Aluminum in America
A History
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About the Book
The history of aluminum: metallurgy, engineering, global business and politics—and the advance of civilization itself. The earth’s most abundant metal, aluminum remained largely inaccessible until after the Industrial Revolution. A precious commodity in 1850s, it later became a strategic resource: while steel won World War I, aluminum won World War II.
A generation later, it would make space travel possible and the 1972 Pioneer spacecraft would carry a message from mankind to extraterrestrial life, engraved on an aluminum plate. Today aluminum, along with oil, is the natural resource driving geopolitics, and China has taken the lead in manufacture.
About the Author(s)
Bibliographic Details
Quentin R. Skrabec
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 252
Bibliographic Info: 23 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9955-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2564-5
Imprint: McFarland
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1. Prelude 5
2. Confluence—Dynamos, Electric Furnaces and the Aluminum Process 17
3. Chemistry and Capitalism 26
4. Commercialization 36
5. Litigation and Growth 50
6. The Aluminum Industry Comes of Age 56
7. Metallurgical Wars and Monopoly 63
8. New Threats and New Markets 79
9. Birth of Alcan and the Rise of an International Industry 95
10. Paternal Capitalism and Colonialism 104
11. The 1930s Unionization and the End of Paternalism 113
12. The Great Antitrust Case 124
13. The War and the New Aluminum Industry 134
14. Oligopoly and the Dawning of the Golden Age for Aluminum 147
15. The 1950s—The Products of the 1930s Come of Age 157
16. The 1950s—The Aluminum Age 174
17. The 1960s and 1970s—The Aluminum Age 186
18. “Tin Cans” and Space Capsules 192
19. Space Age Products 197
20. The Best and Worst of Times, 1970–2000 203
21. The World Aluminum Wars 210
22. The Future, Science Fiction and New Uses 217
Chapter Notes 229
Bibliography 235
Index 239
