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Charles Martin Hall
(6 Dec 1863 - 27 Dec 1914)
American chemist who invented (1886) an inexpensive electro-chemical method to extract aluminium from its ore. The process quickly enabled commercial production of this metal, at prices competitive with steel and copper. Aluminium, once a precious metal used for fine jewelry, by 1914 was down to 18 cents a pound.
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Science Quotes by Charles Martin Hall (5 quotes)
Aluminum has … a kind of “glamor” associated with it, due to two facts, the first being that it is really useful, durable and beautiful, combined with the other fact, which has little to do with its commercial importance, that its ores are more abundant than of any other metal and constitute a large portion of the earth’s crust.
— Charles Martin Hall
In article by Chas. M. Hall, 'The Properties of Aluminum', Western Electrician (30 May 1891), 8, No. 22, 312.
I read about Deville’s work in France, and found the statement that every clay bank was a mine of aluminum, and that the metal was as costly as silver. I soon after began to think of processes for making aluminum cheaply.
— Charles Martin Hall
In 'The Perkin Medal Award', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Mar 1911), 3, No. 3, 146.
My first knowledge of chemistry was gained as a schoolboy at Oberlin, Ohio, from reading a book on chemistry which my father studied in college in the forties. I still have the book.
— Charles Martin Hall
In 'The Perkin Medal Award', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Mar 1911), 3, No. 3, 146.
The idea formed itself in my mind that if I could get a solution of alumina in something which contained no water, and in a solvent which was chemically more stable than the alumina, this would probably give a bath from which aluminum could be obtained by electrolysis.
— Charles Martin Hall
In 'The Perkin Medal Award', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Mar 1911), 3, No. 3, 147.
The world has been centuries in learning to use other metals; in learning to roll, draw, temper and polish them. Aluminum is new. but we are learning how to deal with it, how to secure the qualities of strength, hardness, ductility, lustre, etc., when required, much more rapidly than has occurred in the history of the other metals.
— Charles Martin Hall
Conclusion of article, Chas. M. Hall, 'The Properties of Aluminum', Western Electrician (30 May 1891), 8, No. 22, 312.
Quotes by others about Charles Martin Hall (2)
Aluminium’s sixty-year reign as the world’s most precious substance was glorious, but soon an American chemist [Charles Hall] ruined everything.
— Sam Kean
In The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (2010), 235.
Aluminum has been called the sustainability nutrient of the world, and for good reason. Consider that 75% of all the aluminum made since 1886 is still in use. So from a sustainability standpoint alone, yes, [Charles] Hall really did become that benefactor to humanity—big time.
As quoted in 'Alcoa Co-Founder Charles Hall Smelt Success' (20 Jul 2012), article on investors.com website.
See also:
- 6 Dec - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Hall's birth.
- Charles Martin Hall, Creator of the Aluminum Age - from The World’s Work (1914).
- Charles Hall: Invention of the Aluminum Process - Perkin Medal Award Speech (1911)
- Properties of Aluminum - by Charles Hall, from Western Electrician (1891).
- Made of Aluminum: A Life of Charles Martin Hall, by Rosamond McPherson Young. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
