David Schenkman writes:

Aluminum, that wonderful new metal! Eulogized onmedals of the early 1890s as malleable, tasteless, sonorous,ductile, untarnishable, odorless, and one-quarter the weightof silver, it is no wonder that this "discovery" would capturethe fancy of a nation. However, as we shall see, aluminumwas hardly a newly discovered metal in the last decade of thenineteenth century. In this article we will review nineteenthand early twentieth century efforts to manufacturealuminum, trace the early history of a company whose growthis intertwined inseparably with the metal, and discuss theearly usage of aluminum in numismatics.

The first significant attempt to isolate aluminum from alumina (aluminum oxide) was by an English electrochemist. Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1807. Convinced that alumina had ametallic base, he named the metal alumium, later revising the word to aluminum. This name has remained unchanged to the present time, although the English spelling is usually aluminium.

In Philadelphia, at Col. William Frishmuth's chemicalworks, a 100 ounce aluminum pyramid was cast in 1884.After being placed on exhibit at the Fifth Avenue showroomof Tiffany's in New York City, it was mounted on the top ofthe Washington Monument. This was undoubtedly the bestknown usage of aluminum prior to the Hall process. Thepyramid, incidently, was removed for inspection fifty yearslater; it had remained in good condition, and after a thoroughcleaning the inscriptions could still be read.No longer was the problem how to manufacture themetal - now what was needed was a method for producingit inexpensively. At $17 an ounce (in 1854) it was worthnearly its weight in gold. In 1886 the price of $8 a pound still made it prohibitive for use in industry. Since sodium, the keyelement in the process, was the most costly item (and nearlythree pounds were needed to produce one pound ofaluminum), most research during this period was directedtowards finding less expensive methods for its extraction.It remained for a twenty-two year old inventor, working in a makeshift laboratory, to discover that which had eludedscientists for years.

Charles Martin Hall was truly one of the giants ofAmerican industrial history. Born 6 December 1863 at Thompson, Ohio, he was the son of a minister. When he wasnine years of age his family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, whereyoung Charles developed an absorbing interest in chemistry.

In 1880 Charles enrolled in Oberlin College, a liberalarts school. He took those chemistry courses which wereoffered, supplementing his interest by studying at home.Frank F. Jewett, his chemistry professor, recalled that even when in high school, Charles would visit the collegelaboratory to purchase equipment for his experiments.On one occasion he confided to the professor that he wasexperimenting with ways to produce aluminum from its ores.

To read the complete article on the Newman Portal, see:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/525533?page=10

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
VOCABULARY TERM: ALUMINUM(http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n24a12.html)