Thomas Willson

Thomas Leopold Willson, affectionately known across North America as "Carbide Willson," was a Canadian electrochemist and industrial innovator. In 1892, while experimenting with electric arc smelting in Spray, North Carolina in an attempt to produce metallic aluminum, he accidentally created calcium carbide from lime and coal tar.

When quenched with water, the substance released acetylene gas, an intensely bright illuminating fuel that transformed nighttime lighthouses, railway signals, miners' lamps, and oxyacetylene welding. Willson patented the process, co-founded the precursors to Union Carbide, and built Canada's first major electrochemical plants at Shawinigan and Ottawa.