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[Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Alexander, if someone asked you what you were getting out of this science course, what would you tell him? >> Enough credits to graduate. >> I thought as much. What would you say, Dixon? >> Uh, I think an appreciation of the impact of science on society. >> Yes. Out of the laboratory have come most of the things that make for better living. Radium and the radio, the electric light, the automobile, the airplane. Well, all the wonderful things. >> Yeah, that's part of it. >> Sure. I admit we're living in a wonderful age. >> Well, I'm sure the age thanks you. >> But it does have its disadvantages, you know. >> Yes. >> Well, I mean to say radium and radio and things like that, they're all invented now. Nothing much we can do about them. Oh, we hear a lot about individual initiative, but what chance do we have? We're just starting out. What is there left to invent? >> My poor benided friend. You know, it seems to me that there was once another Alexander who wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. And that's been the cry of youth ever since. But the true student of science accepts every new discovery as an unfinished rainbow. Glorious as they are, each new problem solved brings along new problems. And every new problem is a new opportunity. Now take this metal that we've just been studying. We know today that it's the most common metal in the world. But less than a 100 years ago, it was so expensive to produce that only royalty could afford it. And we smile at this today. But as late as 1850 in France, Louis Napoleon, Napoleon III, that was nephew of the great Napoleon, created a sensation in his court when he introduced at state banquetss table service of this new metal. [Music] Your Majesty The countest asked, "What is this strange dinner set? Do you like it?" >> But yes, it is lovely and so unusual. >> It is a strange new metal called aluminum >> by Professor Sinclair Deville of the Echolormal. >> Do all the tables have the same? >> No, only this one. After all, even an emperor must remember the egg checker. >> The others have to contend themselves with ordinary gold and silver. >> It is light as a feather. Yes. And those that suggest anything to you, my dear count, >> why? What do you mean, s? >> Think it over. I've summon this professor Sinclair Deville for an audience later, and I want you to be there because I have a scheme. [Music] I am much intrigued with this new metal you have discovered miss not I but the Danish Hans Christian and later Friedri Veiler discovered it some 30 years ago I but found a new way to isolate the aluminum how much does it cost about 3,000 Franks per kilogram author you said this metal could be found most anywhere in great abundance in a rough Indeed. Yes. Every clay bank is an aluminum man. Then why? It is so expensive to separate from its compounds. That is why it remains a precious metal. Could you find a cheaper way? >> I like to try, see, but you know the pay of a professor. >> This is a service for the estate. I'm prepared to place at your disposal whatever funds you may require. Only find a cheaper way. >> Yes, Steve. I'm honored with the commission. Your Majesty Kaleski. [Music] >> Interesting. But I still don't see ordinance. My dear Bki, helmets, breastplates, cartridges. Think what my uncle, the first Napoleon, could have accomplished in the Russian campaign with a mobile army of lightweight equipment. And now we are meeting Russia again in the Crimea. >> Exactly. I'll show my friend Nicholas whether I am parade ground general. With Louis Napoleon footing the bill, St. Clair Deville experimented to his heart's content. >> Did he get the price down >> and equip the army? >> Yes. And no. For six years, he worked like a Trojan. And he finally got the cost down from $545 a pound to $12 a pound. But that was still too expensive for Napoleon's army or any army. And it began to look as though the cost was always going to stay right there at $12 a pound. another unfinished rainbow. Then one day, some 50 years ago in a college chemistry class, something like this, a professor at Oberlin was saying, "There are so many things in this world just waiting to be done, like harnessing the sun or trying to find out what makes the grass grow green." >> Let's bunk them. Everything's been done. >> Consider, for instance, this metal, aluminum, the most common metal in the world. Stick a shovel in a clay bank and you have aluminum in compound. Yet it costs more than it's worth to get it out. There, gentlemen, is one of the big needs of the world, just crying to be filled. What are you going to do about it? Why, if one of you in this class could find a cheap way to produce aluminum, you would become a benefactor of humanity and make yourself a fortune. Besides, >> you know, I've been thinking about that for a long time, and I'm going after that medal. >> That was young Charles Martin