Short Stories
of Science and Invention

A Collection of Radio Talks by
Charles F. Kettering

INDEX

Weekly, from September 1942 to July 1945, Charles F. Kettering gave five-minute intermission talks about Science and Invention during the radio broadcasts of the General Motors Symphony of the Air.

Kettering invented the first automobile self-starter, and for 31 years directed a research laboratory for General Motors.

These radio talks are a fascinating legacy from the mind of a prolific inventor. The obvious anachronisms now add a historical perspective of the war-time period in which they were written.

These web pages now preserve some of the most popular stories for a new generation to read The text and art come from a General Motors booklet of selected talks. (Reprint, March 1959)
32.  The Crown Jewels
A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering


     Recently Dr. Harry Holmes, professor of chemistry and past president of the American Chemical Society, gave me the highlights of the commercial development of aluminum when I visited Oberlin, Ohio, to attend the College commencement. It is really a story of two men: a chemistry professor and one of his students.

Jewett      About sixty years ago, Professor Frank Jewett was telling his class something about a then comparatively rare metal - aluminum. He gave them some of the highlights of the history of the metal. He told them how Oersted, a Dane, in 1825 first isolated the new element and Wohler, in Germany, using an entirely different method succeeded in producing the same material. But Oersted and Wohler had failed to get the metal in anything more than a powder.

     A Frenchman, Henri Deville, in 1854, managed to obtain metallic aluminum by reducing aluminum chloride with metallic sodium. The first object to be made of aluminum was a rattle for the Prince Imperial of France. Napoleon III wore with pride an aluminum helmet and once, at a state dinner, he had the most distinguished guests served on aluminum plates, the others had to be content with just plain gold. From 1860 to 1880 the yearly world production was only about a ton and a half a year.


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