page_title: History of aluminium
section_title: Early industrial production
hierarchical_section_title: History of aluminium / Early industrial production
caption_attribution_description: Henri Sainte-Claire Deville (Graphic: 7.5 x 6.4 cm)
context_page_description: Aluminium metal is very rare in native form, and the process to refine it from ores is complex, so for most of human history it was unknown. However, the compound alum has been known since the 5th century BCE and was used extensively by the ancients for dyeing. During the Middle Ages, its use for dyeing made it a commodity of international commerce. Renaissance scientists believed alum was a salt of a new earth; during the Age of Enlightenment, it was established that this earth, alumina, was an oxide of a new metal. Discovery of this metal was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, whose work was extended by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.
  Aluminium was difficult to refine and thus uncommon in actual usage. Soon after its discovery, the price of aluminium exceeded that of gold. It was only reduced after the initiation of the first industrial production by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856.
context_section_description: My first thought was I had laid my hands on this intermediate metal which would find its place in man's uses and needs when we would find the way of taking it out of the chemists' laboratory and putting it in the industry. 
  — Preface of Aluminium, its properties, manufacture and applications, book written by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1859
  Since Wöhler's method could not yield large amounts of aluminium, the metal remained uncommon; its cost had exceeded that of gold before a new method was devised. Prices followed: in 1852, aluminium was sold at US$34 per ounce. In comparison, the price of gold at the time was $19 per ounce.
  French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville announced an industrial method of aluminium production in 1854 at the Paris Academy of Sciences. Aluminium chloride could be reduced by sodium, a metal more convenient and less expensive than potassium used by Wöhler. Deville was able to produce an ingot of the metal. Napoleon III of France promised Deville an unlimited subsidy for aluminium research; in total, Deville used 36,000 French francs—20 times the annual income of an ordinary family. Napoleon's interest in aluminium lay in its potential military use: he wished weapons, helmets, armor, and other equipment for the French army could be made of the new light, shiny metal. While the metal was still not displayed to the public, Napoleon is reputed to have held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminium utensils while others made do with gold.
  Twelve small ingots of aluminium were later exhibited for the first time to the public at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. The metal was presented as "the silver from clay" (aluminium is very similar to silver visually), and this name was soon widely used. It attracted widespread attention; it was suggested aluminium be used in arts, music, medicine, cooking, and tableware. The metal was noticed by the avant-garde writers of the time—Charles Dickens, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and Jules Verne—who envisioned its use in the future. However, not all of attention was favorable. Newspapers wrote, "The Parisian expo put an end to the fairy tale of the silver from clay", saying that much of what had been said about the metal was exaggerated if not untrue and that the amount of the presented metal—about a kilogram—contrasted with what had been expected and was "not a lot for a discovery that was said to turn the world upside down". Overall, the fair led to the eventual commercialization of the metal. That year, aluminium was put to the market at a price of 300 F per kilogram. At the next fair in Paris in 1867, visitors were presented with aluminium wire and foil as well a new alloy—aluminium bronze, notable for its low cost of production, high resistance to corrosion, and desirable mechanical properties.
  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 soon developed into what became known as the Deville 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 s
caption: Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville was the first to establish a method to manufacture aluminium.
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