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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| History of aluminium | 4/7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aluminium | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:15:10.045847+00:00 | kb-cron |
Manufacturers did not wish to divert resources from producing well-known (and marketable) metals, such as iron and bronze, to experiment with a new one; moreover, produced aluminium was still not of great purity and differed in properties by sample. This led to an initial general reluctance to produce the new metal. Deville and partners established the world's first industrial production of aluminium at a smelter in Rouen in 1856. Deville's smelter moved that year to La Glacière and then Nanterre, and in 1857 to Salindres. For the factory in Nanterre, an output of 2 kilograms of aluminium per day was recorded, with a purity of 98%. Originally, production started with synthesis of pure alumina, which was obtained from calcination of ammonium alum. In 1858, Deville was introduced to bauxite and, in collaboration with Louis Le Châtelier, soon developed what became known as the Deville–Pechiney process, employing the mineral as a source for alumina production. In 1860, Deville sold his aluminium interests to Henri Merle, a founder of Compagnie d'Alais et de la Camargue; this company dominated the aluminium market in France decades later.
Some chemists, including Deville, sought to use cryolite as the source ore, but with little success. British engineer William Gerhard set up a plant with cryolite as the primary raw material in Battersea, London, in 1856, but technical and financial difficulties forced the closure of the plant in three years. British ironmaster Isaac Lowthian Bell produced aluminium from 1860 to 1874. During the opening of his factory, he waved to the crowd with a unique and costly aluminium top hat. No statistics about this production can be recovered, but it "cannot be very high". Deville's output grew to 1 metric ton per year in 1860; 1.7 metric tons in 1867; and 1.8 metric tons in 1872. At the time, demand for aluminium was low: for example, sales of Deville's aluminium by his British agents equaled 15 kilograms in 1872. Aluminium at the time was often compared with silver; like silver, it was found to be suitable for making jewelry and objéts d'art. Price for aluminium steadily declined to 240 F in 1859; 200 F in 1862; 120 F in 1867. Other production sites began to appear in the 1880s. British engineer James Fern Webster launched the industrial production of aluminium by reduction with sodium in 1882; his aluminium was much purer than Deville's (it contained 0.8% impurities whereas Deville's typically contained 2%). World production of aluminium in 1884 equaled 3.6 metric tons. In 1884, American architect William Frishmuth combined production of sodium, alumina, and aluminium into a single technological process; this contrasted with the previous need to collect sodium, which combusts in water and sometimes air; his aluminium production cost was about $16 per pound (compare to silver's cost of $19 per pound, or the French price, an equivalent of $12 per pound). In 1885, Aluminium- und Magnesiumfabrik started production in Hemelingen. Its production figures strongly exceeded those of the factory in Salindres but the factory stopped production in 1888. In 1886, American engineer Hamilton Castner devised a method of cheaper production of sodium, which decreased the cost of aluminium production to $8 per pound, but he did not have enough capital to construct a large factory like Deville's. In 1887, he constructed a factory in Oldbury; Webster constructed a plant nearby and bought Castner's sodium to use it in his own production of aluminium. In 1889, German metallurgist Curt Netto launched a method of reduction of cryolite with sodium that produced aluminium containing 0.5–1.0% of impurities.
== Electrolytic production and commercialization == I'm going for that metal.