Dr. Lloyd Hall

Dr. Lloyd Hall (1894-1971) was a food chemist.

Dr. Hall's family had a great influence on him. His grandmother was an escaped slave, who fled to Illinois via the Underground Railroad at the age of 16, and later married a founder and the pastor of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. church, the first African-American church in Chicago. Both of Hall's parents, Augustus and Isabel Hall, were high school graduates whose strict teachings of respect for others contributed greatly to his success.

Hall attended high school in Aurora, Illinois, where because of his high grades and involvement in extracurricular activities, he was offered scholarships to several universities. He chose to attend Northwestern University where he earned his BS degree in chemistry in 1916 before pursuing a graduate degree from the University of Chicago.

After school, Dr. Hall worked for the Chicago Department of Health and then for the John Morrell Co. in Iowa before marrying Myrrhene E. Newsome in 1919. Two years later, he secured another position in Chicago as Chief Chemist at the Boher Chemical Laboratory. Soon after, he began work at the Chemical Products Corporation, and, in 1925, he was given the position of consultant and, later of chemist and director at Griffiths Laboratories, where he remained until his retirement.

At Griffiths, Dr. Hall discovered many of the preservative chemicals that are now used to keep food fresh without losing its flavor. Before his work, preservation was a matter of chance. Too much sodium nitrate, which was the most commonly used preservative, made foods bitter, but too little would not keep food from spoiling. Dr. Hall developed a combination of chemical salt with a process called "flash-drying," which is now widely used to preserve meat. In addition, he found ways to kill bacteria, molds, and yeasts in spices and a way to keep foods containing fats or oils from spoiling. During World War I and World War II, he served as a science advisor for the United States Government. In addition, in World War I, he was the Chief Inspector of Powder and Explosives and, in World War II, he served as a part of the Committee on Food Research, a part of the Science Advisory Board, which helped to keep military food supplies pure. By 1959, Hall had been granted a total of 105 patents for methods he had discovered.

In 1939, the Institute of Food Technologies was established, which greatly contributed to the development of food chemistry as a field of science. This non-profit scientific society still exists today and has 28,000 members working in food science food technology and related professions. Hall, who was a charter member, edited its magazine and, for four years, was a part of its executive board.

After retiring, Hall and his wife moved to California, where he continued to be active in his community until his death in 1971.

For further information on Dr. Lloyd Hall and other scientists, below are some additional resources that may be helpful.

• Hanson, S. L. (1996). Lost Talent: Women in the Sciences. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Morse, M. (1995). Women Changing Science. New York: Insight Books.
• Greenspan, K. (1996). The Timetables of Women's History. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Yount, L. (1999). A to Z of Women in Science and Math. New York: Facts on File.
• Bernstein, L., Winkler, A., Zierdt-Warshaw, L. (1996). Multicultural Women of Science. Maywood, NJ: The Peoples Publishing Group, Inc.
• Bernstein, L., Winkler, A., Zierdt-Warshaw, L. (1998). African and African American Women of Science. Maywood, NJ: The Peoples Publishing Group, Inc.
• Bernstein, L., Winkler, A., Zierdt-Warshaw, L. (1998). Latino Women of Science. Maywood, NJ: The Peoples Publishing Group, Inc.
• Grun, B. (1991). Timetables of History. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Hellemans, A., & Bunch, B. (1991). The Timetables of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster.

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