Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company

Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company

Company type	Private
Industry	Aluminum, bronze, carborundum, copper, alloys
Founded	c. 1886 to 1940s
Founder	Alfred H. Cowles, Eugene H. Cowles
Headquarters	555 Jackson Street, Lockport, New York , United States; also operated as Cowles Syndicate Company, Limited, Staffordshire, England

The Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company, initially established as the Cowles Electric Smelting and Aluminium Company during the mid-1880s by brothers Alfred H. and Eugene H. Cowles, operated in both the United States and England with the purpose of extracting and supplying precious metals. The Cowles enterprises gained prominence for their commercial-scale production of alloys through electric arc furnace technology—one of the earliest effective industrial techniques for metal extraction.

Their technological advancements notably expanded aluminum availability, a metal rarely found in its pure form naturally, which contributed to a marked decrease in its market price. The method developed by Cowles served as a precursor to the widely implemented Hall-Héroult process, created by Charles Martin Hall and Paul Héroult, which continues to dominate aluminum production today. Although patent conflicts led to legal disputes, the Cowles firms eventually obtained acknowledgment and compensation for their innovations, establishing a strong foothold in the nascent aluminum industry.

Early years

Brothers Eugene H. Cowles and Alfred H. Cowles, sons of Cleveland newspaper magnate Edwin Cowles, engineered high-temperature smelting furnaces during the late 1880s in Lockport, New York and Stoke-upon-Trent, England, drawing inspiration from Carl Wilhelm Siemens' furnace design. Chemist Charles F. Mabery provided essential technical support.

The Cowles family had purchased a copper-zinc mining operation along the Pecos River in New Mexico in 1883. That same year, Eugene developed a furnace specifically designed to extract zinc from its ore deposits. By 1885, four experimental furnaces were under evaluation within a laboratory setting in Cleveland. Their inaugural facility, constructed in 1886, utilized hydropower sourced from Niagara Falls to produce aluminum.

According to Minet’s later assessment, the Cowles furnace represented a major progression in electrometallurgy by enabling alloy production containing up to 20% aluminum. This furnace was classified among electrothermic processes along with those pioneered by Héroult and others. The initial furnace was constructed in 1884 with optimal testing completed by 1886.

William Frishmuth, who at that time was the exclusive supplier of aluminum in the United States and had fabricated the aluminum cap for the Washington Monument in 1884, voiced concerns regarding foreign dominance over the aluminum market.

In 1886, Charles Martin Hall, an Oberlin College alumnus, discovered an electrolytic technique for extracting aluminum. His patent application in the U.S. conflicted with an earlier French patent filed by inventor Paul Héroult concerning alumina electrolysis in cryolite. Hall ultimately secured the U.S. patent after establishing priority of invention. Hall licensed his process to Cowles and joined their Lockport plant with intentions to expand production capabilities.

Nevertheless, Cowles chose not to implement Hall’s patented method. Various explanations include technical disagreements related to furnace construction and electrode design, while Alcoa’s corporate history implies attempts to suppress Hall’s innovation through acquisition strategies. Hall departed from Cowles in 1888 to create the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which later became known as Alcoa.

Later years

In 1891, following Cowles' promotion of "pure aluminum," the Pittsburgh Reduction Company initiated a lawsuit accusing them of patent infringement. By January 1893, the court ruled against Cowles, determining that they had breached Hall's patent by employing a chemist familiar with his technique. However, by 1903, Cowles succeeded in a countersuit, prompting Alfred Cowles to discontinue aluminum production. The company secured royalty payments along with a settlement totaling $1.35 million. The appellate decision highlighted that Charles S. Bradley's patent application—acquired by Cowles in 1885 and subsequently by Alcoa in 1904—proposed a furnace design featuring internal heating.

The Cowles operation in England was absorbed into British Aluminium during the late 1880s. After Eugene Cowles passed away in 1893, Maybery contested allegations that Edward Acheson's carborundum process infringed upon Cowles patents. In 1900, the Carborundum Company compensated Cowles with $300,000. Judicial rulings broadly acknowledged the Cowles brothers' precedence in the incandescent method for reducing ores and related materials.

Influence

Significant advancements by Hall in the United States and Héroult in Europe, particularly through Héroult's Société Electrometallurgique Française, played a crucial role in shaping the aluminum sector. Their developments led to a remarkable increase in U.S. aluminum production—by a factor of 100,000 within ten years—and drove prices down to approximately 2% of their levels before these discoveries. Although Cowles pursued an independent path and did not receive equivalent recognition, the brothers are frequently credited with pioneering large-scale electrical smelting, representing a pivotal achievement in metallurgical history.