Hall. And go after it, he did. For the rest of his college days, he practically lived in a laboratory. But graduation day finally rolled around like it has a way of doing, and Young Hall went out with the class of 85, his big dream unrealized. But he kept right on. He rigged up a laboratory in his father's woodshed. Gasoline stove and homemade batteries using fruit jars and jelly tumblers. Most any sort of container he could find around the house. His sister Julia was his chief assistant. >> Get anything? >> Not yet. >> We have every last one I could find except mother's cookie jar. >> We may have to use that, too. How about breaking up any lumps in the aluminum oxide, will you, Julia, while I make a final check on these connections? >> What's it supposed to do? Now, >> I dissolve the aluminum oxide in the melted kryolite and pass an electric current through it. If I get current enough, it should separate the aluminum from the oxide. [Music] >> Think you've got enough current now? >> Don't know yet. We'll soon see. [Music] Well, cross your fingers, Julia. [Music] [Music] [Applause] Don't you see anything? >> No aluminum. >> Sure. >> Well, what do we do now? >> We still need more current. I'll wager silicas coming out of this clay crucible. How am I going to get rid of that? >> I know. I'll use a carbon crucible instead. And while I'm doing that, >> I know. Get the cookie jar. >> Right. >> I Is I Iser. And then one memorable day, 8 months after his graduation, February 23rd, 1886. [Music] Georgia, look, >> Charles, is that it? >> Yes. At last, I've got it. Aluminum. >> Yes. the 22-year-old boy had found in a woodshed, but world famous chemists had sought vainly for years. Now, one would think he was surely on his way. And he was on his way from city to city, trying to find somebody interested in his new discovery. After two long years, his search ended in a small Pittsburgh office. Six men were gathered about a table. I think that sums it up. I believe there's a great future in aluminum with this hall process. >> How much do you figure it would cost us to start? >> I think we could do it with $20,000. >> 20,000? We couldn't raise that much. >> Maybe half that. >> Oh, gentlemen, this is no time for halfway measures. George Clap and I believe in it enough to mortgage everything we have. So, if you feel the same way, come in with us. If not, >> Captain Hunt, you can count on me. I'm with you >> and I. And so was formed the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, later to become Aluminum Company of America. Here Charles Hall and another young fellow named Arthur V. Davis, fresh out of Amherst, went to work in earnest. And then on the night of November 29th, 1888, >> that's him already. right here. [Music] >> Well, there she is. Our first ingot. Charles, that's the most beautiful thing I ever saw. >> Arthur, I agree with you. >> Just think, aluminum is bringing $8 a pound. Look how much cheaper we can sell it than that. >> I can hardly believe it. At last, >> you're worn out, Charles. I'm kind of tired myself. Let's call it a day for tonight. >> All right, I'll put this in the safe. [Music] Say, Arthur, do you know what day this is? >> It's Thursday. For 10 minutes yet, it's almost midnight. >> I just remembered it's Thanksgiving. >> Thanksgiving? Good grief. I was invited out for dinner. Oh, well, it's too late to telephone now. Besides, the only telephone around here is the one in the foundry across the street that's been closed all day. >> That's too bad. >> Anyway, we can be thankful tomorrow. We can tell Captain Honey can start a salesman out selling aluminum. >> That's right. And we'll be ready. >> Yes, sir. And just watch the orders come rolling in. >> No, I guess not. Suppose we make you a special price of $2 a pound on half ton lots. >> Half ton? Great guns. Who could ever use a half ton of aluminum? No thanks. We've got troubles enough now with the metals we're already using. No use of inviting new ones. >> Yes, but aluminum will roll, cast, draw, or alloy better than any of your other metals. It's bound to be easier to work with. >> Yes, maybe so. But let somebody else do the experimenting. Well, thanks for your time anyway. No use doing that. >> What? No use hiding in the safe. Nobody's going to steal it. You can't even give it away. >> Any luck? >> Oh, a few inquiries about sample lots. Not much more than that. >> What are we going to do? Got a,000 lbs on hand and turning out more at the rate of 50 lbs a day. Somebody's got to use it. >> But if they won't even try it, >> then we'll have to try it out for them. >> How do you mean? >> What do you think aluminum is good for? >> Lots of things. Takes a plate of iron pots and pans, kettles, and >> that's an idea. Who makes kitchen utensils around these parts? >> Oh, there's a firm in here makes cast iron ones. >> Let's go up and see them. >> Huh? >> Borrow a pattern or two from them and we'll cast up something. When they see how much better it is, why