Lloyd Augustus Hall - Chemist and Inventor

An industrial food chemist, Lloyd Augustus Hall revolutionized the meatpacking industry with his development of curing salts for the processing and reserving of meats. He developed a technique of flash-driving (evaporating) and a technique of sterilization with ethylene oxide which is still used by medical professionals today. Earlier Years Lloyd Augustus Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois, on June 20, 1894.  Halls grandmother came to Illinois via the Underground Railroad  when she was 16. Halls grandfather came to Chicago in 1837 and was one of the founders of the Quinn Chapel  A.M.E. Church. In 1841, he was the churchs first pastor. Hall’s parents, Augustus and Isabel, both graduated high school. Lloyd was born in Elgin but his family moved to  Aurora, Illinois​, which is where he was raised. He graduated in 1912 from East Side High School in Aurora. After graduation, he studied   pharmaceutical chemistry  at  Northwestern University,  earning a bachelor of science degree, followed by a  masters  degree from the  University of Chicago. At Northwestern, Hall met Carroll L. Griffith, who with his father, Enoch L. Griffith, founded  Griffith Laboratories​. The Griffiths later hired Hall as their chief chemist. After finishing college, Hall was hired by the  Western Electric Company  after a phone interview. But the company refused to hire Hall when they learned he was black. Hall then began working as a chemist for the Department of Health in  Chicago  followed by a job as chief chemist with the John Morrell Company. During  World War I, Hall served with the  United States Ordnance Department  where he was promoted to Chief Inspector of Powder and Explosives. Following the war, Hall married Myrrhene Newsome and they moved to Chicago where he worked for the Boyer Chemical Laboratory, again as a chief chemist. Hall then became president and chemical director for Chemical Products Corporations consulting laboratory. In 1925, Hall took a position with Griffith Laboratories where he remained for 34 years. Inventions Hall invented new ways to preserve food. In 1925, at Griffith Laboratories, Hall invented his processes for preserving meat using sodium chloride and nitrate and nitrite crystals.   This process was known as flash-drying. Hall also pioneered the use of antioxidants. Fats and oils spoil when exposed to oxygen in the air. Hall used lecithin, propyl gallate, and ascorbyl ​palmite as antioxidants, and invented a process to prepare the antioxidants for food preservation. He invented a process to sterilized spices using ​ethylenoxide gas, an insecticide. Today, the use of preservatives has been reexamined. Preservatives have been linked to many health issues. Retirement After retiring from Griffith Laboratories in 1959, Hall consulted for the  Food and Agriculture Organization  of the  United Nations. From 1962 to 1964, he was on the American  Food for Peace  Council. He died in 1971 in  Pasadena,  California. He was awarded several honors during his lifetime, including  honorary degrees  from  Virginia State University,  Howard University​  and the  Tuskegee Institute,  and in 2004 he was inducted into the  National Inventors Hall of Fame​.