He
found that a Greenland mineral, known as cryolite (a double fluoride of
sodium and aluminum), was readily fused and would dissolve alumina
(aluminum oxide). When an electric current was passed through the melted
mass the metal aluminum would collect at one of the poles.
In working out the process and defending his claims Hall used up all his
own money, his brother's and his uncle's, but he won out in the end and
Judge Taft held that his patent had priority over the French claim of
Herault. On his death, a few years ago, Hall left his large fortune to
his Alma Mater, Oberlin.
Two other young men from Ohio, Alfred and Eugene Cowles, with whom Hall
was for a time associated, wore the first to develop the wide
possibilities of the electric furnace on a commercial scale. In 1885
they started the Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company at
Lockport, New York, using Niagara power. The various aluminum bronzes
made by absorbing the electrolyzed aluminum in copper attracted
immediate attention by their beauty and usefulness in electrical work
and later the company turned out other products besides aluminum, such
as calcium carbide, phosphorus, and carborundum.
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