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Notable people · Inventor · Science

Charles Martin Hall

In 1886, in a woodshed behind his family's Oberlin home, discovered a cheap electrolytic process for making aluminum, and went on to co-found the company that became Alcoa.

Born December 6, 1863, Thompson
Died December 27, 1914, Daytona, FL

Charles Martin Hall
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
December 6, 1863, Thompson (Geauga County) source
Died
December 27, 1914, Daytona, FL source
Buried
Westwood Cemetery, Oberlin (Hall family lot, Section E) (Lorain County) source
Also known as
Charles M. Hall
Education
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, from 1880
Known as
Inventor, Science
Organizations
Alcoa

Life story

Charles Martin Hall was born in Thompson, Ohio, in 1863. His sister Julia, a chemist, helped with his later work.

He entered Oberlin College at 16. A lecture there by Professor Frank Jewett said that whoever found a cheap way to make aluminum would make a fortune, and he began experiments in 1881.

On 23 February 1886 he found that aluminum could be made by electrolysis of alumina dissolved in cryolite. He filed his patent in July 1886 (patent 400,664 granted 1889) and helped start what became Alcoa.

The method is known as the Hall-Heroult process. It cut aluminum's price by a factor of 200. Hall died in Florida in 1914 and left his fortune to charity.

Ohio ties

  • Thompson (1863-1873)
    birthplace and early childhood Geauga County · source
  • Oberlin (1873-1888)
    family home at 64 East College Street; Oberlin College (B.A. 1885); woodshed laboratory Lorain County · source
  • Oberlin College (1880-1914)
    entered the college in 1880 and graduated in 1885; left the college one-third of his estate Lorain County · source
  • Westwood Cemetery, Oberlin (1912-1914)
    bought the family lots in 1912 and was buried there Lorain County · source

Timeline

  1. 1873 The Hall family moved from Thompson to Oberlin. source
  2. 1880 Enrolled at Oberlin College at age 16. source
  3. 1885 Graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. source
  4. 1886 On 23 February produced metallic aluminum by electrolysis in the woodshed behind his family home in Oberlin. source
  5. 1886 Filed his first patent application on 9 July. source
  6. 1888 Co-founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, later Alcoa. source
  7. 1889 His aluminum patents, including U.S. Patent 400,664, were issued on 2 April. source
  8. 1907 The Pittsburgh Reduction Company became the Aluminum Company of America. source
  9. 1911 Received the Perkin Medal. source
  10. 1912 Bought lots E01 to E18 in Oberlin's Westwood Cemetery on 10 October. source
  11. 1914 Died in Daytona, Florida, on 27 December, leaving Oberlin College one-third of his estate. source
  12. 1925 His Oberlin class of 1885 dedicated an aluminum and stone memorial to him for the gifts that made Tappan Square an open public park. source
  13. 1928 Oberlin College placed a plaque on the Hall family house at 64 East College Street. source
  14. 2003 The Ohio historical marker 'Charles M. Hall and Frank F. Jewett' was dedicated at the Jewett House, 73 South Professor Street. source

What Charles is known for

  • Hall-Heroult process, discovered 23 Feb 1886; patent US 400,664
  • Co-founded Pittsburgh Reduction Co. (Alcoa)
  • ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark, Oberlin 1997
  • US Patent 400,664 (granted 2 Apr 1889; applied 1886)
  • Pittsburgh Reduction Company / Alcoa

Stories

Hall's will and the emptying of Tappan Square

Hall's estate gave Oberlin College an $800,000 endowment tied to land he had donated, plus $600,000 for an auditorium named for his mother, Sophronia Brooks Hall. The endowment came with a condition: the buildings on Tappan Square, the town green at the centre of Oberlin, had to be removed. The college hired the Olmsted Brothers in 1914 to plan the campus but could not finish clearing the square until 1927. In 1925, his classmates from the class of 1885 dedicated an aluminum and stone memorial in the square, inscribed 'CHARLES M HALL '85', to thank him for making it an open public park. The memorial was restored in 2008 and moved from the centre of the square.

