32. The Crown Jewels




Short Stories of Science and Invention A Collection of Radio Talks by Charles F. Kettering INDEX		*32.* *The Crown Jewels* Again followed a period of failures. He had to make experiments which depended on batteries home-made out of all sorts of cups, tumblers and pieces of carbon, but somehow Hall made them work. One morning, the 23rd of February, 1886, to be exact, Hall burst into Professor Jewett's office. "Professor, I've got it!" he said, showing some little pellets of aluminum in the palm of his hand. If you should have occasion to visit Oberlin College you will see some of these first globules of Hall's aluminum displayed in the Severance Chemical Laboratory. They are in a hand-wrought aluminum jewel casket labelled "The Crown Jewels" of aluminum. At the age of 22, Hall had succeeded where some of the world's best-known scientists had failed. We have often said the desire to do a thing is more important than the knowledge of how to do it. But the young inventor ran up against the situation that confronts nearly everyone who brings out a new thing, the problem of convincing the world he had something valuable. This took another two years until three Pittsburgh men raised $20,000.00 to finance the new enterprise calling it the Pittsburgh Reduction Company.