Victor Mills (March 28, 1897 – November 1, 1997) was an American chemical engineer for the
Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
company. He is most credited for the creation of modern
disposable diapers
A diaper /ˈdaɪpə(r)/ (American and Canadian English) or a nappy (Australian English, British English, and Hiberno-English) is a type of underwear that allows the wearer to urinate or defecate without using a toilet, by absorbing or contai ...
and the
Pampers
Pampers is a brand of baby and toddler products marketed by Procter & Gamble.
History
In 1961, P&G researcher Victor Mills disliked changing the cloth diapers of his newborn grandchild. He assigned fellow researchers in P&G's Exploratory Divis ...
brand, production improvements for
Ivory soap
Ivory (french: Savon d'Ivoire) is a flagship personal care brand created by the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), including varieties of white and mildly scented bar soap that became famous for its claim of purity and for floating on water. Over ...
and
Duncan Hines
Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was an Americans, American pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name.
Early life
Hines was born in Bowling Green, Kentu ...
cake mix
A baking mix is a mixed formulation of ingredients used for the cooking of baked goods. Baking mixes may be commercially manufactured or homemade. Baking mixes that cater to particular dietary needs, such as vegan, gluten-free, or kosher bakin ...
, and the production concept for
Pringles
Pringles is an American brand of stackable potato-based crisps. Originally sold by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1968 and marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", the brand was sold in 2012 to the current owner, Kellogg's.
As of 2011, Pri ...
. Within P&G he is regarded as the most productive technologist in the company's history. Therefore, when the company formed an honorary society for their engineers, it was named the Victor Mills Society.
Mills was born in
Milford, Nebraska
Milford is a city in Seward County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln, Nebraska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,090 at the 2010 census.
History
Milford was platted in 1866. It took its name from a mill at a f ...
, to a family of farmers, preachers and mule-team drivers. He served in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, aboard the battleship
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
. He worked his way up from the
black gang to being a welder. At the end of the war he took discharge at
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...
and lived as a beachcomber and welder on the island of
Molokai
Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...
. There he met his future wife, Grace Riggs, a missionary from
Eddyville, Iowa
Eddyville is a city in Mahaska, Monroe, and Wapello counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 970 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
''Circa'' 1839, a Sauk village was established on this site following the end of the Black ...
; she insisted that he return to the mainland and get an education. He graduated from the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
in 1926 with a degree in
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
.
He was hired by Procter & Gamble right out of college and moved to the
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, headquarters of the company. His first major innovation was converting soap production from a batch process—basically cooking in large cauldrons—to a continuous stream operation, which cut production time for Ivory soap from seven days to just a few hours. During the 1930s he built a large home on Hilltop Lane in the Cincinnati suburb of
Wyoming, Ohio
Wyoming is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio; It is located approximately 12 miles north of downtown Cincinnati and is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The population was 8,756 at the 2020 census.
History
Among the earliest European-Amer ...
, where he and Grace raised their only child, daughter Maile. He then applied ideas from soap chemistry to improve the production of cake mixes and peanut butter, among other products. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he was involved with the production of synthetic rubber with
Waldo Semon
Waldo Lonsbury Semon (September 10, 1898 – May 26, 1999) was an American inventor born in Demopolis, Alabama. He is credited with inventing methods for making polyvinyl chloride useful.
Biography
He was born on September 10, 1898.
Semon ...
, the inventor of
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
, who was his mentor at the University of Washington in the early 1920s.
After the war, Mills headed up the Exploratory Development Department of P&G, responsible for finding new lines of product for the company. In that capacity, he conceived and led the development of
Pampers
Pampers is a brand of baby and toddler products marketed by Procter & Gamble.
History
In 1961, P&G researcher Victor Mills disliked changing the cloth diapers of his newborn grandchild. He assigned fellow researchers in P&G's Exploratory Divis ...
during the 1950s. It was the world's first widely marketed disposable diaper, and currently P&G's largest brand by sales revenue. His last project was to oversee the development of
Pringles
Pringles is an American brand of stackable potato-based crisps. Originally sold by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1968 and marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", the brand was sold in 2012 to the current owner, Kellogg's.
As of 2011, Pri ...
. This potato snack is made using a slurry of potatoes, flour and flavorings which is pressed and dried into its distinctive shape: the process owes a lot to Mills' earlier work producing soap flakes.
He retired to
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, in 1961 and spent his time on his hobbies. He had an extensive garden of cactus and other plants of his adopted
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...
region. He traveled the world, both on cruise ships with his wife, and on hiking expeditions. At one time he was the oldest man on record to have climbed
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...
, and likewise Point Lenana on
Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya (Kikuyu: ''Kĩrĩnyaga'', Kamba, ''Ki Nyaa'') is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (), Nelion () and Point Lenana (). Mount Kenya is locat ...
. He died at his home in 1997, at the age of 100.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Victor
1897 births
1997 deaths
University of Washington College of Engineering alumni
People from Seward County, Nebraska
American centenarians
Men centenarians
Diapers
Inventors from Nebraska