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THOMAS HAMILTON CHILTON
1899-1972
B Y G E O RG E E . H O LB RO O K
THOMAS HAMILTON CHILTON was born in Greensboro, Alabama,
on August 14, 1899; he suffered a heart attack and died in Bonn,
West Germany, on September 15, 1972. Tom Chilton grew
up in Montgomery, Alabama, an area famous for Chilton County
peaches. His grandfather, William Parish Chilton, was a member of
the Congress of the Confederacy and Chief Justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court. The Reverend Claudius L. Chilton, Tom's father,
was a Methodist minister, as well as a writer and a poet. His mother,
Mabel Pierce Chilton, conducted a school for young children,
including her own.
Thomas Chilton, the next to the youngest of ten children, had six
brothers and three sisters. His mother died when he was eleven
years old, and his sisters then cared for the family. He was very
close to his family and during his life maintained close touch with
his brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and cousins. This led to his
fond interest in genealogy. He even compiled a detailed record of
the 400 direct descendants of his grandfather, William P. Chilton.
Tom's early education began in Montgomery at Starke's Univer-
sity School. During these early school days he worked in a printing
shop—the Paragon Press in Montgomery-- with his older brothers.
Setting type by hand whetted his interest in printing and shar-
pened his eye for detail and accuracy. In later years his associates
came to know and respect his penchant for exactness and detail,
especially in written reports.
Tom Chilton's interest in chemical engineering began when, as a
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.
senior at Lanier High School in Montgomery, he heard an em-
ployee of Thomas Edison explain the process of making synthetic
phonograph records. Chilton attended the University of Alabama,
but after two semesters he suspended his education for a year to
earn his tuition. When he returned to college, in 1917, he went to
New York City and matriculated at Columbia University. He
graduated from Columbia in 1922 with the degree of Chemical
Engineer.
Tom Chilton often said he entered chemical engineering during
a productive period when the field was first being recognized as a
very important profession. From the start of his long and successful
career, he was involved in research and development. His first
employment was as a research chemist with F. I. Carman in New
York, where he worked in process development research on the
chemical utilization of natural gas. It was with Carman that he
received his first patent a method of producing acetylene from
methane.
He came to Wilmington on May 26, 1925, as a chemist in the Du
Pont Company's Chemical Department. Assigned to Du Pont's
Experimental Station, the company's headquarters for research
and development activities, he engaged in studies of ammonia
oxidation and sulfuric acid process development until mid-1929,
when he was appointed chemical engineer in charge of Chemical
Engineering Research.
Tom Chilton's group spearheaded Du Pont's early fundamental
research in chemical engineering. Areas of responsibility included
fluid flow, heat transfer, distillation, adsorption, and absorption.
Many far-reaching engineering correlations and formulas were
developed under his guidance. Also, he won wide esteem for his
original work and publications in chemical engineering unit opera-
tions.
In 1931 a Technical Division was formed in the Du Pont En-
gineering Department to incorporate work on metallurgy and
corrosion and to undertake research programs in the more me-
chanical aspects of chemical engineering operations. These in-
cluded filtration, grinding, and agitation and mixing. Chilton's
group worked closely with this Division on many company projects.
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By 1935 the closely related scope of' work of' the Chemical
Engineering Group and the Technical Division al't'orded an oppor-
tunity to merge them into a single group—the Technical
Division in the Engineering Department. Henry B. du Pont, a
great-grandson of' the founder of' the company, was named Divi-
sion Head and Thomas Chilton was Assistant Division Head. In
1938 Chilton succeeded du Pont as Technical Division Head.
During the seven years that followed this promotion, Tom Chil-
ton was responsible t'or many significant strides in the Du Pont
Company's progress:
· Analysis of' extensive large-scale
laboratory tests of' the
dynamic flow on distillation column plates led to design of' more
et't'ective distillation columns t'or acetic acid recovery.
~ Important advances were made in the fields of' spray-drying,
filtration, and pneumatic conveying dryers.
· In the field of' materials of' construction, notable progress was
made in understanding the behavior of' stainless steels. The usel'ul-
ness of' then new varieties of' stainless steels" the extra-low carbon
grades was demonstrated.
