Lloyd Hall facts for kids

Lloyd Augustus Hall (June 20, 1894 – January 2, 1971) was an American chemist. He made huge contributions to the science of food preservation. This means he helped figure out how to keep food from spoiling. By the end of his career, Hall had created many inventions. He earned 59 United States patents, and some of his ideas were also patented in other countries.

Biography: Lloyd Hall's Life Story

Early Life and Education

Lloyd Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois on June 20, 1894. His family had a fascinating history. Hall's grandmother came to Illinois using the "Underground Railroad" when she was sixteen. This was a secret network that helped enslaved people find freedom. His grandfather moved to Chicago in 1837. He helped start the Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church. He became the church's first pastor in 1841.

Lloyd's parents, Augustus and Isabel, both finished high school. Even though Lloyd was born in Elgin, his family later moved to Aurora, Illinois. He graduated from East Side High School in Aurora in 1912. After high school, he studied pharmaceutical chemistry at Northwestern University. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree there. He also earned a Master's degree at the University of Chicago.

Starting His Career

While at Northwestern, Hall met Carroll L. Griffith. Carroll and his father, Enoch L. Griffith, later started a company called Griffith Laboratories. They would later hire Hall as their main chemist.

After finishing university, Hall was offered a job at the Western Electric Company after a phone interview. However, the company refused to hire him once they found out he was Black. This was a common problem for African Americans at the time. Hall then worked as a chemist for the Department of Health in Chicago. After that, he became the chief chemist for the John Morrell Company.

During World War I, Hall served in the United States Ordnance Department. He was promoted to Chief Inspector of Powder and Explosives. This shows his skill and dedication.

Family Life and Later Career

After the war, Hall married Myrrhene Newsome. They moved to Chicago, where he worked for the Boyer Chemical Laboratory as a chief chemist. Later, Hall became the President and Chemical Director for Chemical Products Corporation's consulting laboratory. In 1925, Hall joined Griffith Laboratories. He stayed there for 34 years, making many important discoveries.

In 2004, Lloyd Hall was honored for his amazing work. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Major Contributions: How Lloyd Hall Changed Food

Lloyd Hall spent much of his life working on food science. He focused on making food last longer and taste better.

Improving Meat Curing

One of his big projects was improving how we preserve meat. He worked on a special [curing salt] product called flash-drying. This product was first developed by a German chemist named Karl Max Seifert. Seifert's method involved spraying salt solutions onto hot metal to dry them quickly. This created tiny crystals of salts inside a shell of sodium chloride.

Seifert patented his process in 1934 and sold the rights to Griffith Laboratories. Lloyd Hall played a key role in making this patent even better. He added special ingredients like corn sugar and glycerine. These helped stop the powder from clumping together. Most of his patents for meat curing were about preventing this clumping or fixing problems caused by anti-caking agents.

Sterilizing Spices

Hall also studied how spices affect food preservation. People knew that some spices could stop germs from growing. But Hall and his coworker Carroll L. Griffith found that many spices actually carried lots of bacteria, yeast, and mold spores.

To solve this, in 1938, they patented a way to clean spices. They used a gas called ethylene oxide to kill the germs. This method was later mostly stopped because ethylene oxide was found to be harmful. However, Hall and Griffith later helped promote using ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment. This was a big step forward for keeping medical tools clean and safe.

Using Antioxidants to Keep Food Fresh

Hall also invented new ways to use antioxidants. Antioxidants help stop food from spoiling, especially fats and oils from going bad (getting rancid). He knew that natural oils often had natural antioxidants like lecithin that slowed spoilage. He found ways to combine these compounds with salts and other materials. This made it easy to add them to other foods, helping them stay fresh longer.

Later Years and Honors

After retiring from Griffith in 1959, Hall worked as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. From 1962 to 1964, he was part of the American Food for Peace Council. He passed away in 1971 in Pasadena, California. He received several awards during his lifetime, including special degrees from Virginia State University, Howard University, and the Tuskegee Institute.

Patents

Lloyd Hall was a very inventive person. He held many patents for his work in food preservation and other areas. These patents protected his new ideas and inventions.