Background

Arthur Dehon Little, the eldest of the four sons of Thomas Jones and Amelia (Hixon) Little, was born on December 15, 1863 at Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was descended from George Little, who settled in Newberry, Massachusetts, about 1640. His family soon moved to Portland, Maine.

Education

He attended the public schools in Portland. Subsequently he studied at Berkeley School in New York City and from 1881 to 1884 he was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career

At the beginning of his career Little was a leading spokesman for applied scientists, and his address, "The Fifth Estate, " delivered at the Franklin Institute on the occasion of its centenary celebration in September 1924, was acclaimed a classic statement of the place, dignity, and responsibility of the scientific professions. Following a brief period as a chemist for the Richmond Paper Company at Rumford, Rhode Island, he was made superintendent and operated the first sulfite process paper-mill in the United States. Later he started other sulfite plants.

The Chemistry of Paper Making, written with Roger B. Griffin and published in 1894, was for many years the accepted authority in its field. In 1886 he and Griffin formed a partnership as consulting chemists with offices in Boston, specializing initially in paper technology. Following Griffin's death in 1893, the organization continued until 1900, when, with William H. Walker in the partnership, it became Little & Walker for a period of five years. In 1909 it was reorganized as Arthur D. Little, Inc. , to become the largest unendowed commercial industrial research laboratory in the United States, and in 1917 it was moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Little remained president until 1935 and became chairman of the board a few months before his death. Control of his institution was then willed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Under this bequest, a trusteeship was established which permitted Arthur D. Little, Inc. , to continue as an independent consulting and research organization. The interest in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology thus expressed had been continuous and constructive through his adult life.

In 1921-1922 he served as president of its alumni association. He was a life member of the Corporation. In 1915, as chairman of the Corporation visiting committee on the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering, he submitted to the Corporation a noteworthy report on the training of chemical engineers. He showed that any chemical process may be resolved into a coordinated series of what may be termed "unit operations, " and he outlined a revolutionary plan for teaching these operations. His conception of unit operations has found general acceptance.

Little's most active professional interest was initially in the chemistry of cellulose and its application to textiles, cordage, pulp- and paper-making, and in viscose, cellulose acetate, and cellulose products generally. Gradually, however, he began to participate with his organization in numerous other fields of applied science. Patents were granted to him on processes for the manufacture of chrome tanned leather, artificial silk and petroleum products, as well as in his special field of pulp and paper. As consulting chemist to the Chemical Warfare Service and Signal Corps in 1917 and 1918, he was in charge of special research on airplane dopes, acetone production, smoke filters, and other problems. He served for some years as a member of the visiting committee on the department of chemistry, Harvard University.

He organized the National Resources Survey of Canada under the auspices of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1916-1917. He initiated the Industrial Bulletin of Arthur D. Little, Inc. in 1927 "to place before bankers, investors, and industrial executives early and authoritative information bearing upon the present status of industrial development or indicative of its probable trend. " This publication soon became recognized as fulfilling the somewhat ambitious purpose Little conceived for it, and it has been continued regularly.

He died at Northeast Harbor, Maine, of a heart attack, at the age of seventy-one.

Achievements

• Arthur Dehon Little was a recognized leader in paper technology. He was instrumental in developing chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His most worthwhile achievement was the establishment of the School of Chemical Engineering Practice. He was among the first to recognize and call public attention to the vast resources and industrial opportunities of the Southern United States. Throughout his technical career he wrote numerous essays and papers on research. Noteworthy among his addresses was "The Handwriting on the Wall, " a brief but effective plea for the more intelligent use of science, which became the keynote of his collection of essays published under that name in 1928. In recognition of his achievement in the sciences and of his contributions to the strength and standing of the chemical profession, he received many honors, including an honorary associateship of the College of Technology, Manchester, 1929. In 1931 he received the Perkin medal, awarded by the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry.

Works

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  • Report of Arthur D. Little, official chemist of the American paper and pulp association, read at the annual meeting, February 6th, 1908

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • Industrial Research Laboratories Arthur D. Little, Inc., Dedicated To Industrial Progress

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Relation Of Research To Industrial Development

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Dyestuff Situation and Its Lesson: Address Before Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America at Washington, February 5, 1915, by Arthur D. Little

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The Chemist And The Community (1908)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Chemistry Of Paper-making: Together With The Principles Of General Chemistry

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Handwriting on the Wall, A Chemist's Interpretation

    (NY 1928 1st. 8vo., 287pp., index, original printed hardco...)

Membership

Little was a member of many professional and honorary scientific and engineering organizations. He was a president of the American Chemical Society, 1912-1914; president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1919; and president of the Society of Chemical Industry (London), 1928-1929. He was vice-chairman of the Engineering Foundation, 1927-1930.

Connections

Little married Henrietta Rogers Anthony Little in Boston on January 22, 1901.

Father:

Thomas Jones Little

Mother:

Amelia (Hixon) Little

Spouse:

Henrietta Rogers Anthony Little

References

• Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Descendants of George Little, Who Came to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1640. Cambridge-1877