Papers of Walter O. Snelling

Walter Otheman Snelling was born in Washington, D.C. on December 13, 1880. He was educated at George Washington University and Harvard University. Upon receiving his Ph.D. degree from George Washington University he accepted employment with the U.S. Geological Survey. While employed there he invented an underwater detonator that was used with great success in the construction of the Panama Canal. Snelling left the Geological Survey in 1910 to take up a position as Chemist-in-Charge, Explosives Laboratory at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. At the Bureau of Mines he concerned himself mostly with problems relating to mine safety, but he also conducted his first researches into the production of Propane. This achievement became a source of ongoing bitterness when a fellow Bureau of Mines chemist claimed precedence over him. Snelling left the Bureau in 1912 and worked as a consultant and private researcher until 1917 when an initial contract to work as a consultant to the Trojan Powder Company turned into an offer of full-time employment. Snelling remained with Trojan from 1917 until his retirement in 1954, gradually shifting his interest away from Propane and oil-cracking to return to his initial field of explosives and ordnance. His position as Trojan's Director of Research and his own innate curiosity and love of chemical experimentation led him to try his hand in many different areas of research and by 1960, he had 179 patents issued in his name. In the years leading up to and during World War II Snelling became increasingly involved with military ordnance and in 1946, following successful stints at the Plum Brook Ordnance Works, Sandusky, OH and service with Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force in Germany, he segued over to the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission as a consultant and member of the Raw Materials Advisory Committee until it was dissolved in 1960. Walter O. Snelling died in Allentown PA on September 10 1965.