In 1855, French chemist Louis Le Chatelier first proposed heating the Na2CO3 mixture of bauxite and sodium carbonate to 1200°C to form sodium aluminate, and then passing carbon dioxide into the sodium aluminate. The solution produces aluminum hydroxide. In the 1880s, the Russian fiber industry needed a large amount of alumina as a mordant. Carl Joseph Bayer, a German chemist working in St. Petersburg, proposed the Bayer method and applied for a patent. Its most important improvements were two points. One was the discovery that as long as hydrogen oxide was added, Aluminum crystal seeds and aluminum hydroxide will slowly precipitate out of the diluted alkali solution; second, the remaining alkali solution can be recovered, and the concentration can be increased to reprocess new bauxite, achieving continuous production. The Bayer process replaced Le Chatelier's method soon after it was proposed, and was used in conjunction with the Hall-Hérault process to greatly increase aluminum production.