Inventor Name
Cooper, Charles M. (Charles Milton)
Repository
Hagley Museum and Library
PO Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
1 linear ft.
Summary
Chemical engineer. Charles Milton Cooper was born in Minneapolis on June 27, 1900. After serving in the army during World War I, he saved enough money to enroll at MIT, graduating with a B.S. in chemical engineering in 1925. Cooper continued at MIT as a research assistant and assistant professor until 1936, when he joined the Ammonia Dept. of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company at the Belle Plant in Charleston, W.Va. In 1940, he was transferred to the Experimental Station in Delaware. From August 1942 to January 1945, Cooper was loaned to the University of Chicago, where he worked on plutonium production for the Manhattan Project. On his return to Delaware, he became head of the Engineering Research Laboratory. At his retirement on July 1, 1965, he was Associate Director of the Research Division of the Engineering Dept. Cooper spent his retirement in Northfield, Mass., where he continued his research in a home laboratory and was active in civic affairs. He died on August 26, 1971. Charles M. Cooper's papers include biographical data, speeches and articles, photographs, and a selection of correspondence. The primary techincal project described in the papers is a series of experiments in bubble formation that Cooper conducted at the Belle Plant as part of a study of gas-liquid reactions and the removal of dissolved carbon dioxide from water. Other files describe tests of the "Soilmaster" tilling machine considered by DuPont in the 1960s and notes on Cooper's ideas and inventions. About a third of the collection describes Cooper's involvement with engineering education, including correspondence with MIT and files on the recruitment of Delaware high school students for the University of Delaware's engineering school. There are also photographic portraits of Cooper and some of his colleagues.
