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would leave 60 per cent of water present in the reaction which is troublesome a t any time. Further it would be impossible to use formaldehyde and a small amount of ammonia in the same way in the reaction where phenol resins are hardened by the action of hexamethylenetetramine. The me of free formaldehyde and a small amount of ammonia makes a resin with a blinding, stifling odor of formaldehyde which can not possibly be used commercially, while the use of hexamethylenetetramine gives an odorless, molding compound which can be used anywhere with the greatest ease. Indeed, it is significant that the phenol condensation products, used for molding, to-day, show the presence of more than two and one-half per cent of ammonia, which indicates that if the ammonia be reckoned as a supposed condensing agent i t is used in a t least doubk a fifth of a mol. of the condensing agent to one mol. of phenol. In Dr. Baekeland’s patent No. 1,038,175 on a divisional application filed July 6, 1911, and granted September 12, 1912, lines 78 to 90, Dr. Baekeland adds: “If this base be ammonia, it will immediately react with formaldehyde to form hexamethylenetetramine, as pointe‘d out in my prior U. S. Patent No. 942,809 issued December 7, 1909. So that the technical effect is the same whether hexamethylenetetramine be introduced as such or as a mixture of ammonia and formaldehyde.” But this second date of application is subsequent t o the work which the writer did in the University of Kansas on hexamethylenetetramine and the patent itself is granted subsequent to many of the patents issued to Aylesworth on the hardening of phenol resins with hexamethylenetetramine, and further in view of the decision of the patent office rendered Nov. 11, 1914, which stated that there was no indication in any of Dr. Baekeland’s application that water had been excluded, i t becomes impossible t o contend further that the Doctor was aware of such a reaction as the use of phenol and hexamethylenetetramine in the anhydrous condition previous to our discoveries. L. V. REDMAN, A. J. WEITH AND F. P. BROCK LABORATORIES, REDMANOL CHEMICAL PRODUCTSCOMPANY 636-678 W. 22nd STREET, CHICAGO
ON THE PRODUCTION OF ALUMINUM Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: I have noticed in the technical press, references to an address made by Dr. C. F. Chandler and printed in your Journal. The address contains the following: “Chas. Hall, a Perkin medalist, had brought out his beautiful nd simple process for extracting aluminum from alumina in 1886, and had given a practically new metal to the world to replace copper, tin, and zinc in many arts.” , To the best of my knowledge the above is entirely incorrect. I left the employ of the Cowles Electric Smelting Company January I , 1887. Hall had a t that time not yet come with this Company. I believe he started to workin July, 1887. Romaine Colewas then, and had been for some time, with the company. When Hall and Cole broke away from the company they attempted to use external heat only and ‘did not produce any aluminum until (1889) they appropriated Cowles’ ideas which Heroult and Minet had already appropriated and produced aluminum. Now, as I remember it, using external heating, neither Hall nor Heroult in Europe ever evolved a process that gave an ounce of pure aluminum or that was in any wise different from what Gratzel had been doing three or four years previous a t Bremen, where he was employing externally heated crucibles with cryolite and alumina. I n the Journal of Franklin Institute, Feb., 1886, pages 118 and 119, there occurs the following: “The future of the process is one of great promise, and will undoubtedly lead to the production of cheap and pure aluminum itself within a very brief period. Indeed, ‘The Cowles Electric Smelting Company’ asserts, on the back page of its pamphlet, that it expects to put the pure metal on the market within a year. When you are informed that we can charge iron, man-
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ganese, tin, copper, nickel, etc., with a very high percentage of metallic aluminum in this furnace, and that, also, without any base metal in the furnace, we can saturate the charcoal contained therein with metallic aluminum, most of which will be in a state of mechanical mixture with the carbon; and further, that we have produced specimens of aluminum 99 per cent pure in a t least three different methods by the electric furnace; and that notwithstanding all this we have not made much of an effort in this direction, the majority of you will agree that the great problem of producing pure and cheap aluminum is practically solved. How cheap this method will be you may judge from the fact that, a t our Lockport works, which will have a capacity of only two or three tons per day, we expect to produce the aluminum in bronze with the little silicon contained in it a t a cost not to exceed 40 c. per lb., or with copper a t 12 c. per lb., the bronze will really cost but about 15 c. per lb. “In truth, ‘The Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company’ is founded upon the faith that ere long we shall be marketing pure aluminum at a cost not exceeding 50 or 60 c. per lb. An appreciation of how cheap this would be, can be had from the fact that one lb. of aluminum would go about as far as three and one-half of copper, it being that much more bulky, and in reality it would be about as cheap as copper at 18 c. per lb., without counting its vast superiority over copper for many purposes on account of its greater lightness and resistance to corrosive influence.” [NOTE-since the above paper was filed with the Secretary of the Institute, it was found possible to prolong the length of the “heat” of the furnace for five hours, and increase the charges t o over IOO pounds in weight, and during the same week a button of cast aluminum, five ounces in weight, was separated from the matrix of carbon, in which i t was reduced by a process so simple and economical, that the production of pure aluminum from its oxide by the agency of heat and carbon only, is now demonstrated beyond all question.-E. H. C . ] Cowles a t this time was working on aluminum from alumina. If you are interested in the history of the Cowles, Cole and Hall controversy which took so many years in the courts, and concerning which I believe I talked with you personally (as I was called in from time to time on i t and therefore interested), I would refer you t o my brother, Cecil L. Saunders, Ithaca, N. Y., who has a large number of letters from Hall t o Cole, written during these early years, the contents of which will clear the matter for all time. Romaine Cole was my brother’s brother-in-law, and these letters came to my brother upon Romaine’s death, and it is a pity that they were not produced many years before to have settled that tedious heart breaking litigation. I hope the letters will be used. The above is simply an attempt to set the records straight. PHILADELPHIA WM. E. SACNDERS February 14, 1916
ON THE HISTORY OF ALUMINUM Editor of The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: The correct history of the production of aluminum will be interesting to your readers, and a portion of this correct history is found in the excellent translation by Dr Leonard Waldo, of New York, of the volume entitled “The Production of Aluminum, Etc.,” by Adolphe Minet (Officer of public instruction, and Editor of “L’Electrochemie,” Paris), in the chapter by Dr. Waldo on “Aluminum in the United States” wherein Dr. Waldo, referring to those “Masters of Fire” the Cowles brothers (Alfred and Eugene) states as follows: “The testimony of these gentlemen in the long continued patent litigation forms the most important source of history in this connection. A sketch in the notebook of Mr. Eugene H. Cowles dated June, 1883, and bearing the title “Proposed Electric Furnace for Working Pecos Ores,” contains the essentials of the later patented forms for the smelting of aluminum alloys. The mass of mixed ores for reduction by incandescent heat, the posing inclined carbon terminals, the vents a t the top of the furnace, and the tap hole for withdrawing the molten charge, all are present.” Here then was the invention of the incandescent electric furnace and the process of internal heating used therewith whereby aluminum and all high heat products are made.
