Thomas H. Chilton

Thomas H. Chilton (August 14, 1899 – September 15, 1972) was a chemical engineer and professor. He is considered a founder of modern chemical engineering practice and lectured widely around the world. He received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate and the President's Certificate of Merit. In 1994, DuPont named a laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware for him.

Biography Thomas Hamilton Chilton was born in Greensboro, Alabama, son of a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, poet and hymnodist, Claudius Lysias Chilton, and Mabel Pierce Chilton. He was given the middle name Hamilton to honor a friend of the family. Chilton grew up in Montgomery, Alabama with the peculiar distinction of being the ninth child of a ninth child of a ninth child. Two older brothers founded Paragon Press and put him to work at a printing press, setting type by hand, which taught him to be attentive to detail. Chilton began his career just as chemical engineering was becoming established as its own discipline He and a colleague developed the Chilton-Colburn analogy, which became a fundamental principle of chemical engineering. He began lecturing at universities in 1937.

Publications Mass transfer (absorption) coefficients: Prediction from data on heat transfer and fluid friction (1934) Distillation and absorption in packed columns: Convenient design and correlation method (1935) The manufacture of nitric acid by the oxidation of ammonia: The Du Pont pressure process (1960) Antecedents and descendants of William Parish Chilton: 1810-1871 (1967)