Karl Josef Bayer (1847-1904), an Austrian citizen, went to study for a short time under Remingius Fresenius in Wiesbaden, then under Robert Bunsen in Heidelberg from 1868 to 1871. After a short period of independent work in Brno in Moravia he left to Russia to work at the Tentelev Chemical Plant in Saint Petersburg then at Yelbuga. It was there that he invented his process for the production of pure alumina from bauxite. In 1894 he returned to Austria but died suddenly at the age of 57. An Arabic translation of a text first published in Bulletin Canadian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy 80 (909), 70–76 (1988). Also in Light Metals 1988 pp. 3–11, editor L. G. Boxall, The Metallurgical Society, AIME, Warrendale, PA.