William Justin Kroll

Wilhelm Justine Adolph Kroll - entry in the birth register of the city of Esch an der Alzette

Wilhelm Justine Adolph Kroll (born November 24, 1889 in Esch an der Alzette , Luxembourg ; † March 30, 1973 in Brussels ) was a Luxembourg researcher, metallurgist and inventor.

Life

Wilhelm Kroll spent his childhood at the blast furnace in his father's business. In 1909 he studied engineering in Germany , more precisely in Berlin-Charlottenburg , where he also received his doctorate. Having then in Germany, Austria and Hungary had worked in various companies where he among other things, lead - aluminum - alloy developed, he returned in 1923 to Luxembourg. There he set up his own small laboratory, in which he practically worked as a one-man operation in various areas of metallurgy , in particular he developed titanium alloys.

Kroll developed at the end of the 1930s a method for producing titanium by reduction of titanium (IV) chloride with magnesium , the Kroll process , also Kroll process called. In 1938 the process was submitted for patenting , in 1940 the patent was granted. He later used the same reaction principle for the production of other metals such as zirconium and hafnium from halides that are difficult to reduce.

In February 1940, when war loomed in the West, he fled to the United States, where he was received with open arms. He worked there first in Union Carbide and Carbon , then in Oregon in the US Bureau of Mines and at Oregon State University , where he passed on his knowledge and continued his research.

He applied for over 50 patents on metal alloys and was awarded honorary doctorates by at least five universities. In 1954 he received the James Douglas Gold Medal from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers .

The "Center Drosbach" on rue Guillaume Kroll in Luxembourg

William Kroll returned to Europe in 1961 , where he lived with his brother near Brussels until his death in 1973. He was later buried in Luxembourg.

Honors

• The WJ Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines is named after William Justin Kroll, who made it possible through a foundation.
• Posthumously, William Kroll was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000.
• A street in the Luxembourg capital and a lyceum in Esch / Alzette (since the school year 2018/2019, formerly Lycée technique d'Esch-sur-Alzette) bear his name.

literature

• William J. Kroll. A Luxembourg scientist . Nicolas Lanners Foundation, Luxembourg 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ US Patent 2,205,854 (PDF)