Charles Martin Hall (December 6, 1863 – December 27, 1914) was an American inventor, businessman, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminium, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron. He was one of the founders of Alcoa, They returned to Ohio in 1860, after the outbreak of the Civil War forced the closing of foreign missions. Charles Hall had two brothers and five sisters; one brother died in infancy. One of his sisters was chemist Julia Brainerd Hall (1859–1925), who helped him in his research.

Hall began his education at home, and he was taught to read at an early age by his mother. At age 8, he entered public school, and progressed rapidly.

In his second term, Hall attended, with considerable interest, Oberlin Professor Frank Fanning Jewett's lecture on aluminum; it was here that Jewett displayed the sample of aluminum he had obtained from Friedrich Wöhler at Göttingen, and remarked, "if anyone should invent a process by which aluminum could be made on a commercial scale, not only would he be a benefactor to the world, but would also be able to lay up for himself a great fortune". The basic invention, which he discovered on February 23, 1886, involves passing an electric current through a bath of alumina dissolved in cryolite, which results in a puddle of aluminum forming in the bottom of the retort.

After failing to find financial backing at home, Hall went to Pittsburgh, where he made contact with noted metallurgist Alfred E. Hunt. They formed the Reduction Company of Pittsburgh, which opened the first large-scale aluminum production plants. The Reduction Company later became the Aluminum Company of America, then Alcoa. Hall was a major stockholder, and became wealthy.

Hall is sometimes suggested to be the originator of the American spelling of "aluminum", but that spelling was used briefly by Humphry Davy in the early 1800s and was the spelling in Noah Webster's Dictionary of 1828. "Aluminium" was used widely in the United States until 1895 or 1900, and "aluminum" was not officially adopted by the American Chemical Society until 1925. Hall's early patents use the spelling "aluminium". In the United Kingdom and other countries using British spelling, only the spelling "aluminium" is now used. The spelling in virtually all other languages is analogous to the "-ium" ending.

Hall died, unmarried and childless, on December 27, 1914, twenty-one days after he had reached the age of 51, in Daytona, Florida. He was buried in Westwood Cemetery in Oberlin.

Awards and honors

Hall was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1898. He won the Perkin Medal, the highest award that the American section of the Society of Chemical Industry bestows, in 1911. In 1997, the production of aluminum by electrochemistry discovered by Hall was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society.

Hall eventually became one of Oberlin College's most prominent benefactors, and an aluminum statue of him exists on the campus. Because of its light weight, Hall's statue was once known for its frequent changes of location, often due to student pranks. Today the statue is glued to a large granite block and sits more permanently on the second floor of Oberlin's science center, where students continue to decorate Hall with appropriate trappings on holidays and other occasions.

The Jewett home is preserved in Oberlin as the Oberlin Heritage Center. The center features an exhibit called Aluminum: The Oberlin Connection, which includes a re-creation of Hall's 1886 woodshed experiment. The Hall House is also preserved in Oberlin, although the woodshed was demolished long ago.

Patents

  • US Patent 400,664, Process of reducing aluminium from its fluoride salts by electrolysis — C. M. Hall, applied 1886, granted 1889. TIFF Image of page from USPTO.

See also

  • History of aluminium

References

  • Finding Aid RG 30/182 – Charles Martin Hall (1863–1914), Oberlin College Archives