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Arthur Dehon Little

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Arthur Dehon Little
Little in 1920
Born(1863-12-15)December 15, 1863
Boston, Massachusetts,US
DiedAugust 1, 1935(1935-08-01)(aged 71)
Northeast Harbor, Maine,US
Alma materMIT
Occupation(s)Chemist, Chemical Engineer, Management consultant
SpouseHenrietta Rogers Anthony
RelativesRoyal Little(nephew)
AwardsPerkin Medal
TheArthur D. Little Inc. buildingat 30 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near MIT, which opened in 1917

Arthur Dehon Little(December 15, 1863 – August 1, 1935)[1]was an Americanchemistandchemical engineer.He founded the consulting companyArthur D. Littleand was instrumental in developingchemical engineeringat theMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). He is credited with introducing the termunit operationsto chemical engineering[2]and promoting the concept ofindustrial research.[3][4]

Life[edit]

Little was born inBoston,Massachusetts,in 1863 and studied chemistry at MIT from 1881 to 1884.[5][6][7]

In 1901 he married Henrietta Rogers Anthony.[8]He died August 1, 1935, in Northeast Harbor,Maine.[8] He was the uncle ofRoyal Little[8](1896–1989), founder and chair ofTextron,and considered to be the Father of Conglomerates.

Career[edit]

Entrance to 30 Memorial Drive, the Arthur D. Little Inc. building

In 1886, he joinedRichmond Paper CompanyinEast Providence, Rhode Island,as a chemist, later becoming superintendent of a paper mill,[8]and effectively recognised that the chemical engineering design was wrong: by correcting this, he came to his first patent.[5]Further research and patents followed, mainly related to paper processing technology.

Little left and formed his own company. He was joined by a colleague from Richmond Paper, Roger Griffin forming a new company in 1886, Little & Griffin, which was located inBostonwhere MIT was also located. Griffin and Little prepared a manuscript forThe Chemistry of Paper-makingwhich was for many years an authoritative text in the area. The book had not been entirely finished when Griffin was killed in a laboratory accident in 1893.[6][8]

After this tragedy, Little carried on in the business alone for a number of years. During these years he founded the Cellulose Products Company demonstrating thatcellulose acetatecould be used in producing nonflammable wire insulation and artificial silk. The company didn't do well financially, and when it was dissolved,Eastman Kodakpurchased the company's patents for the first nonflammable motion picture film and the Lustron Company bought the artificial silk patents becoming the only American manufacturer of acetate silk.[6]

He collaborated with MIT andWilliam Hultz Walkerof the MIT Chemistry department, forming a partnership, Little & Walker, which lasted from 1900 to 1905, while both MIT and Little's company were still located in Boston.[6]The partnership dissolved in 1905 when Walker dedicated his full-time to being in charge of the new Research Laboratory of Applied Chemistry at MIT.[6]

Little continued on his own and formally incorporated the company, Arthur D. Little (ADL), in 1909.[6]He conducted analytical studies, the precursor of the consulting studies for which the firm would later become famous.

As chairman of the visiting committee of the department of chemistry and chemical engineering at MIT, he was responsible for the introduction of the Chemical Engineering Practice School.[5]He also taught papermaking at MIT from 1893 to 1916.[7]

Honors[edit]

Little was president of theAmerican Chemical Societyfor 1912–1914, and president of theAmerican Institute of Chemical Engineersfor 1919, and president of theSociety of Chemical Industry1928–29.[5][8]In 1931, he was awarded thePerkin Medal.[8]

Selected works[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Keyes, Frederick G (1937). "Arthur Dehon Little (1863–1935)".Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.71(10): 513–519.JSTOR20023256.
  2. ^Servos, John W. (December 1980). "The Industrial Relations of Science: Chemical Engineering at MIT, 1900–1939".Isis.71(4): 530–549.doi:10.1086/352591.JSTOR230499.S2CID145327416.
  3. ^Servos, John W. (1990).Physical chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling: the making of a science in America(2nd ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 208, 363.ISBN978-0-691-08566-1.
  4. ^"Arthur D. Little, William H. Walker, and Warren K. Lewis".Science History Institute.Retrieved20 March2018.
  5. ^abcdKeyes, Frederick George, (1937) Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 71, No. 10, pp. 513–519 "Arthur Dehon Little (1863–1935)"
  6. ^abcdefScatter Acorns That Oaks May Grow: An Arthur D. Little Exhibit,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Institute Archives and Special Collections, 2009-08-25, archived fromthe originalon 2017-03-12,retrieved2010-03-19
  7. ^abReport: "On the Making of Silk Purses from Sows' Ears," 1921,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Institute Archives and Special Collections, 2009-08-25, archived fromthe originalon 2016-10-09,retrieved2010-03-19
  8. ^abcdefgSullivan, Joseph; McGuire, Brian; Moody, Susie H.; Giese, Michael W."Arthur D. Little Papers A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2004, Revised 2010 April"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved30 November2016.
  9. ^van Klooster, H.S. (Henry Sjoerd),"Book review: The Handwriting on the Wall by Arthur D. Little",The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,Vol. 144, No. 1, p.157 (1929)

External links[edit]

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