Source

The statue students kept moving

Oberlin College honored Hall with a statue cast, fittingly, in aluminum. Because it was so light, students carried it off to different spots around campus as a prank, again and again. In the end it was bolted down inside the college's science center, where it is now mounted on granite on the second floor. The 1884 aluminum cap on the Washington Monument, which is sometimes linked to him, was made two years before his discovery, when aluminum was still costlier than silver.

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

Honors and things named for them

  • Perkin Medal (1911)
  • National Historic Chemical Landmark (1997)
  • Aluminum statue at Oberlin College

Named for Charles Martin Hall

  • Auditorium funded by his estate and named for his mother, Sophronia Brooks Hall (Oberlin, Lorain County) source

Family

  • father: Herman Bassett Hall
  • mother: Sophronia H. Brooks
  • sister: Julia Brainerd Hall

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

12
  • 1 Charles Martin Hall House (woodshed site), 64 East College Street (private)
    Oberlin Lorain County · source
  • Jewett House and Ohio historical marker 'Charles M. Hall and Frank F. Jewett' (woodshed re-creation)
    73 South Professor Street, Oberlin Lorain County · source
  • 2 Hall family monument, Westwood Cemetery, Section E Lot 10
    Oberlin Lorain County · source
  • Charles Martin Hall Memorial (class of 1885), Tappan Square
    Oberlin Lorain County · source
  • Aluminum statue of Charles Martin Hall, Oberlin College science center
    Oberlin Lorain County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Charles Martin Hall was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Charles Martin Hall, and what the record shows.

Often said Hall discovered his aluminum process in the woodshed at the Jewett House (now the Oberlin Heritage Center).

The record The discovery was made in the woodshed attached to the Hall family home at 64 East College Street. That woodshed was removed in the 1920s. The woodshed at the Jewett House, his professor Frank Jewett's home, is a re-creation used for the 'Aluminum: The Oberlin Connection' exhibit. Oberlin chemistry professor Norman Craig corrected the Oberlin Review on this point in 1997. source

Often said His sister Julia Brainerd Hall was a co-inventor of the Hall process.

The record This is unproven and disputed. Julia, who had also studied chemistry at Oberlin, testified in the 1887 patent interference that she had seen Charles demonstrate the process. Historian Martha Moore Trescott argued in 1977 that she was closely involved in the lab work. Norman Craig's 1997 study found that her annotations on Charles's papers mostly replaced names with initials and removed family financial details, and that they were made after his death in 1914. The patents were issued to Charles alone. source

Often said The aluminum cap on the Washington Monument was made with Hall's process.

The record The cap was cast in 1884, two years before Hall's February 1886 discovery, when aluminum was still more expensive than silver. source

  • Disputed: Hall and Paul Heroult in France discovered the aluminum process independently at nearly the same time, which is why it is called the Hall-Heroult process.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • Charles Martin Hall
    Charles Martin Hall
    Public domain
  • Hall's patent on aluminum electrolysis
    Hall's patent on aluminum electrolysis
    Public domain
  • Charles Martin Hall
    Charles Martin Hall
    Public domain
  • Exhibit in the Senator John Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. There were no res
    Exhibit in the Senator John Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. There w...
    Public domain
  • Creator: Trinity Court Studio Subject: Hall, Sophronia Brooks 1827-1885 Oberlin College Type: Black-and-White Prints Loc
    Creator: Trinity Court Studio Subject: Hall, Sophronia Brooks 1827-1885 Oberlin College Type: Black-and-White ...
    No known restrictions
  • Charles M. Hall and Frank F. Jewett historic marker.
    Charles M. Hall and Frank F. Jewett historic marker.
    Chris Light / CC BY-SA 4.0

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-14.

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