Henry Louis

Professor Henry Louis (1855 -1939)

1917 President of the Society of Chemical Industry

University of Durham

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Obituary.

Professor HENRY LOUIS died at his home at Osborne Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on February 22, 1939; he was in his eighty-fourth year. The son of a lace merchant in London, he was born on December 7, 1855; he received his education in Bavaria and at the City of London School, where he was a scholar and medallist. He also gained the William Tike Scholarship and a series of other awards, including the Mortimer Exhibition for Science, and the Royal Exhibition at the Royal School of Mines, whence he emerged with the De la Beche Medal—the highest award then given—and the Associateship in Mining and Metallurgy. He first took a post as chemist with Dr. John Percy, and a few months later Sir William Siemens offered him the position of chemist to the Steel Company of Canada, Nova Scotia; he remained there for three years, and then made a tour of the iron and steel districts of the United States of America before returning to England, where he carried out some experiments for Sir William Siemens on open- hearth steelmaking.

For much of his time. Professor Louis was occupied with mines and mining. He was assistant manager and assay er to a gold mine in Ecuador ; in 1885 he went to the Transvaal to test and prove seams in gold mines, and he also visited gold mines in California. With Mr. H. A. Becher he founded the firm of Becher, Louis & Co. in Singapore in 1890, and for four years he was engineer, manager and consultant for various mines in the Malay Peninsula, Siam and Borneo; he also managed an iron-ore mine in Spain.

From 1896 to 1923 Professor Louis was Professor of Mining and William Cochrane Lecturer on Metallurgy at Armstrong College in the University of Durham. He was the first to introduce elementary metallurgy and metallography as a part of the curriculum of naval architecture and engineering—an example soon followed by other universities.

On resigning his position at the University, Professor Louis turned more to the scientific side of the iron, steel and mining industries, and produced a number of publications; among these were “ The Handbook of Gold Mining,” a revised translation of Schnabel’s “ Text-Book on Metallurgy,” “ The Dressing of Minerals,” “ The Metallurgy of Tin,” “ Electricity in Mining,” ‘‘ Shaft-Sinking in Practical Coal-Mining,” and ‘‘ The Production of Tin.” During his career he had communicated many technical articles to various journals, and he submitted four papers to the Iron and Steel Institute : “ The Chemistry of Puddling ” (1879); “ An Improved Dipping Needle ” (1899); “ The Manufacture of Pig Iron from Briquettes at Herrang ” (1904); and Ancient Lease of a Forge ” (1930).

Professor Louis was connected with many technical societies, both British and foreign. He had been President of the Institution of Mining Engineers and of the Society of Chemical Industry, was a Fellow of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, and was a member of the Institute of Metals. He joined the Iron and Steel Institute in 1881, became a Member of Council in 1918, was elected a Vice-President in 1925, and was President from 1929 to 1931; he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal in 1932. He also held seats on numerous educational boards, and was appointed by the Minister for Mines in 1930 as one of the two commissioners to enquire into the practicability of gold-mining in Merionethshire. In 1902 he had been sent as a Special Commissioner for the Colonial Office to investigate the Pitch Lake in Trinidad.

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1939 Obituary

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