Linn Enslow


Linn Harrison Enslow was an American sanitary engineer and chemist, most famous for his work with Abel Wolman developing chlorination systems in Baltimore.

Life

Enslow was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Linn Bliss Enslow and Marie Enslow, the eldest of six children.
He died of a heart attack on his farm in Dublin, Virginia in 1957; at the time, he resided in Queens, New York, and was working as editor of the magazine Water and Sewage Works. He was buried in New Dublin Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Dublin, Virginia.

Work

While studying chemistry at Johns Hopkins, he met Abel Wolman; together, the two devised a formula to appropriately chlorinate drinking water, depending on factors such as acidity. Between the time of discovery in 1919 and 1941, eighty-five percent of American water systems were using chlorination.