 
First Process for Making Aluminum
In 1885, Charles Martin Hall, a native of Thompson, Ohio, and graduate
of Oberlin College, discovered the first practical process for making
aluminum from bauxite ore. The process opened the way for widespread use of aluminum in
consumer and other products.
 The story goes that while attending Oberlin,
Hall's professor, Frank Jewett, showed a small piece of aluminum to the
students and predicted that anyone who could come up with an economical way to
create aluminum would become quite rich. Hall apparently took the idea to
heart, built a small lab at his home, and continued experimenting after
graduating until he solved the puzzle. He figured out how to make aluminum. In February, 1886, Hall filled a carbon crucible with a cryolite bath
containing alumina and passed an electric current through it. The resulting mass
contained several pellets of pure aluminum.
The electrolytic method - the Hall-Heroult process –
remains the basis of the world’s aluminum industry. However, turning the
experiment into an industry took a great deal of support and funding.
 In 1888, Hall and financier
Alfred E. Hunt founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which now is the
Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). Aluminum once cost more per ounce than
gold. By 1914, Hall’s process reduced its price to 18 cents a pound.
Hall's professor was right. Hall made a
fortune on the process. He left much of the proceeds to Oberlin College and other
educational institutions. ALCOA has remained the world’s leading aluminum
company.
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