Lyle Goodhue

Lyle D. Goodhue (September 30, 1903 – September 18, 1981) was an internationally known inventor, research chemist and entomologist with 105 U. S. and 25 foreign patents. He invented the “aerosol bomb” (also known as the “bug bomb”), which was credited with saving the lives of many thousands of soldiers during World War II by dispensing malaria mosquito-killing liquid insecticides as a mist from small containers. The Bug Bomb became especially important to the war effort after the Philippines fell in 1942, when it was reported that malaria had played a major part in the defeat of American and British forces. After the war, this invention gave birth to a new international billion-dollar aerosol industry. A broad variety of consumer products ranging from cleaners and paints to hair spray and food have since been packaged in aerosol containers. Goodhue's other patents involved insect, bird and animal repellents; herbicides; nematocides; insecticides and other pesticides.

The disposable spray can was largely undeveloped until Lyle Goodhue devised a practical version and filed for a patent in 1941 while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Dr. Goodhue's earliest aerosol propellant idea came to mind when he worked in 1929-30 as a research chemist on lacquer formulations at the DuPont Chemical laboratories in Parlin, New Jersey. That aerosol spray concept was greatly expanded, written in his lab notebook, and witnessed by his boss, Dr. Frank L. Campbell, October 5, 1935 when both worked at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

As a result of their research, which began January 1941 at USDA, Lyle D. Goodhue of Berwyn, Maryland and William N. Sullivan of Washington D.C. received a patent in 1943 for an aerosol “dispensing apparatus.” This was the first commercially-feasible application which allowed a fine spray to escape through a nozzle mounted on a small container. The design, assigned to the U. S. government, was the ancestor of many popular commercial spray products in wide use today. Using liquified gas as a propellant, its one-pound portable cylinder enabled soldiers to defend themselves against tropical malaria-carrying insects by spraying non-toxic insecticides inside tents and troop planes during World War II. From 1942 through 1945, more than 40 million “aerosol bombs” were sent to the troops.

In 1945, Lyle Goodhue, often called the "Father of the Aerosol Industry", joined Airosol, Inc., in Neodesha, Kansas, as Director of Research. This company, which had been originally established to manufacture aerosol containers of insecticide for the military during World War II, became a leading packager of aerosol spray consumer products after the war.

In 1947, Dr. Goodhue joined Phillips Petroleum Company, Bartlesville, Oklahoma as a Senior Research Chemist and Director of Agricultural Chemicals Research. Of the 98 patents which he received at Phillips, he felt that his most important discovery was Avitrol® a treatment which controls and disperses bird infestations through behavioral responses. He retired from Phillips in 1968 as Avitrol Technical Manager.

Lyle Goodhue wrote this account in 1969 of his ground-breaking 1941 aerosol experiment while working for the USDA in Maryland:

In a 1967 newspaper interview, Dr. Goodhue had previously revealed a few more dramatic details of his discovery. Wayne Mason, a reporter for the Tulsa World wrote “It was on Easter Sunday in 1941 when the great moment came in Goodhue’s life. He had just sprayed a few dozen American roaches with the new aerosol. In his words, “In less than 10 minutes all were on their backs. No one else was in the building. I yelled at the top of my voice and danced around wildly. As soon as I could regain my composure, I drove home like a mad man and called Bill Sullivan and John Fales, and with great enthusiasm gave them the results of the first

test.”

