- Alcoa
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U.S. company, the world's largest producer of aluminum.Established in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1888, it adopted the name Aluminum Co. of America in 1907. Alcoa introduced aluminum foil in 1910 and found uses for aluminum in the emerging aviation and automobile industries. In 1913 it established the town of Alcoa in eastern Tennessee as a planned industrial community. A 1945 federal antitrust ruling obliged it to sell its Canadian subsidiary (now Alcan Aluminum Ltd., its strongest competitor). In 1998 Alcoa acquired Alumax Inc. Alcoa's other products include plastic containers and packaging equipment.
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city, Blount county, eastern Tennessee, U.S., about 15 miles (25 km) south of Knoxville and adjacent to Maryville. The city is a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which lies to the southeast. It was founded in 1913 by the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) on a tract of land known as North Maryville. In 1910 the first of a series of power dams was begun on the nearby Little Tennessee River and its tributaries. The purchase of these dams by the company led to the procurement of land north of the city of Maryville for plant sites. The community was developed as a planned industrial centre for the production of aluminum products, which remains the basis of the economy. Inc. 1919. Pop. (1990) 6,400; (2000) 7,734.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
