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Lloyd Augustus Hall was a pioneer of food chemistry. During his career, he made significant contributions in meat curing and food preservation and obtained more than 100 patents.
Hall was born on June 20, 1894 in Elgin, Illinois. Both his parents were born in the Chicago area. During the late 1830s and into the 1840s, his paternal grandfather was a founding member and then pastor of the Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church, the first African American church in Chicago. About the same time, his maternal grandmother came to the Chicago area by way of the Underground Railroad.
Hall's interest in chemistry is said to have begun when he was a student at East Side High School in Aurora, Illinois. After graduation he went to Northwestern University, where he majored in chemistry. Soon after earning a B.S. in 1914 and a master's degree in 1916, he secured a position as a bench chemist in the Chicago Department of Health Laboratories. He held several positions until 1921, when he became chief chemist at Boyer Chemical Laboratory. During this transitional time, Hall had developed an interest in food chemistry. In 1922, he was named president and chemical director of the consulting firm Chemical Products Corporation.
Through a mutual project with Griffith Laboratories, Hall reconnected with a Northwestern colleague, Carroll L. Griffith, who offered Hall a position in which he could work for Griffith Laboratories as well as keep up his consulting business. Hall, by 1925, was appointed chief chemist and director of research at Griffith Laboratories, a position he held until his retirement in 1959.
One of Hall's most important contributions was the development of the "Flash-Drying" method for the preparation of a solid mixture of sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, and sodium chloride used for the preservation and curing of meats. The mixture obtained through this process consisted of sodium chloride crystallized around the sodium nitrite and nitrate crystals. This allowed the sodium chloride, which preserves meat, to penetrate the meat first, followed by the sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate that cure the meat. This dramatically increased the amount of time that cured meat could be preserved.
Hall also developed methods to prevent rancidity in fats and oil and to sterilize spices. This latter method was found to be an effective sterilization method useful in other industries. He also carried out studies on enzymes, vitamins, and yeast foods.
One of the founding members of the Institute of Food Technologists, Hall served on its board and edited its publication. Throughout his career, Hall served as a consultant to several state, national, and international organizations, such as the Illinois State Food Commission, the War Department's Committee on Food Research, and the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization. Hall was also active in the NAACP, the Urban League, and the Hyde Park-Kenwood Conservation Community Council, the first urban renewal project in Chicago.
Hall married Myrrhene E. Newsome in 1919. They had two children, Dorothy and Kenneth. Lloyd Augustus Hall died on January 2, 1971 in Pasadena, California, where he and his wife had lived since his retirement from Griffith Laboratories.
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