In 1886 both Charles Martin Hall of Ohio and Paul Heroult of Paris, discovered the electrolytic process for producing aluminum. Their method, now known as the Hall-Heroult process, is still used today. This box contains Hall’s earliest globules of aluminum, varying in diameter from about a sixteenth of an inch to four inches. Their discoveries led to the establishment of commercial aluminum producing industries on both sides of the Atlantic by 1888. Hall’s patent was taken up by a group of Pittsburgh entrepreneurs, and the resulting company is today Alcoa.
								Charles Martin Hall American, 1863–1914 Globules of aluminum, 1886–88 aluminum largest: H. 1 x Diam. 4 in. (2.5 x 10.2 cm) Collection of Alcoa Inc.