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33 ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES • OCTOBER 2014
lower-cost raw materials and more economical elec-
trical power. In addition, this search for backward in-
tegration was a necessary part of the company plan to
exclude competition after the Hall patents expired in
1909. Electrical power was the costliest ingredient in
aluminum production. By 1909, the company (re-
named the Aluminum Company of America, or
Alcoa for short) had secured water rights along the
Little Tennessee River. They built dams, power
plants, and a smelter around a small settlement they
called Alcoa, Tenn.
Because the known reserves of domestic bauxite
were inadequate, Alcoa searched overseas for all fu-
ture supplies. Their largest investment was in the
British and Dutch Guineas where vast reserves were
located. The company also began producing a syn-
thetic cryolite to replace the natural mineral, as the
only available source of natural cryolite was in Green-
land. The cryolite was used to dissolve alumina for
the electrolytic processing to make aluminummetal.
World War I
Alcoa had fully integrated from mine to alu-
minum metal by the time of increased demand after
1910, especially with the start of World War I. They
had also moved forward into production of many fin-
ished products. Alcoa became a major force in the
worldwide aluminum industry. Although there were
a number of competitors overseas, especially in
France and Switzerland, Alcoa was protected by high
tariffs during the prewar years and by wartime needs
after 1915. The company sold its inventory of alu-
minum to the European powers allied against Ger-
many in 1915 and 1916. Production was then
purchased for U.S. defense use in the remaining years
of the war. The bulk of all aluminum sold during this
period went into munitions. As a powder, it was
mixed with ammonium nitrate to form a high explo-
sive. Other defense applications helped promote
postwar uses for the metal, for example, specification
of aluminum alloys for the Liberty engine used in
most American aircraft built during the war.
Alcoa achieved pretax earnings of $4 to $6 million
during each year between 1909, when the patents ex-
pired, and 1914. Earnings increased to $9 million in
1915, and then $25 million in 1916, $20 million in
1917, and $15 million in 1918. By 1919, Alcoa had cor-
porate equity of $100 million, mainly from retained
earnings. Of this equity, $60 million was earned during
WWI. Alcoa’s strong position in later years was a di-
rect result of the enormous profits from the war.
Ongoing research
Numerous technical problems arose during the
war years for which Alcoa was unprepared. Castings
for the Liberty aircraft motor, engine pistons, and
many other applications posed special problems
throughout the aluminum foundry industry. The pri-
mary embarrassment for the company was its inabil-
ity to produce the new German alloy called
Duralumin. This alloy, which could be hardened by
precipitation of a second phase, was used on all Ger-
man Zeppelins built during the war. It was also being
manufactured and used by France and Great Britain
in limited aircraft applications.
The delay in undertaking research and develop-
ment was due to Hall’s reluctance to employ person-
nel trained in science, as this was his field of expertise
and he jealously guarded it. After Hall died of
leukemia in 1914 at the age of 51, management could
now remedy this important deficiency. The man they
hired was Francis C. Frary. He graduated in chem-
istry from the University of Minnesota and attended
the University of Berlin for two years before receiving
his doctorate from Minnesota. He taught there for
several years and then moved on to perform research
in industry. During the war, he went into the army to
work in chemical warfare and joined Alcoa in 1919
as director of research. Frary continued to head re-
search at Alcoa for the next 33 years, where he built
one of the best laboratories in the country. In 1946,
he received the Perkins Medal from the American
Chemical Society, which Hall had received in 1912.
For more information:
Charles R. Simcoe can be reached at .
For more metallurgical history, visit .
Francis C. Frary,
Alcoa’s first director
of research. His
team developed
numerous alloys
that became basic
structures for
aircraft and
industrial uses.
Courtesy of
.
WearEver aluminum cooking utensils were the Pittsburgh
Reduction Company’s first consumer products. Courtesy
of .
The 1924 Studebaker Light Six, part of the Studebaker
National Museum collection in South Bend, Ind., features
an all-aluminum body. Public domain image.