they'll fall over themselves to buy our aluminum. [Music] Now, >> Mr. Davis was here before the office opened this morning, Mr. Grizz. >> What? Mr. Davis >> from Pittsburgh. He's been here before. >> Oh, yes. The aluminum cap. I loaned him one of our molders. I'll send him in, Miss Moses. >> He isn't here right now. He went across for some breakfast, but he left these on the desk. Said he'd be back. >> Well, I'll be jigggered. He did make them. >> Aluminum tea kettles. >> Aren't they wonderful? >> You think so? >> I think they're the most marvelous kettles I've ever seen. I'd like to have one. >> It's yours. >> Here's Mr. Davis now. >> Good morning, Mr. Grizzlow. >> How are you? >> I'm afraid I got here a little early. >> So, I see. Early enough to put one over on me. Sit down. God, I like these. >> Glad to hear it. >> Did you really mean I could have this? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Oh, thank you. Just wait until I show this around. >> Well, if all women take to them like that. >> They will. Aluminum is a friendly metal. You'll do a land office business with those. >> Yes. Well, um, anyway, I guess I'll take a chance on them. >> Good. >> Put me down for 2,000 kettles. >> Wait a minute. We just sell aluminum. We don't make kettles. >> You made these, didn't you? >> That was just to sell you the idea. You lend us the mer. You know, we don't even have that kind of a factory. >> Then get one. I'm not going to turn my plant upside down. I'll sell the utensils, but you've got to take the grief of making them. >> But Mr. Grizz, >> that's my proposition. Take it or leave it. >> We'll take it. We've got to. Seems as how. >> Seems as how. >> So that's what we're up against. What else could I do? You did just right. You mean we're actually going to make the kettles? >> Kettles and pots and pans and spiders and anything else we can think of. >> We still haven't got a foundry. >> We will have. >> Where will we find the money? >> We'll get it. We'll borrow it or sell stock. Maybe we can find a banker with vision enough to advance it. But the point is, if that's the only way we can sell aluminum, we'll find uses for it. And by George, we'll use it. Heat. Heat. [Music] Mr. Davis is here. >> Hello, Mr. Grizzle. I came as soon as I got your word. Don't tell me that you're all out of kettles again. >> More than that. Listen, Davis, you fellas don't want to monkey with the manufacturing end. Suppose I just buy the raw material from you and make my own aluminum wear. >> Must be my ears. Honestly, sounds just like you said you want to make your own aluminum wear. >> I know that's what you're trying to sell me in the beginning, but I wanted to make sure that all the bugs were out of it. And I'd rather you'd be the exterminator than me. >> I see. >> All right. How much is it going to cost me now? >> About 1 cent more than in the first place. The only thing is we've got a new plant now going full blast. Trying to keep up with the orders. It's too late for us to quit now. What we will do, we'll be glad to sell you the aluminum and ingots. We'll even help you get started any way we can. After all, it's enough business for all of us. >> Fair enough. That suits me. Of course, the pot and pan business didn't happen all in a minute. All along, there were many other incidents. Incidents which showed it was as hard for aluminum to make itself a market as it was for Hall to produce the metal in the first place. Like the time another aluminum salesman went to California with an idea. [Music] [Applause] [Music] >> Aluminum wire. >> No. >> All right, sir. Let's forget it. >> By the way, did I show you these? >> What are they? >> Pound of copper and a pound of aluminum. Here are two wires that carry the same current. This one made out of a pound of copper. This one out of a pound of aluminum. You see, aluminum wire goes twice as far. >> Thought we weren't going to say anything more about it. >> It's my last word. >> And here's mine, Mr. Colby. We're building a new power line from Blue Lakes to Stockton. 46 mi, three-phase line. That means 138 miles of wire. Number one gauge. When can we have it? Mark, >> soon as possible. I'll have to let you know. You all right? >> But here's a bonafideed order for 138 mi of wire. We have the metal but no wire mill. That's why we come to you. All we want to do is to supply the aluminum and hire you to make the wire. >> Not interested. >> But you made the sample for us. >> Just the same on not making the wire. >> Why should we make wire for you to sell in competition to us? You sold it. Now you make it. >> Well, I guess there's only one answer to that. We'll have to make it. >> And so it happened. When no one else would make their wire, there was nothing left but to buy their own wire mill and make it themselves. Later, they stranded aluminum wire around a steel wire core to increase the strength of the conductor. And there's something that often happens. Aluminum teams up with another metal to