Harold George Lacell died at Martigny, Switzerland, on April 10th, 1929, at the age of 52.
He entered the Royal College of Science, London, in 1895, where he obtained the Associateship in chemistry. For three years from 1898 he was research assistant to W.A. Shenstone, F.R.S., at Clifton College, Bristol, his work being largely centred on investigations of ozone and on the prospects and working of vitrified silica. In 1901 he was appointed chemist and assistant manager to the Standard Ammonia Co., Ltd., and the London Phosphate Syndicate, Ltd., in which capacity he had the chemical control of plants for the production of various ammonia compounds, and was personally responsible for the devising of a process for the production of phosphoric acid and sodium and ammonium phosphates.
In 1904 he was chemist to a firm in Sussex and was occupied in research having for its aim the synthetic production of cyanides, and two years later he was personally responsible for the working out of a process and the design, erection and operation of a plant for the commercial production of quartz glass. In 1915 he was appointed works manager, and subsequently technical manager, of the Magnesium Co., Ltd., and was responsible for the output of practically the whole of the British and part of the Allies’ requirements of magnesium throughout the war period.
Mr. Lacell was elected a Member of the Institution in 1926.
Vol. 39, Trans IMM 1929-30, p.696
