Arthur Thomas Palin

Arthur Thomas Palin (16 October 1916 – 2006) was a British chemist and bacteriologist. As well as inventing the DPD method of detecting chlorine in water

Education Palin's contributions to technical literature have appeared in Canada, Japan, Spain, France, Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. He held a first class degree from the University of London, was awarded a Ph.D. for his chlorination research and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was an official advisor to the Standard Methods Committee of the AWWA, and an active member of several of its joint task groups and the Research and Water Quality Disinfection committees.

Career

Early career Palin's early experience in water quality testing and control was gained in the service of what was then the London Midland & Scottish Railway Co. His work involved the supervision of the water supplies to a number of large railway towns in the U. K., and included checking the purity of the water supply to the Royal Train.

In 1940, he was appointed first waterworks chemist to the city of Coventry, to supervise the wartime operation of the emergency water supply. The treatment problems in converting contaminated raw water sources into drinkable water stimulated his interest in the application of new and safer methods of water treatment. The challenge to achieve the highest possible quality standards led to the first application in the U.K. of such novel treatments as breakpoint chlorination, already in limited use at that time in the U.S. Although the water supply system in Coventry was extensively damaged by enemy bombing on many occasions, at no time did the public suffer harm from contaminated water. The purity and wholesomeness of the supply was maintained at all times.

It was this need for a greater understanding of the process that triggered Palin's classic work on chlorination chemistry and his development of new test procedures, including the first practical method for the separate determination of free chlorine, monochloramine, dichloramine and nitrogen trichloride, all of which may, under certain conditions, be found in chlorinated water. It was the development of this analytical method, using the indicator diethyl para phenylene diamine (DPD), that provided the key to open the door to the explanation of the breakpoint in chlorination and laid the foundation for the present classification of modern processes.