ALCOA, AN AMERICAN ENTERPRISE

Alcoa is the industrial abbreviation for the Aluminum Corporation of America, and this is the story of man's discovery and use of what is perhaps the most important of all metals to the modern world. It was as recently as 1886 that Charles Hall, an American, and Sainte-Claire Deville, a French scientist, discovered the practical, cheap process for making aluminum. Patenting his process, Hall took it, and himself, to the Cowles Electric Smelting & Aluminum Co. Later the Pittsburgh Production Co. took over, grew into the giant Aloca. Early patent problems, anti-trust litigation, constant laboratory testing and improvement round out the story, make it of value to the interested adult, the budding high-school industrial scientist.