Little, Arthur Dehon (1863-1935), chemical engineer and industrial researcher

Sir George Beilby’s life comprised many activities. He was first and foremost a chemical manufacturer and chemical engineer. During the first twenty years of his professional life (1870-90) his work centred on the manufacture of ammonia and oils from the Scottish shales. At the end of this period the introduction of the McArthur-Forrest process for the extraction of gold from its ores by potassium cyanide caused him to transfer his attention mainly to the production of this substance. He invented a process for the manufacture of cyanide from ammonia, which for sixteen years (1890-1906) was worked by the Cassel Gold Extracting Company (now the Cassel Cyanide Company), Glasgow. In 1900, in conjunction with Castner, he invented another process of cyanide manufacture, which involved the use of sodium. In consequence of this he joined in that year the Board of the Castner-Kellner Alkali Company, at Runcorn, who manufactured pure caustic soda. This was the raw material for the manufacture of sodium metal by the electrolysis of the fused caustic. The plant for this he erected at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and for the remainder of his life he was actively concerned with the operations of the wroks at Runcorn, Newcastle and Glasgow. For more than half a century, therefore, he occupied a foremost place in the manufacture of nitrogen derivatives. His experience as a manufacturer led him to study the economic utilisation of fuel, and in his presidential address to the Society of Chemical Industry in 1899 he surveyed the various channels of consumption into which the output at that date was flowing. This was the starting point of an inquiry and study which led him to become ultimately the foremost authority on the scientific utilisation of fuel in this country. In 1903 he gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Coal on the output of this mineral and its uses, and made suggestions as to its more economical use. Later he worked for a considerable time on the production of a smokeless fuel for domestic purposes. In 1912-13 he was made a member of the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines for the Navy. The culmination of his work in this field was his appointment as the first Chairman and Director of the Fuel Research Board in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1917, a post which gave him the opportunity of putting into practice the conclusions he had formed as to the best methods of utilising scientifically the fuel resources of the country. The war years (1914-18) constituted for him a period of intense activity, and as a member of Lord Fisher’s Central Committee of the Board of Invention and Research, and of the Trench and Chemical Warfare Committees of the War Office and the Ministry of Munitions, he rendered services of the utmost value to the country.

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