Arthur Dehon Little was born in Boston, Massachusetts back in 1863. From 1881-84 he studied chemistry at MIT. In 1886, he joined the Richmond Paper Company in East Providence, Rhode Island, as a chemist which led to him later becoming superintendent of a paper mill. He recognized that the chemical engineering design was wrong: by correcting this, he came to his first patent.
Many other patents came from his research, mainly related to paper processing technology. He left Richmond Paper Company forming his own company with Roger Griffin the Little & Griffin Company. Later he discovered that cellulose acetate could be used in producing nonflammable wire insulation and artificial silk.
What you may not know about Arthur is that he was the founder of the consulting company Arthur D. Little and was instrumental in developing chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is credited with introducing the term unit operations to chemical engineering and promoting the concept of industrial research.
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