use the best qualities of each and expand the use of both. Today, more than a million miles of aluminum cable span America. Its lightness permits longer stretches between towers and saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in costly erection. >> But, Professor, >> yes, >> that's all very well for aluminum, but what about copper? Aluminum seems to have squeezed copper right out of the wire business. >> Not a bit of it. Cheap aluminum power lines made possible the electrification of rural America. Think of all the additional homes and farms that had to be wired. More copper house wiring than ever and more electrical fixtures and equipment. Everybody gets a break. It's true that the history of aluminum is the story of substitution, but that substitution always means more use for the other metals as well. >> I see. Finishing more rainbows. >> Right. Then one day, an aluminum representative called on a manufacturer of office furniture. >> You're barking up the wrong tree this time, Stevens. >> But think how much lighter aluminum would be. You can weld it. No joints to work loose. >> Maybe so, but we're not going to do the experimenting. I happen to know no other furniture company will either. >> Well, there's one company that'll do it if it has to. >> Who's that? >> The aluminum company. >> But you've never made any furniture. It's more than bending a little hollow tubing. Why? You have to be a specialist in upholstery, in leather, and hair and paint. Be careful you don't bite off more than you can chew. That's why I wish you were doing it. You already know how. But if you won't, I guess we'll just have to go ahead and bite. But good luck. Thank you. Well, what do you think of the aluminum furniture business by this time? Oh, >> we're doing all right. >> I'll say you are. I hear you're selling a million dollars worth a year or more. >> More? >> Ouch. Listen, Stevens. I sent for you to find out if you'd still sell us aluminum and let us in on it, too. >> Sure, why not? Our main object in life is to make and sell aluminum, not furniture. And that's how aluminum furniture got started. >> Looks like the aluminum people won out every time. >> Oh, no, not by a jug full. More than once, they work on a plan for years only to have it take a nose dive. They just learn to take the bitter with the sweet and keep on plugging. For instance, look what happened in transportation. Nice looking cars. Too bad they're not aluminum. >> Yeah, too bad for you. Too bad for us both. >> You know how much it would cost us to build a train of aluminum? >> Yes. Do you know how much you'd save by it? You'd reduce the dead weight by at least 25% right off the bat. That means less power for operation. One engine instead of two on some runs. Always more payload for the same power. Faster starts, quicker stops, greater safety, less maintenance of cars, and less wear and tear on rails and road beds. H you don't say >> you'd save the extra cost in power and maintenance of whale alone in a few years. >> Yeah, but where would we get an 80 ft channel for the center hill? There's no aluminum channel that size made mage. You know that. >> No, no mill to make them. >> Now, can you supply them? >> I'll see you later. [Music] >> All right, but what about the 80oot channels? They'll take a whole new mill. >> It'll run into millions. >> And you haven't any assurance we'd get a single order even if we did build a mill? >> We have the assurance that we'll never get an order if we don't. >> After the licking we took in automobile bodies, now you want to build railroad cars. >> What do you think, Jack? It's true. We lost out on automobile bodies just at a time when they were a mainstay of our business. Drawn steel bodies came along and were much cheaper. But don't forget that's true in pleasure cars where low first cost is a big thing. In the commercial field like buses and trucks where they are operated to make money where payload and service count we're in stronger than ever. >> Yeah. The railroad field is our next logical move. We've studied it from every angle and we're sure. Of course it'll cost plenty. That's true of every forward step in this business. I say let's go to the management and fight for it. >> And so without an order for a single foot, without even a market, they went ahead and built the mill anyway to roll those large aluminum beams. Only a company with the vision would dare to do a thing like that. Only a company of willing and able resources could do it. Before [Music] the mill was finished, even before they'd sold a single beam, they had the grit to start running this full page ad in national magazines. >> One of these days, you will ride on an aluminum train. >> Talk about the courage of your convictions. >> You really mean that? We do. Here are the specifications on our new aluminum channels. As strong as steel and half the weight. >> There's one other ingredient here you haven't mentioned. >> What's that? >> Nerve. >> Yes, we carry