Amid the rattle of pots and pans Uncle sat down to try and figure out how out been grea' cert But what Uncle Sam more than CE gold, is is never fe stead it is always in a other elements. In fact aluminium's "abhorrence for'isolation" kept it locked in the earth until 1825. when the Danish chemist. Hans Christian Oersted. coaxed it from its prison by gently heating aluminium chloride and potassium So laborious was the early method of processing aluminium tha? a pound sold for $545. Later experiments lessened the price to $17 in 1859, when the world's yearly production was exactly two tons. But it was not until 1886 that Charles Martin Hall just graduated from Oberlin College. developed a process which revolutionized the industry and made aluminium available at less than 20 cents a pound.
After experimenting for several months with an odd assortment of battery jars and equipment Mr. Hall passed an electric current through some cryolite a sodium aluminium florida mineral. with aluminium oxide dissolved in it. As the aluminium oxide was separated into its component parts of aluminium and oxygen the young chemist found to his delight some shiny globules in his crucible. These bits of metallic aluminium became the crown jewels of a new industry.
While aluminium occurs in most clay, or kaolin. a particular abundance of it has been found in bauxite. a mineral compound of alumni: ium, oxygen and chemically combined ware: and more recenty in alunite. a hydrated basic aluminium and potassium sulphate found in great abundance in western United States.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.