Hungry Horse news., 1955-04-15
Frenchmen Aid in AAC Plant DESIGN

The upper Flathead first settled
by French Canadians in the 1905
now sees a French settlement in
Columbia Falls helping create the
new $50,000,000' Anaconda Alumni
mum Co. plant.
Seventy and more years ago
this section of the Flathead had
its Gagners, Martins, Lawrences,
Tetraults and Trahans.
Now there is Monsieur and Mad
anne Jean, Collet OF Paris; Monsieur
and Madame Albert Gerelle and
Michele, S, of st. Jean de Maur-
ienne, and Marcel Ambulant of Sa-
bart. Four additional Frenchmen
are coming in May.
International aspect is further
ed by Andre Imbert, q, a blonde
six foot Frenchman, who is inter-
prefer. Imbert, now an American
citizen and former Gonzaga uni
versity engineering student, is a
native of Alsace, France. He was
drafted into the German airforce
when Is. After the war he re-
turned to Alsace and enlisted in
the French air force, and coming
to the United States at the time
of the Korean conflict saw two
years duty in the American Army
including an overseas assignment
Collet, Gerelle and Ambulant are
employees of the Compagnie d.
Produits Chimiques ct Electro
metallurque "Pechiney", a com.
pany that is observing its 100tl
anniversary this year. This com.
pany referred to as Pechiney i
the largest aluminium producer il
France.
A century ago aluminium was s.
valuable that Napoleon III ha,
table settings made of the meta
then more precious than gold.
Chemist identified with the frs
aluminium production in 1855 wa
Henry Sainte-Claire Deville.
Then in 1886 two 81 year-ol
men, Charles Martin Hall, Ameri
can at Oberlin university, Ohio
and Paul Heroult in France stimuli
taneously discovered the electro
+ metallurg ical principle of maxim
aluminium that is forerunner {
modern methods. In 1885 tn
worlds output of aluminium wa
Is tons. Now it is over 100000
tons, and second only to stet
among metals.
When Anaconda Copper Mimi
Co. decided to enter the aluminium
production field, they sent eng
neers to study processes of plan
in this country and Europe.
The Pechiney company at S
Jean de Maurienne, about 80 mile
from the Italian border. and
from Switzerland, had improve
on the original Soderberg ele,
trode. The French were using We
teal pins, 100000 ampere anode
and covered pots.
This added up to a process
aluminium manufacture h {
achieved maximum control of a
pollution as well as more aluminu
per kilowatt of electricity.
Type of pot used by Pechin'
at ST. Jean de Maurienne is beil
b installed in the Flathead of Mo-
B tana. The 240 pots, each about
q feet long, will produce 10000 to
q of aluminium a year from 1900
~ tons of alumina, which is chem
=. cally refined bauxite, the ella
like aluminium ore.
Mr.. Collett arrived in Februal
b He is a native of Lyon on t
i Rhone river, and has worked I
Pechiney for 80 years. His positi
in France is engineer assistant
Jean Grolee, chief of the Pechin
aluminium department, Paris. Pee
iney has nine aluminium plants a
a three that produce. alumina. T
Collets have a married daugh
n in France.
/ Mrs. Collet is quiet lady, W
reads, crochets, and is a fine CO
Gerelle was born in Suss
England in 1917 of British mo-
- er and French father with the ia
(Piease turn to page ~