The story of Pittsburgh: Diversified products

Diversified products (Vol. 1, nr. 13)

Bibliographic data

Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1831622599

Document type:: Multivolume work

Title:: The story of Pittsburgh

Place of publication:: Pittsburgh

Publisher:: First National Bank

Year of publication:: 1919-1930

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 183162365X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-241129

Document type:: Volume

Title:: Diversified products

Volume count:: Vol. 1, nr. 13

Place of publication:: Pittsburgh

Publisher:: First National Bank

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: [ca. 80] Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Aluminum company of America

Collection:: Economics Books

Aluminum can be extracted only from a single widely- scattered and generally little known mineral called bauxite, and the expense of extracting it from that mineral is very heavy. The presence of aluminum in the earth’s crust was known to scientists for many years before it was actually isolated and obtained in metallic form. It was a young American, Charles Martin Hall, who made the momentous discovery, in 1886, that has given aluminum to the world. He was only 22 years of age at the time, and a student of Oberlin College. Mr. Hall applied for a patent covering his discovery, in the year named, but it was not issued until 1889. The patent expired in 1904. In 1888 Mr. Hall associated himself with some other yeung men in Pittsburgh, and formed the Aluminum Com- pany of America. These men are the pioneers of the alumi- num industry, and, except as death has thinned their ranks, they and their company have developed aluminum, in the short space of 38 years, from a laboratory curiosity into cne of the most important metals of everyday use. It was under the guidance of these men that aluminum in the United States was reduced in price from $8 a pcund to 25 cents pound, and its uses extended to such a degree that it is now a necessity of civilized life. In the year 1888 there was no consumption of aluminum at all; today the world is consuming the metal at the rate of 250,000,000 pounds a year. This indispensable metal is chiefly the product of labor. A ton of the material has a value in excess of $500. The raw materials, unimproved by labor, required to produce this ton of aluminum, are not worth over $25. Least valuable of all is the bauxite, which must be mined, treated, transported and put through an elaborate chemical process. Coal must be mined, trans- ported, and its energy turned into steam; limestone must be quarried, transported and treated; common salt must be produced and put through an extensive chemical process to produce soda ash; cryolite is produced in the Arctic Circle and brought from that distant field; fluorspar is mined at considerable hazard and expense, and is highly treated; the carbons used are the product of elaborate manufacture, using

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