• 1928 Highest scholastic record for entire college course, Industrial Science, Iowa State College
• 1938 Gold Medal, Eastern Branch of the American Association of Economic Entomologists, for his paper entitled the “Effect of Particle Size of Some Insecticides on Their Toxicity to the Codling of Moth Lava”
• 1943 Speaker, New York Herald Tribune Forum, Waldorf-Astoria, New York, New York

• 1945 John Scott Award, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the invention of insecticidal aerosols

• 1948 Alumni Merit Award, Iowa State Alumni Association, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

• 1954 Achievement Award, Chemical Specialties Manufacturers Association (CSMA), for work during World War II in developing aerosol insecticides to combat disease-carrying pests
• 1966 Lyle D. Goodhue Research Building, dedicated in honor of his contributions to the aerosol industry, Aerosol Techniques, Inc., Milford, Connecticut
• 1970 Kenneth A. Spencer Award, American Chemical Society, Kansas City section, for outstanding achievement in agricultural and food chemistry
• 1970 Erik Andreas Rotheim Gold Medal, for outstanding contributions to the development of the international aerosol industry, Oslo, Norway
• 2016 Hall of Fame, Newton (Iowa) Community Schools, in recognition of exemplary dedication and accomplishments in science

Lyle Goodhue was born on a farm in Malaka Township, Jasper County, Iowa on September 30, 1903 to Thomas Warwick and Katherine Jane (Engle) Goodhue. Because of his poor eyesight, he was not allowed to enter first grade in Malaka's one-room school house until he was nine years old. The family story is that his father, a farmer, eventually decided that it would be better for him to go to school than to get tangled up in farm machinery.

Dr. Goodhue graduated from Newton, Iowa High School in 1924. He went on to earn a B.S.(Chemistry) in 1928, an M.S. (Plant Chemistry) in 1929 and a Ph.D. (Plant Chemistry) in 1934 from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

He was a member of honor societies Sigma Xi (scientific research), Phi Lambda Upsilon (chemistry), Phi Kappa Phi (academic excellence), Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics), Gamma Sigma Delta, (agriculture), and Delta Mu Delta (business). He was also a member of the professional chemical fraternity of Alpha Chi Sigma, the American Chemical Society, and the Entomological Society of America. Dr. Goodhue received a number of citations from the U.S. Army and U. S. Navy during and after World War II. He authored over 100 technical papers and scientific articles.

He married Helen Elizabeth Hamaker, daughter of Charles Haynes and Jenny Leuna (Davis) Hamaker June 19, 1929 in Des Moines, Iowa. A daughter and a son were born in Ames, Iowa while Dr. Goodhue was studying for his Ph.D., another son was born when he lived in Moorestown, New Jersey, working at the USDA Japanese Beetle Laboratory there, and another daughter was born in Maryland during World War II after he transferred to the USDA complex at Beltsville, Maryland.

Modest and unassuming, Goodhue routinely gave credit to those who worked with him; as a result, most of his patents also include a co-worker’s name. He never lost a farm boy’s ability to repair or construct what was needed. He built his own photography lab and, later, a greenhouse. He designed and served as the contractor for the house in which he lived for more than thirty years before he died. And then, after his own house was completed, he built two more nearby to rent and sell.

His memory, highly developed over the years to compensate for his poor eyesight, was prodigious. After retiring, he acknowledged that he was legally blind, but that did not stop him from continuing to pursue his hobbies. He was well known for his greenhouse, in which he raised bedding plants, African violets and orchids for local residents. Although he did not profit directly from his inventions, he and Mrs. Goodhue were given a month-long round-the-world trip by a grateful industrialist toward the end of his career. His presentations of colored slides from that trip and other extensive foreign travels were popular events in his hometown. Lyle David Goodhue died September 18, 1981 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and is buried beside

his wife Helen, who died June 14, 1995, in Memorial Park Cemetery, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

A 1967 newspaper article said “He has had numerous articles written about him but in none of those is his poor eyesight mentioned. He wouldn’t have mentioned it either except that he was asked about it. After graduation from high school, he had to take a test (because of his eyes) before being allowed to enter college. He was graduated with the highest honors from Iowa State. Under the legal definition he could be called blind, but Goodhue had enough field of

vision to drive a car and gets along with special, powerful lenses. “I don’t drive a car anymore because they got too fast for me," he says. He said he used to feel like he needed to hide his 'blindness', but that "as you get older and successful it doesn't make much difference."