African Entrepreneurship Record

At the beginning of 1895, a delegation from Tete City arrived in Bela City, focusing on the Mbeya City Steel Research Institute and Aluminum Materials Research Institute.

The main reason for the visit was the ”electrolytic aluminum technology.” Although the aluminum smelting plant had been established in Xinde, before Mozambique was divided into provinces, Xinde still fell under the jurisdiction of Tete City, so the negotiations were conducted by Tete City government.

Since the aluminum smelting plant could not be established, Tete City had to focus on steel, thus the steel research institute and several steel plants in Mbeya City were the key points of interest for this delegation.

The representatives of Xinde Town and Tete City together went to Mbeya City Aluminum Materials Research Institute.

”Currently, the leading countries mastering electrolytic aluminum technology are the United States, Austria-Hungary, France, and East Africa. Our institute is the most authoritative in the aluminum materials field in East Africa, currently advancing aluminum alloy products research, with three finished aluminum alloy materials suitable for large-scale promotion,” the director Jubisio explained to the group.

East Africa’s emphasis on basic materials science can be traced back to the 1880s. With some progress in higher education and the leadership of returning talents, several materials research institutes covering common metals, rare metals, and precious metals were established simultaneously in East Africa in 1883.

Among them, the Mbeya City Aluminum Materials Research Institute is one of the earliest national key research institutes established in East Africa, closely attended to by Ernst.

After all, in the 21st century, aluminum is the second most important metal after steel, primarily considering its production volume. Aluminum is the second largest metal resource in terms of future usage, second only to iron.

Based on this idea, East Africa focused its metal materials research on iron, aluminum, chromium, copper, manganese, lead, and zinc, each establishing specialized research institutes while also setting up some comprehensive materials research institutes and several niche materials research institutes.

These seven main metal materials research institutes align well with East Africa’s mineral resource situation. East Africa has abundant common metal mineral resources such as iron, aluminum, and copper.

East Africa leads the world in reserves of chromite and manganese resources, with lead and zinc resources also being relatively common. For instance, Kabwe City developed into an industrial city primarily based on these two metal elements.

In fact, East Africa has no shortage of the world’s top ten metal resources, with the last three—titanium, nickel, and zircon—being widely distributed. Africa’s mineral wealth is renowned for its nonferrous and rare metals, and coupled with East Africa’s world-leading gold mines, it occupies an important position in the precious metals field as well.

However, many mineral resources have not become mainstream due to the era and technological reasons, like aluminum, which later became the world’s second-largest metal element by production.

The low production of aluminum has caused its price to remain high, so researching aluminum materials is very profitable from this point of view.

Certainly, Ernst’s focus on breakthroughs in aluminum technology is also due to aluminum’s necessity in emerging industries like automotive, aviation, aerospace, and electricity.

In traditional industries, shipbuilding, machinery manufacturing, and rail transportation, aluminum holds broad market prospects across various fields.

Take automobiles for example; by the 21st century, aluminum alloy has become the main material for car bodies, offering excellent ductility, lightweight, and sturdiness, primarily due to its low price and high production.

Airplanes also widely use aluminum as fuselage material, except for exemplary models like the MiG-25, which mainly use stainless steel.

If titanium is the future metal for the 21st century, then aluminum was the future metal for the 19th century, with the late 19th century being a critical period for breakthroughs in aluminum manufacturing technology.

Historically, in 1886, Charles Hall in the United States and Paul Héroult in France simultaneously obtained patents for producing metallic aluminum using the cryolite-alumina molten salt electrolysis method.

In this timeline, Austria-Hungary, East Africa, the United States, and France simultaneously achieved technological breakthroughs.

In fact, Austria-Hungary’s breakthrough in this field was deeply connected to East Africa, as it was a collaborative project between the two countries.

The director of the Mbeya City Aluminum Materials Research Institute, Jubisio, was an East African student studying in Austria-Hungary. In the initial phase of setting up his laboratory, it was closely related to the Joseph Technology College in Austria-Hungary.

The Joseph Technology College was located in Hungary, later renamed the Hungarian Royal Joseph Polytechnic University, which was an important historical source for the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and Jubisio was a chemistry major at Joseph Technology College.

As one of the earliest state-sponsored students, Jubisio graduated from Joseph Technology College in 1873, due to his excellent grades, he taught and conducted research at that school.

Even in Austria-Hungary, he was a top talent, so upon returning to East Africa, he was appointed as the director of the newly established Mbeya City Aluminum Materials Research Institute by the East African Government.

East Africa was no longer a blank slate in this field due to Jubisio’s influence, establishing cooperative relationships with his alma mater, Joseph Technology College, eventually resulting in the successful operation of the laboratory at the Mbeya City Aluminum Materials Research Institute.

Fortunately, three years after its establishment, in 1886, the institute finally made groundbreaking advances in the latest electrolytic aluminum technology, so the project results are jointly owned by the Mbeya City Aluminum Materials Research Institute in East Africa and Joseph Technology College in Austria-Hungary.

There is a rationale for this outcome; currently, Hungary itself is one of Europe’s important bauxite production areas, with another in France. During World War II, German aluminum resources were mainly obtained through these two countries.

East African aluminum resources are also widely distributed, including territories such as former Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, and Madagascar Island.

Of course, the most noteworthy aluminum resources in Africa are in West Africa’s Guinea, which was one of the world’s largest bauxite production areas in history, but Guinea is far from East Africa and is a French colony, making it difficult for East Africa to intervene. If it were Portuguese, Ernst might have already taken military action since, besides aluminum, Guinea also has Africa’s largest iron ore reserves.

Basic materials science is one of the most important disciplines, and according to the future perspective, establishing such foundational disciplines as early as possible is essential.

Basic materials science is a discipline that is difficult to achieve results in, often requiring decades or even generations, with high investment, being time-consuming, and having slow efficiency. Currently, the only enterprises in East Africa that can support such investment cycles are state-owned enterprises and research institutions funded by the government.

So Jubisio said, ”It took us three years to overcome the latest electrolytic aluminum technology, with the help of the Austro-Hungarian Empire University. For your idea of setting up an aluminum smelting plant, the technology is completely mature, and aluminum alloy materials have a wide range of applications, so the future aluminum industry in East Africa and the world has a huge market, it can easily become the pillar industry of some East African cities.”

”Of course, our research institute is mainly focused on research, and in fact, the first factory in East Africa to apply this technology is located in Bajamojo City, so you will need to visit Bajamojo City for further investigations, especially concerning equipment imports, as only Bajamojo City has a mature aluminum industry.”

”At the same time, aluminum smelting requires a large amount of electricity, which is an important issue for you to tackle in advance.”

Of course, Jubisio isn’t entirely unable to assist. He told the group, ”While our research institute can’t be of great help, we can offer some assistance, particularly concerning the latest aluminum material technology. You can always seek help from our institute, and we would benefit from detailed production data and market feedback to guide our research direction.”