Charles Allen Thomas

Charles Allen Thomas (February 15, 1900 – March 29, 1982) was a noted American chemist and businessman, and an important figure in the Manhattan Project.

He held over 100 patents.

A graduate of Transylvania College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomas worked as a research chemist at General Motors as part of a team researching antiknock agents.

This led to the development of tetraethyllead, which was widely used in motor fuels for many decades until its toxicity led to its prohibition.

When he was 16, he entered Transylvania College, which awarded him his Bachelor of Arts (AB) degree in 1920.

During World War I, he served in the Student Army Training Corps, and for a time was a rifle instructor at Camp Perry.

In 1923 Charles F. Kettering and Carroll A. "Ted" Hochwalt recruited Thomas to work as a research chemist at General Motors (GM).

There, he worked with Thomas Midgley, Jr., as part of Kettering's team researching antiknock agents.

This led to the development of tetraethyllead, which was used in motor fuels for many years before being banned in most parts of the world as a poison.

At General Motors, Thomas also worked on a process for extracting bromine from sea water, and with Midgely on making synthetic rubber from isoprene.

He then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he received a Master of Science (MS) degree, majoring in chemistry, in 1924.

To help pay for his tuition, he worked as a professional singer, and for a time he considered a career as a vocalist.

His singing voice was described by his son as a high baritone.

Thomas left General Motors in 1924 for a job as a research chemist, a joint venture between GM and Esso to make and sell tetraethyllead gasoline additives.

In 1926, he and Carroll A. "Ted" Hochwalt co-founded Thomas & Hochwalt Laboratories in Dayton, Ohio, with Thomas as president of the company.

Thomas married Margaret Stoddard Talbott, the sister of Harold E. Talbott, Jr. on September 25, 1926.

They had four children: Charles Allen Thomas III, Margaret Talbott, Frances Carrick, and Katharine Tudor.

That year, he and Hochwalt co-founded Thomas & Hochwalt Laboratories in Dayton, Ohio, with Thomas as president of the company.

The company carried out research for various companies, looking into such diverse subjects as a fire extinguisher that would not freeze in unheated buildings, and a means to speed up the aging of whiskey.

It was acquired by Monsanto in 1936, and Thomas would spend the rest of his career with Monsanto, rising to become its president in 1950, and chairman of the board from 1960 to 1965.

Their work attracted the attention of Edgar Monsanto Queeny, the chairman of Monsanto, who bought Thomas & Hochwalt Laboratories for $1.4 million in Monsanto stock in 1936.

Queeny moved Thomas to St Louis, Missouri, where he became director of Central Research, while Hochwalt remained in Dayton to work on Acrilan, Monsanto's acrylic fiber.

He researched the chemistry of hydrocarbons and polymers, and developed the proton theory of aluminium chloride, which helped explain a variety of chemical reactions, publishing a book on the subject in 1941.

This research culminated in the publication of his book Anhydrous Aluminum Chloride in Organic Chemistry in 1941.

Thomas would spend the rest of his career with Monsanto, becoming a member of its board of directors in 1942, vice president in 1943, executive vice president in 1947, president in 1950, and ultimately chairman of the board from 1960 to 1965.

From 1943 to 1945, he coordinated Manhattan Project work on plutonium purification and production.

He also coordinated development of techniques to industrially refine polonium for use with beryllium in the triggers of atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project's Dayton Project, part of which was conducted on the estate of his wife's family.

Shortly before the war ended, he took over the management of the Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Secretary of State Dean Acheson appointed Thomas to serve on a 1946 panel to appraise international atomic inspection, which culminated in the Acheson–Lilienthal Report.

Monsanto pulled out of Oak Ridge in December 1947, but became the operator of the Mound Laboratories in 1948.

In 1953 he was appointed as a consultant to the National Security Council, and served as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

Charles Allen Thomas was born on a farm in Scott County, Kentucky, the son of a Disciples of Christ minister, Charles Allen, and his wife Frances Carrick Thomas.

His father died when he was six months old, and he and his mother went to live with his grandmother in Lexington, Kentucky, just across the street from Transylvania College.

While living on the farm he was home schooled by his mother and grandmother.

After moving to Lexington he attended Hamilton College's preparatory school, and then Morton High School.

He subsequently served as chairman of Monsanto's Finance Committee from 1965 to 1968.

He retired in 1970.

In this time, Monsanto's annual sales grew from $34 million to $1.9 billion, and its expenditure on research from $6.2 million to 101.4 million.

He researched the chemistry of hydrocarbons and polymers.

In studying the chemical reactions between alkenes and dienes, particularly in the presence of an aluminium chloride catalyst, he developed the proton theory of aluminium chloride, which helped explain a variety of chemical reactions, including cracking, polymerization and dehydrogenation.