Herbert Melville Boylston

Herbert Melville Boylston (c1882-1940)

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Obituary.

Professor HERBERT MELVILLE BOYLSTON died at his summer home at Edgartown, Mass., U.S.A., on July 28, 1939, at the age of fifty¬eight. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Boylston attended Harvard University; he graduated in 1903 and took a degree in metallurgy in 1905. His first post was that of private technical assistant to Dr. H. M. Howe; among other duties, he assisted in the revision of Dr. Howe’s book “ Iron, Steel and Other Alloys.” In 1906 he became an instructor at Harvard University and taught metallography and metallurgy under the late Professor Sauveur. He also assisted the professor in consulting practice and in the development and sale of metallographic equipment; they formed a partnership, of which Professor Boylston was the managing partner. In 1920 Professor Boylston joined the Case School of Applied Science,

Cleveland, where he was Professor of Metallurgy and Head of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering until his retirement in 1938 owing to ill-health.

Professor Boylston was the author of a book entitled “ Introduction to the Study of Metallurgy,” which has been adopted as a standard text-book by a number of American colleges. He also wrote many papers on the metallography of iron and steel for the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and the American Society for Metals. In 1916 his paper on “ Investigation of the Relative Merits of Various Agents for the Deoxidation of Steel,” describing a research carried out with the aid of a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Research Fund, was published by the Iron and Steel Institute in the Carnegie Scholarship Memoirs. In addition to serving for ten years as the first Chairman of the Publication Committee of the American Society for Metals, Professor Boylston played an active part in the work of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Society for Testing Materials, the American Welding Society and other technical bodies. Professor Boylston joined the Iron and Steel Institute in 1907.

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1940 Obituary

Herbert Melville Boylston, retired head of the metallurgy department at the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, U.S., died at his summer home in Massachusetts on July 28, 1939, at the age of 58.

Boylston was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated at Harvard University in 1903 as a chemical engineer. His hobby was photography, and for his Master's degree he decided on an investigation of polished steel conducted with microscope and camera. This work brought him into contact with Albert Sauveur, who had recently been appointed to Harvard. Thus began an association which was to last a lifetime; together the two young men devised improvements in equipment and technique which soon led to their becoming leaders in the field of metallography.

In 1906 Boylston was appointed an instructor at Harvard. Later, when the amount of testing and consultation that these metallurgists were called upon to do had reached such proportions that the firm of Sauveur and Boylston was formed, he resigned his position to become managing partner in the business.

During the war of 1914-1918 Boylston did much work in connection with munitions and, at short notice, devised a method of heat-treatment for turbine blades which proved invaluable in the American destroyer production.

After the war Boylston was appointed Professor of Metallurgy at the Case School of Applied Science, and under him the department grew to be one of the largest metallurgical schools in the country.

He remained there until 1938 when he was forced to retire through severe arthritis.

Boylston was the author of a book on iron and steel which has been adopted in America as a standard text-book. He also wrote many papers on the metallography of iron and steel, and took an active part in many metallurgical and technical societies.

He was a joint member of the Institute of Metals and of the Iron and Steel Institute, and was elected in 1911.

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