 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Alfred E. Hunt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1855-03-31)March 31, 1855 |
| Died | April 26, 1899(1899-04-26) (aged 44) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Resting place | Allegheny Cemetery |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology(1876) |
| Occupations | |
| Known for | Aluminum Company of America |
| Spouse | Maria T. McQuesten |
| Mother | Mary Hunt |
Alfred Ephraim Hunt (1855-1899) was a 19th-centuryAmericanmetallurgist andindustrialist best known for founding the company that would eventually becomeAlcoa, the world's largest producer and distributor ofaluminum.
Hunt was a New Englander by birth. His parents wereMary Hanchett Hunt (1830–1906) and Leander B. Hunt (1812–1886). He graduated from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1876 with a degree in metallurgy and mining. His first several jobs kept him in New England, first inBoston with theBay State Ironworks, which was operating the firstopen hearth steel furnace in the United States. From there, he went on toNashua, New Hampshire, to work for theNashua Iron & Steel Company.
His career eventually took him toPittsburgh, doing metallurgical work for thePittsburgh Testing Laboratory, which he would acquire in partnership with the young chemistGeorge Hubbard Clapp in 1887. He was working there in 1888 when his acquaintanceRomaine C. Cole brought a young man three years out ofOberlin College to meet him.
When Alfred E. Hunt became aware ofCharles Martin Hall and hispatent awarded two years earlier on a process for separating aluminum from common aluminum oxide throughelectrolysis, he became very interested. Though aluminum is the most common metallic element in the Earth's crust at about 8%, it is very rare in its free form.[1] At the time of this meeting in 1888, the price of aluminum was $4.86 per pound.[2] This made it strictly a "laboratory metal" with minimal commercial and industrial use.
The process for aluminum separation discovered by Hall, called theHall-Héroult process because of its near-simultaneous discovery byPaul Héroult, provided a cheap and easy way to extract aluminum as a pure metal. Hunt realized that if he could create a market for this metal and control the patent on the process for extracting it from common materials that he'd have a substantial business on his hands.
Together with Charles Hall and a group of five other individuals including his partner at the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, George Hubbard Clapp, his chief chemist,W. S. Sample,Howard Lash, head of theCarbon Steel Company,Millard Hunsiker, sales manager for the Carbon Steel Company, andRobert Scott, a mill superintendent for theCarnegie Steel Company, Hunt raised $20,000 to launch the Pittsburgh Reduction Company which was later renamedAluminum Company of America and shortened toAlcoa.
The Pittsburgh Reduction Company was able to produce aluminum in unprecedented quantities. The price of aluminum dropped quickly from $4.86 per pound to $0.70 per pound. Hunt would serve as the fledgling company's first president from 1888 to 1899[3] and identify early markets for the metal ranging from materials for electric cables to cookware. Alcoa would become and remain the world's largest producer of aluminum.[4]
Carnegie Mellon University's Hunt Library was donated by Alfred's son Roy. The library features aluminum as its primary building material.
With the outbreak of theSpanish–American War, Hunt helped to organize Battery B, a light artillery battery of thePennsylvania National Guard, and was elected its first captain.[5] He fought in thePuerto Rican theater of operation. He returned from the war in 1898 and died April 26, 1899, inPhiladelphia, from complications from themalaria he had contracted during the war.[6]
Hunt, Alfred E. (1892).Aluminum: Its manufacture and uses from an engineering standpoint. Franklin Institute. p. 31. ASIN B0008CKF1O.
"Roy A. Hunt Foundation Website".Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved2006-12-05.
"National Historic Chemical Landmarks". American Chemical Society. Retrieved2014-02-21.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
