Commercialization
In the summer of 1888, a group of investors organized by Captain Alfred Hunt, an MIT graduate involved in the metallurgical business in Pittsburgh, provided sustained support for Hall. He worked at the fledgling Pittsburgh Reduction Company, the predecessor of Alcoa, to bring his process from laboratory to commercial scale. By Thanksgiving day 1888, with the able assistance of Arthur Vining Davis, Hall was producing aluminum in a pilot plant on Smallman Street in Pittsburgh. The process was soon simplified by using internal heating caused by electrical resistance in the reaction pots to achieve and maintain the molten state. Steam-driven Westinghouse dynamos provided the electricity. Further cost improvements resulted later from the use of hydroelectricity.

The Pittsburgh Reduction Company became the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) in 1907, just before the patent rights ran out. At first aluminum was a solution in search of a problem, but gradually many uses were found for it, ranging from aircraft and other modes of transportation to power lines for long-distance transmission of electricity, construction, food storage, and decoration. The ready availability of this light, lustrous, and nonrusting metal has changed our lives.

Recognition
In 1911 Hall became the fifth recipient of the Perkin Medal, which was awarded for "valuable work in applied chemistry" by the Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) with the support of the Electrochemical Society and the American Chemical Society. Paul H¸roult attended the award ceremony in New York and made a graceful contribution to the speeches. Hall responded with equal warmth.

Upon Hall's death in late 1914, his holdings in Alcoa stock amounted to a sizeable fortune, most of which he bequeathed to educational institutions in this country and abroad.