Everything about Carl Rogers Darnall totally explained
Brigadier General Carl Rogers Darnall,
MD (
December 25,
1867,
Weston, Texas, USA -
January 18,
1941,
Walter Reed General Hospital,
Washington, DC, USA) was a
U.S. Army chemist and surgeon credited with originating the technique of liquid
chlorination of drinking water. It has been plausibly asserted that more lives have been saved and more disease prevented by this contribution to sanitation than by any other single achievement in
medicine or
public health.
Biography
Youth and education
Darnall was born on his father’s farm in the
Cottage Hill community near
McKinney, in
Collin County, Texas. He was the eldest of the seven children of Reverend Joseph Rogers Darnall, minister of the
Christian Church, and Mary Ellen (Thomas) Darnall.
He studied at
Carlton College,
Bonham, Texas, and
Transylvania University,
Lexington, Kentucky and received a medical degree from
Jefferson Medical College,
Philadelphia (1890). In 1892 he married Annie Estella Major of
Erwinna, Pennsylvania. In 1896, after a few years of private practice, he was commissioned a
first lieutenant and assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army. He was graduated from the
Army Medical School in Washington the following year.
Early career
Darnall’s first assignments were to stations in Texas –
Fort Clark at
Brackettville, and
Fort McIntosh at
Laredo. During the
Spanish-American War (1898), Darnall served in
Cuba. Later, he served as an operating surgeon and pathologist aboard the hospital ship
USS Relief in the
Philippines and commanded the hospital at
Iloilo. He was one of the few medical officers that accompanied the Allied Forces during the
Boxer Rebellion in China.
Chlorination
In 1902, Darnall returned to Washington, D.C., and served as secretary of the faculty and instructor for sanitary chemistry and operative surgery at the Army Medical School. It was while a
Major and a professor of chemistry there that he discovered the value of liquefied chlorine in purifying water for use by troops in the field. His 1910 invention, the mechanical liquid chlorine purifier, was the prototype of the technology that's now applied to municipal water supplies throughout the world. Darnall also devised and patented a water filter that was used by the Army for many years. Major
William Lyster further adapted the process of water chlorination to field use by inventing a method to apply
sodium hypochlorite in a cloth bag (the “Lyster bag”).
Later career
Darnall was promoted to
Colonel in 1917. During
World War I, Darnall’s talents for business and organization were recognized and he was assigned to the Finance and Supply Division in the Office of The Surgeon General (OTSG). After the war, he served as department surgeon in Hawaii. In 1925, he returned to the OTSG as
executive officer. In November (or December 5?), 1929, he was promoted to brigadier general and became the Commanding General of the Army Medical Center, a post he held until he retired on Dec. 31, 1931.
Darnall died on 18 January 1941. Six days earlier, his wife had died at the family home in Washington. They left three sons, Joseph Rogers (1894-1976), William Major (b. 1895), and Carl Robert (b. 1904), all of whom served in some capacity in the Army. He is buried in the
Arlington National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia.
Awards and honors
Darnall was a fellow of the
American College of Surgeons, a member of the
American Medical Association and
Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He was a veteran of the
Military Order of the Carabao, member of the
Army and Navy Club of Washington, and Founder Member of the
Army and Navy Country Club. Darnall received the
Distinguished Service Medal for his organizing, developing and administering medical supplies during World War I.
Legacy
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