that in stock, too. Yes, they're an adventurous lot, these men of aluminum. Ready to tackle anything from a wire 125th the thickness of a human hair so fine that you couldn't see it without that microscope to a steam shovel dipper. Big enough to scoop up 32 cubic yards at one bite. That's more than enough to fill six 5-tonon trucks and deposited on top of a sixstory building half a block down the street. And the beauty of it is every last worker of the hundreds of thousands now engaged in the far-flung aluminum industry is holding down a job that never even existed 50 years ago and wouldn't exist today were it not for aluminum. And think of all the things you wouldn't have were it not for aluminum. So because one young man met the challenge in his day, your life and the lives of these men are all bound together with invisible but inextricable ties. Ties of aluminum [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. It's fascinating. >> I could go on indefinitely, but I'll take time for only one more story. By way of contrast, a simple little story of Tony Compula, one of the men in the mill. >> No, none of these is it. But why do they have to look like a piece of old lead? >> Because the architect wants them to look as much as possible like the beautiful old lead spandres he admired so much in Italy. >> Oh, >> I don't know what else to say, Tony. Tried everything and just haven't hit it. >> Well, get him yet, boss. >> I hope so. The time's awful short. >> Well, get him tomorrow. I'll bet you. I >> hope you're right. Well, good night. Good night. >> Good night. >> Good night. Shorty, what's that? >> What? >> This? >> Oh, that's a prison tray. You know, when you're in the hoof, gal, you have to wash the dishes. >> Shorty, that's it. >> What's it? >> Don't you see the finish? Just what we want. H. >> Come on. [Music] You said it got this way by washing it with dishes. Eh, >> that's right. Every day they wash them for weeks and months and years. >> I know, but we cannot wait that long. Let's see. They wash them in soap and water, don't they? >> That's right. We use a cheap soap and a lot of strong washing soda. >> Ah, yeah. >> Cut it up. Enemy soap sucks. While I'll get the washing soda. [Music] Got the fish. Now take it too long here. More very work quicker. [Music] We shake him good. The way dishes get pushed around in a pan. >> You mean you got to do all this tonight? That's a lot of shaking, boss. Nah, >> not you, Shorty. The shaking box we just fixed up. Here we go. [Music] Hello. This is Tony. Tony Kapula, the plan. Come on down here. I got something. And believe it or not, Tony had something. The next morning, the sample was flown to New York. For any day now, you can see 19,000 of them between the windows, all up the whole 70 stories of Rockefeller Center. Aluminum spandrels of old Italian lead finish. Because one Tony Campula stayed with it till he got it, finishing his bit of the rainbow back in Cleveland, Ohio. Contrast, if you will, the humble woodshed where the boy hall worked out the beginnings of modern aluminum with this great research laboratory where a group of trained scientists with the finest equipment obtainable continue the neverending task of expanding the benefits of aluminum and bringing down its cost. Till today, it's less than 20 cents a pound. Take this group for instance. In the past 20 years, these metallurgists have perfected, among other things, alloys that make aluminum strong. They're rolling such an alloy out in the mills right now. These men of aluminum, they're not merely rolling sheet aluminum. They're turning out vital material for national defense. Long before the government in Washington called on industry to rally to national defense, aluminum had already anticipated the call by directing its energies toward the production of defense materials. Aluminum for the air force, wings for the eyes of the army and navy, and in addition had voluntarily invested millions of dollars to more than double its capacity. Aluminum is determined to be prepared for any national emergency, whether in peace time or wartime. Yes, young Charles Martin Hall started something in that woodshed some 50 years ago. And because he fell in with the right people in the early days of his invention, he did become a benefactor of humanity. And he did make a fortune which he left to colleges and missionary societies. Nature made aluminum light. He and the men who followed him made it plentiful, strong and cheap. No one man, no one group, but the everlasting teamwork of every Bloomman's soul from office to lab and from mine to mill. Like the breathtaking Navy and marine memorial, the story of aluminum gives wings to our imagination, lift to our courage, and ever shining example to our youth of today. That's what one youth did while others were bemoning there was nothing left to do. And that same challenge still stands today. There are so many things world just waiting to be done. What are you going to do about it?