Maunsel White
Maunsel White (c1856-1912)
1912 Obituary [1]
MAUNSEL WHITE died at New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 22, 1912, at the age of fifty-six. He was a native of Louisiana, and was of an illustrious family, his maternal grandmother having been the sister of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America.
His early education was received at his father's home from private tutors. Later be entered Georgetown University, near Washington, and after some years in this institution he decided upon an engineering career, and entered the School of Technology, Worcester, Massachusetts. He afterwards entered the workshops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Weatherby, Pennsylvania. Here he laid the foundation of his practical knowledge of mechanics, and then entered the Stevens Institute, Hoboken, New Jersey, from which he graduated in 1879 as a mechanical and civil engineer.
Immediately after obtaining his diploma he was engaged by the Bethlehem Steelworks, and in a short time became the chief of the metallurgical department. He was in charge of the company's exhibit at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893, and again in 1900 at the Paris Exhibition.
The administration at Paris presented him personally with a bronze medal of merit as a result of the exhibition of his company planned by him. In co-operation with Frederick W. Taylor, he invented the Taylor-White process of hardening tool steel, which is now used extensively in the United States and other countries. He was a life member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1889.