· Procedures t'or fabricating alloy tubing were established and
techniques I'or welding it were developed.
· The corrosion behavior of' titanium metal—especially its
superior resistance to sea water and wet chlorine gas was demon-
strated through laboratory research. Also titanium was found to be
resistant to nitric acid at elevated temperature and pressure, sur-
passing the resistance of' stainless steels then available.
~ In the field of' applied physics, reliable methods were de-
veloped t'or on-plant continuous analysis of' process streams by
means of' physical measurements.
· Concerning optics and the quantitative measurement of' color,
a dit't'erential calorimeter was developed for precise measurement
of' small dit't'erences between samples and standards. The device
gained wide use in company plants and laboratories where exact
color-matching was required.
From 1937 to 1941 Tom Chilton gained his t'irst experience as a
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university lecturer. He made many visits to his alma mater, Colum-
bia University, where he lectured to Chemical Engineering De-
partment students and engineers from industry. In 1943 the Uni-
versity of Delaware conferred upon him the honorary degree of
Doctor of Science in recognition of his achievement as a researcher
and administrator.
During World War II Dr. Chilton was involved with the Manhat-
tan District Project. He contributed personally to the solution of
unusual and difficult technical problems of heat~transfer and fluid
flow for the original design of an atomic energy plant, the Hanford
Engineer Works in Richland, Washington. For this work he re-
ceived in 1948 the President's Certificate of Merit for service to the
National Defense Research Committee. The certificate recognized
Dr. Chilton's specific endeavors in the field of the production and
use of oxygen.
Dr. Chilton was among a select group of scientists and engineers
who witnessed the first sell-sustaining nuclear reaction under the
west grandstand of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field on
December 2, 1942. Enrico Fermi, the great Italian physicist,
headed this historic birth of the atomic age.
In 1945 Dr. Chilton was designated Manager and later Technical
Director of Du Pont's Development Engineering Division (DED).
This Division carried out all research and development for the
Engineering Department. His work in the Technical Division and
DED included the development of widely applicable design data for
chemical processing and the development of equipment for n~e-
chanical processing of chemical products.
Dr. Chilton's eminence in the field of chemical engineering and
his devotion to the profession were officially recognized when he
was elected Vice-President of the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers (A~chE) in 1950. He became President of Fiche in 1951.
By this time Dr. Chilton had become widely recognized outside
the company for his achievements. In 1939 he received Columbia
University's seventeenth Charles Frederick Chandler Medal for
"his outstanding achievements in the discovery and formulation of
principles underlying the unit operations of chemical engineering
and in the application of these principles to process development,
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equipment design and chemical plant construction and operation."
Four years later he was honored again by Columbia as a recipient
of the Egleston Medal of the Columbia Engineering School's
Alumni Association.
In 1950, Columbia University President Dwight D. Eisenhower
presented Dr. Chilton the University Medal for Excellence. He was
the fourth national figure to receive this honor. He was cited for
"outstanding achievements in chemical engineering research." In
~ . ~ ~
the early fifties, Dr. Chilton became an important figure in the
development of the Savannah River Plant project. The largest
Atomic Energy Commission plant ever built, the project was de-
signed and built by Du Pont between 1950 and 1955.
It was during the fifties that Dr. Chilton's wanderlust began to
take hold. As president of niche and later the Engineers Joint
Council, he made numerous talks to professional societies and
student groups. His lecturing and public presentations became
important facets in fulfulling his career.
Dr. Chilton's ability as a public speaker was commensurate with
his technical competence. He could hold the attention of an audi-
ence wherever he went. He was the example of sincerity and
devotion to the chemical engineering profession. He told hundreds
of audiences: "Chemical engineering is only one 'unit' in the
engineering profession which has as its unifying bond the applica-
tion of principles of the physical sciences in construction and
~ . .
m~nl~t~rtl~rlr~rr Tree
5~.~ 5 A a We can work as individuals, and as
members of progressively larger Units' for that better day when not
only communities and states but nations will be united effectively
in combatting disease and infirmity, poverty, and ignorance,
prejudice and intolerance and war."
Until his early voluntary retirement from Du Pont in 1959, he
continued to be vitally involved in research and development work.
