science · 14 March 1860 · 164 years ago
birth
Born 14 Mar 1860; died 20 Dec 1915 at age 55.
Thomas Leopold Willson was a Canadian-American chemist and inventor who discovered a commercial production method for calcium carbide using an electric arc furnace. In 1893, he started a company with John Motley Morehead III in Spray, North Carolina, to try his ideas to obtain aluminium metal from its oxide. On 2 May 1892, he was using an electric arc furnace with coal tar and burnt chalk (lime). An unexpected dark, solid mass was formed. On cooling with water, a gas was given off. This burned with a bright yellow, smoky flame. Analysis showed these were calcium carbide and acetylene. Unlike the earlier method of Wöhler that made calcium carbide in an amorphous form, Willson had a hard, aggregated chrystalline form. He obtained (and defended) patents on his process. He assigned them to the Electro Gas Co. (which became Union Carbide Corp.) His other inventions included gas navigational buoys and electric arc lighting. He established calcium carbide manufacturing in Canada.
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