Walter O. Snelling
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Walter Otheman Snelling (December 13, 1880September 10, 1965) was a chemist who contributed to the development of
explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
, ordnance, and
liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cooking e ...
.


Early life and career

Walter Otheman Snelling was born in Washington, D.C. on December 13, 1880, the elder of two sons of Walter Comonfort Snelling (1859-1893) and Alice Lee Hornor (1861-1919). Walter Comonfort Snelling was an inventor who patented an adding machine. Alice Lee Hornor, from an old
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
family, became a
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
who studied law and medicine and traveled and wrote extensively. On June 27, 1894, she remarried, to John Oliver Moque. In addition to his full brother, Henry Hornor Snelling, Walter had a half-sister, Voleta Alice Moque. Snelling studied at George Washington University, receiving a B.S. in 1904, and at Harvard University, where he received a second B.S. in 1905. He then attended Yale University and received a Ph.D. from George Washington University in 1907. From 1907 to 1910, he worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, initially in Washington, D.C. and later in Pittsburgh. He invented an underwater
detonator A detonator, frequently a blasting cap, is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the last two being the most common. The commercial use of explosives uses electri ...
that was credited with saving the U.S. government $500,000 a year during the construction of the Panama Canal., Page 17.


Development of propane as a significant fuel

In 1910, Snelling became chemist-in-charge of the explosives laboratory at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. A major focus of his job was mine safety, but he also researched the production of
propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used a ...
, which had been discovered dissolved in Pennsylvanian light
crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...
by
Edmund Ronalds Dr Edmund Ronalds FCS FRSE (18 June 1819 – 9 September 1889) was an English academic and industrial chemist.  He was co-author of a seminal series of books on chemical technology that helped begin university teaching of chemical applications fo ...
in 1864. Snelling highlighted it as a volatile component in gasoline in 1910, built a distilling apparatus and separated "wild gasoline" into liquid and gaseous components. The volatility of these lighter hydrocarbons caused them to be known as "wild" because of the high vapor pressures of unrefined gasoline. On March 31, the ''New York Times'' reported on Dr. Snelling's work with liquefied gas and that "...a steel bottle will carry enough gas to light an ordinary home for three weeks." Snelling's work with "wild gas" became the basis for a patent critical to Snelling's next venture, development of a commercial method to produce liquefied petroleum gas (mostly propane). By the end of 1911, Snelling had established contact with Frank P. Peterson, Chester Kerr and Arthur Kerr, who were actively researching natural gas gasoline. On Nov. 11, 1911, American Gasol Co. was incorporated in West Virginia. C. L. Kerr, Frank Peterson and Snelling each held 261 shares of the initial 2,000 shares of stock. Kerr was named president, and Peterson and Snelling were among the directors of the new company. On March 25, 1913, Snelling's method of processing and producing LP gases was issued patent #1,056,845. A separate method of producing LP gas through compression was created by Frank Peterson and its patent granted on July 2, 1912. The first customer for liquified petroleum gas was John Gahring, who had it installed for lighting and cooking in his home as of May 17, 1912. By June 1912, Snelling felt that the business was stable enough to enable him to resign from the Bureau of Mines. However, expansion was slow, and in September 1912, M. L. Benedum and J. C. Trees of Pittsburgh financed the company, paying $10,000 for 200 shares of stock each. On August 25, 1913, E. W. De Bower offered Snelling, Peterson and Kerr a certified check for $50,000 for American Gasol, and gave them 30 minutes to decide whether or not to sell. Peterson and Kerr voted to accept the offer, and Snelling reluctantly agreed. Analysis of sample of propane that can be traced back to Dr. Snelling has been shown to contain 0.062 mole% methane, 23.44 mole% ethane, 57.366 mole% propane, 7.127 mole% isobutane, 11.957 mole% butane and 0.044 mole% isopentane. In 1913, Snelling sold his propane patent for $50,000 to Frank Phillips, the founder of
Phillips Petroleum Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...
. Snelling worked as a consultant and private researcher until 1917 when he was offered full-time employment at the Trojan Powder Company. He eventually became Director of Research. Snelling remained with Trojan from 1917 until his retirement in 1954, and continued to consult for them until 1957. During World War II, Snelling did considerable work on military ordnance, including service at Plum Brook Ordnance Works,
Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Erie County, Ohio, Erie County, Ohio, United States. Situated along the shores of Lake Erie in the northern part of the state, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( wes ...
and the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
in Germany. While at Plum Brook, he studied the effects of
sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...
on TNT, and discovered that TNT could be used instead of
silver salts A silver halide (or silver salt) is one of the chemical compounds that can form between the element silver (Ag) and one of the halogens. In particular, bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl), iodine (I) and fluorine (F) may each combine with silver to p ...
to coat
photographic paper Photographic paper is a paper coated with a light-sensitive chemical formula, like photographic film, used for making photographic prints. When photographic paper is exposed to light, it captures a latent image that is then developed to form a v ...
. In 1946 he became a consultant to the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission, serving as a member of the Raw Materials Advisory Committee until 1960 when it was dissolved. By 1960, he held 179 patents, most in the areas of propane, oil-cracking, explosives and ordnance. His work was recognized by the Franklin Institute through the Edward Longstreth Medal in 1962. He was awarded an honorary doctor of science from Lehigh University.


Personal life

In 1919, Snelling married Helen Marjorie Gahring (1901–1976) in Union City, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of his first customer, John Gahring. The Snellings had seven children and lived their entire married lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The family purchased a home at the edge of the city's West Park in either 1940 or 1941, and Walter remained there until his death on September 10, 1965. One of their sons, Richard Arkwright Snelling, was the Governor of Vermont. Another son, Charles Darwin Snelling, was appointed chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a life trustee of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, a member of the Propane Education and Research Council, and past president of the
Pennsylvania Society The Pennsylvania Society is an annual weekend retreat for Pennsylvania's politicians and business leaders held in New York City. It began during the late 19th century as a meeting of Pennsylvanians living in New York City who gathered annually be ...
. He published a short memoir in '' New York Times'' columnist David Brooks' blog.


In popular culture

On the animated television series '' King of the Hill'', Hank Hill refers to Snelling as the "father of modern propane."


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Snelling, Walter O. 1880 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American chemists 20th-century American inventors Scientists from Allentown, Pennsylvania People from Washington, D.C. Harvard University alumni Yale University alumni George Washington University alumni Snelling family