Also his output of technical articles never faltered. His work
included the development of widely applicable design data for
chemical processing and development of equipment for me-
chanical processing of chemical products.
1959, he moved to the University of
Berkeley as a Regents' Professor. His pace on the
c'
Following his retirement, In
California at
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university scene was perhaps the most ambitious of his entire
career. But there could be no doubt that he had made the right
decision. Academic work proved to be a continual source of fulfill-
ment and satisfaction for him.
In 1960 he went to Japan and the University of Kyoto and
Nagoya University where he was a Fulbright Lecturer. During the
summer of 1961 he was Visiting Professor at the University of New
South Wales, Kensington, Australia. The 1961-62 year found him
in France as a Fulbright Lecturer. His fluent French impressed all
who heard him at the universities of Nancy and Toulouse. He was
Visiting Professor of Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech in
1962 and came home to the University of Delaware in 1963-64.
The Chiltons often returned to "Mitylene," their country home
near Hockessin, Delaware. "Mitylene" was named for a small town
in Alabama, where Dr. Chilton's wife, Cherridah McLemore, had
been raised. The Chiltons enjoyed the company of their friends
and hosted many social affairs at "Mitylene." Most popular were
those parties having cultural themes.
A biographical account of Thomas Chilton would be incomplete
if it did not mention the "Chilton comma." He was very particular
about punctuation and couldn't resist inserting commas in a series
when one was missing. At his retirement from Du Pont his fellow
employees presented him a book containing no punctuation what-
soever. In the back of the book was a page of periods, commas,
colons, semicolons, and other punctuation marks along with an
invitation for Dr. Chilton to insert them at his discretion.
Chilton's hobbies included photography he prized his collec-
tion of slides from many lands and classical music. But his main
hobby interest was his collection of auto license plates. He was a
founder of the Auto License Plate Collectors of America and his
famous collection contained license plates from all over the world.
He was once introduced at a lecture as the only man in the world
with 45 lines in Who's Who and 4,500 license plates in his garage.
After his assignment at the University of Delaware, Dr. Chilton
went south to the University of Virginia, where he was Visiting
Professor of Chemical Engineering during 1965-66. Subsequent
tours were to the Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, India, in
1967 and the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1968. He
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lectured at the University of Alabama in 1969, where more than a
half:century before he had embarked on his chemical engineering
career. The 1969-70 year was divided between the University of
Massachusetts and the University of Puerto Rico.
He joined the Chemical Engineering Department at the Univer-
sity of Natal, Durban, Natal, South Africa, in 1970. He was Visiting
Lecturer at the University of South Carolina in 1971.
While Dr. Chilton was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1969 his wife
of forty-six years died suddenly of a heart attack. The loss of
Cherridah greatly affected Dr. Chilton's adventuresome spirit, and
he planned to end his academic travels after his stay at South
Carolina.
On`}anuary 2, 1971, Dr. Chilton married Elizabeth C. Rinehart.
She and her deceased husband, H. Wade Rinehart, had been close
friends of the Chiltons for nearly forty-five years. After a successful
visiting professorship at South Carolina, Dr. Chilton and Elizabeth
retired to their home in Cragmere in Wilmington. However, "re-
tirement" to Tom Chilton meant continued activity with Ache, the
Engineers`}oint Council, and even professional and Governmental
consulting work.
In September 1972 the Chiltons went to Paris, where Dr. Chilton
spoke on "The Abatement of Pollution of the Atmosphere from
Stationary Combustion Sources." He made the presentation on
September 5 on the occasion of the 116th Event of the European
Federation of Chemical Engineering, sponsored by the French
Society of Chemical Industry. Its theme was Chemical Engineering
in the Service of Mankind.
Two weeks later, on September 15, while visiting a stepdaughter
in Bonn, West Germany, Dr. Chilton suffered his fatal heart attack.
During his seventy-three years Thomas Hamilton Chilton
earned the respect and professional recognition that many men
strive for but few achieve. He was an inspiration to his colleagues
and the many young engineers he came in contact with during his
extensive tours. He was a model of ethics to the profession. His
dedication to chemical engineering is unparalleled. Above all,
Thomas Hamilton Chilton was a gentleman, a scholar, and a
humanist. For all these things he will long be remembered.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
technical division
