Portrait of Paul Heroult

People/scientist, engineer

Paul Heroult

Paul Heroult (1863–1914), scientist, engineer, from France. Linked to aluminium.

The lucky break

Patented an electrolytic method of making aluminium in England and France in 1886-87, at the same time as Hall in America.1,2,3

Legacy

The Britannica says it is idle to argue who first thought of the method, as new ideas are often born in several minds at once.1,2,3

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 23 February 1886Hall and Heroult invent electrolytic aluminium smelting4
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Where next

People

Rival ofCharles Martin HallTwo men on two continents patented the same aluminium process in the same years.1

Events

DiscoveredHall and Heroult invent electrolytic aluminium smeltingPaul Heroult is part of this story: Hall and Heroult invent electrolytic aluminium smelting.4

Sources

  1. Aluminium Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911 (public-domain text on Wikisource)
  2. Paul Heroult Wikidata
  3. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons
  4. Aluminum: common metal, uncommon past Science History Institute

Pictures on this page: PaulHeroult.jpg, not recorded on the file page (Public domain); PSM V73 D317 Charles Martin Hall.png, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Mijnramp Bois du Caizier, Marcinelle, België. Schacht, Rossem, Wim van / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); The laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris: room where experiments on uranium ore took place. Photograph, ca. 1900., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).