Charles Ernest Acker

Charles Ernest Acker (1868–1920) was an American electrical engineer and inventor of the "Acker Process" for manufacturing sodium hydroxide by electrolysis of molten salt, for which he was awarded the Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal in 1902.

Life Acker was born in Bourbon, Indiana, on March 19, 1868, the son of William James Acker, a manufacturer. He studied at Cornell University, graduating in 1888, and worked as an electrical engineer in Chicago until 1893. He claimed to have been the first person in America to manufacture carbon tetrachloride.

He served as director of the American Electrochemical Society and president of the Niagara Falls Country Club.

Acker died in Ossining, New York, on October 18, 1920.