould not appear surprising that 
their total is already reduced to 32 francs at most (about 13 
shillings per pound), if, when the experiments in question 
were commenced, sodium had not cost 1000 francs the kilo- 
gramme (£20 per pound), which, on this head alone, brought 
the cost of aluminium to nearly 3000 francs the kilogramme 
(£60 per pound). 
The Academy will remark, that not only have the opera- 
tions at the manufactory of St. Javel placed beyond doubt 
the possibility of extracting aluminium, on a large scale, by 
