LeSueur, Ernest

The latter process may have been an example of simultaneous invention. Ernest L. LeSueur (1869-1953) was born in Ottawa. While enrolled in M.I.T. s Electrical Engineering course, he invented a diaphragm cell for the electrolysis of salt, which was widely used. 

In 1903 Ernest LeSueur, of whom more below, with characteristic originality, devised a novel method of shipping acetylene. Use-ing the flakes chipped from the pigs at the Ottawa works he generated acetylene, compressed it to 8 p.s.i. (10 p.s.i. was accepted as the safe upper limit), and by rapid expansion converted the gas into a solid, in a manner now familiar for the conversion of compressed carbon dioxide into Dry Ice. The solid acetylene was then shipped by express train in containers insulated by feathers the 35 miles to the Town of Maxville. There the streets were illuminated in this fashion for a number of years until electricity became more economical and convenient. 

Ernest Arthur LeSueur was born in Ottawa on February 3, 1869 IZ). He attended public school there,finishing at the Ottawa Collegiate Institute. Then he enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated with a bachelor s degree in electric engineering. 

Ernest LeSueur was a founding member of the American Society of Chemical Engineers (1908) and of the Canadian Institute of Chemistry (1920). He received the Canada Medal of the Canadian Section, Society of Chemical Industry, and that society established a medal in his honor. 

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