Lloyd Augustus Hall was born on June 20, 1894, and died on January 2, 1971. He was an American chemist who helped improve how food is kept safe and fresh. During his career, Hall received 59 United States patents for his inventions. Some of his inventions were also patented in other countries.

Biography

Lloyd Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois on June 20, 1894. His grandmother traveled to Illinois using the "Underground Railroad" when she was sixteen years old. His grandfather arrived in Chicago in 1837 and helped start the Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church. He became the church’s first pastor in 1841. Hall’s parents, Augustus and Isabel, both completed high school. Although Lloyd was born in Elgin, his family later moved to Aurora, Illinois. He graduated from East Aurora High School in Aurora in 1912. After high school, he studied pharmaceutical chemistry at Northwestern University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He later received a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago. At Northwestern, Hall met Carroll L. Griffith, who with his father, Enoch L. Griffith, started Griffith Laboratories. The Griffiths later hired Hall as their chief chemist.

After finishing university, Hall was offered a job by the Western Electric Company after a phone interview. The company later refused to hire him when they learned he was Black. Hall then worked as a chemist for the Department of Health in Chicago and later as chief chemist for the John Morrell Company.

During World War I, Hall worked with the United States Ordnance Department and was promoted to Chief Inspector of Powder and Explosives. In 2004, he was honored by being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his contributions.

After the war, Hall married Myrrhene Newsome. The couple moved to Chicago so he could work as a chief chemist at the Boyer Chemical Laboratory. Later, Hall became president and chemical director for Chemical Products Corporation’s consulting laboratory. In 1925, Hall joined Griffith Laboratories, where he worked for 34 years.

Major contributions

Lloyd Hall spent much of his life working in food science, especially in the area of curing meat. He focused on improving a product called flash-drying, which was developed by Griffith Laboratories. This product was based on a process created by German chemist Karl Max Seifert. Seifert’s method involved spraying solutions of sodium chloride and other salts onto hot metal, then quickly drying them to form crystals of the secondary salts covered by a shell of sodium chloride. Seifert received a patent for this process in 1934 and sold the rights to Griffith Laboratories. Griffith Laboratories later adapted Seifert’s process for meat curing and patented it, using nitrates and nitrites—common curing agents—as the secondary salts.

Lloyd Hall is sometimes incorrectly credited with inventing Seifert’s process. However, Hall played a key role in developing the patent after Griffith Laboratories acquired it. He added substances like corn sugar and glycerine to the product to prevent the powder from clumping. Most of Hall’s patents related to meat curing focused on either stopping the curing mixture from clumping or solving problems caused by anticaking agents.

Hall also studied the role of spices in food preservation. While it was known that some seasonings had antimicrobial properties, Hall and his colleague Carroll L. Griffith discovered that certain spices also contained bacteria, yeast, and mold spores. To address this, they patented a method in 1938 to sterilize spices using ethylene oxide gas, a type of fumigant. Hall and Griffith later supported the use of ethylene oxide for sterilizing medical equipment, helping to promote an idea that had been discussed for many years.

Hall also found new uses for antioxidants to stop food from spoiling, especially to prevent fats and oils from becoming rancid. He noticed that unprocessed vegetable oils naturally contained substances like lecithin, which slowed spoilage. He developed ways to combine these compounds with salts and other materials so they could be easily added to other foods.

After retiring from Griffith Laboratories in 1959, Hall worked as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. From 1962 to 1964, he served on the American Food for Peace Council. He died in 1971 in Pasadena, California. Throughout his life, Hall received many honors, including honorary degrees from Virginia State University, Howard University, and the Tuskegee Institute. In 2004, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his contributions.

Patents

• 1,882,834, 10/18/1932, Asphalt emulsion and how to make it
• 1,914,351, 6/13/1933, Protective coating, Enoch L. Griffith (co-inventor)
• 2,022,464, 11/26/1935, Vitamin concentrate,
• 2,097,405, 10/26/1937, How to make bleached pepper products
• 2,107,697, 2/8/1938, Sterilizing foodstuffs, Carroll L. Griffith (co-inventor)
• 2,155,045, 4/18/1939, Detergent composition with inhibitors
• 2,189,949, 2/13/1940, Sterilizing colloid materials
• 2,251,334, 8/5/1941, Protein composition of matter
• 2,321,673, 6/15/1944, Yeast food
• 2,357,650, 9/5/1944, Puncture sealing composition and how to make it
• 2,363,730, 11/28/1944, How to make nitrogen-fortified whey concentrate
• 2,385,412, 9/25/1945, Seasoning composition with capsicum
• 2,414,299, 1/14/1947, How to make protein hydrolysate flavoring material
• 2,464,200, 3/15/1949, How to make stable dry papain composition
• 2,464,927, 3/22/1949, Antioxidant
• 2,477,742, 8/2/1949, Gelatin-based coating for food and similar items
• 2,493,288, 1/3/1950, Synergistic antioxidants and ways to prepare them
• 2,500,543, 3/14/1950, Antioxidant
• 2,511,802, 6/13/1950, Synergistic antioxidant
• 2,511,803, 7/13/1950, Antioxidant flakes
• 2,511,804, 7/13/1950, Antioxidant salt
• 2,518,233, 8/8/1950, Synergistic antioxidant with amino acids
• 2,536,171, 1/2/1951, How to make protein hydrolysate
• 2,758,931, 8/14/1956, Antioxidant composition
• 2,770,551, 11/27/1956, Meat-curing salt composition
• 2,772,169, 11/13/1956, Antioxidant material and its use in treating meat
• 2,845,358, 7/29/1958, Method of preserving frozen pork