Lyle Goodhue
| Lyle D. Goodhue | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | September 30, 1903 Jasper County, Iowa |
| Died | September 18, 1981 (aged 77) Bartlesville, Oklahoma |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Research chemist and entomologist |
| Known for | Aerosol “Bug Bomb” and Avitrol bird repellant |
Lyle D. Goodhue (September 30, 1903 – September 18, 1981) was an internationally known inventor, research chemist and entomologist with 105 U. S. and 25 foreign patents. He invented the “aerosol bomb” (also known as the “bug bomb”), which was credited with saving the lives of many thousands of soldiers during World War II by dispensing malaria mosquito-killing liquid insecticides as a mist from small containers. The Bug Bomb became especially important to the war effort after the Philippines fell in 1942, when it was reported that malaria had played a major part in the defeat of American and British forces. After the war, this invention gave birth to a new international billion-dollar aerosol industry. A broad variety of consumer products ranging from cleaners and paints to hair spray and food have since been packaged in aerosol containers. Goodhue's other patents involved insect, bird and animal repellents; herbicides; nematocides; insecticides and other pesticides.
The disposable spray can was largely undeveloped until Lyle Goodhue devised a practical version and filed for a patent in 1941 while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Dr. Goodhue's earliest aerosol propellant idea came to mind when he worked in 1929-30 as a research chemist on lacquer formulations at the DuPont Chemical laboratories in Parlin, New Jersey. That aerosol spray concept was greatly expanded, written in his lab notebook, and witnessed by his boss, Dr. Frank L. Campbell, October 5, 1935 when both worked at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.
As a result of their research, which began January 1941 at USDA, Lyle D. Goodhue of Berwyn, Maryland and William N. Sullivan of Washington D.C. received a patent in 1943 for an aerosol “dispensing apparatus.” This was the first commercially-feasible application which allowed a fine spray to escape through a nozzle mounted on a small container. The design, assigned to the U. S. government, was the ancestor of many popular commercial spray products in wide use today. Using liquified gas as a propellant, its one-pound portable cylinder enabled soldiers to defend themselves against tropical malaria-carrying insects by spraying non-toxic insecticides inside tents and troop planes during World War II. From 1942 through 1945, more than 40 million “aerosol bombs” were sent to the troops.
...
Wikipedia