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Home / 📁 Tone / Frank Jerome Tone (1868-1945)

Frank Jerome Tone (1868-1945)

  • Scientist and industrialist
  • Source of much research on Tone family history, including

From an obituary:

Frank J. Tone, Developer of Silicon, Is Dead

Chairman of Carborundum Company was Father of Franchot Tone, Film Actor

NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y., July 26 (AP) - Dr. Frank J. Tone, chairman of the board of the Carborundum Company and father of Franchot Tone, motion-picture actor, died early today at his home after a long illness. He was seventy-five years old.

Took Out 150 Patents

Dr. Frank Jerome Tone was a pioneer in developing synthetic abrasives and refractories and originator of a method of producing the element, silicon, so that it could be used industrially. Before his work, pure metallic silicon had been merely a labroatory curiosity. During fifty years of research in electro-metallurgical fields, Dr. Tone took out at least 150 patents.

The idea that electrically fused materials might be used as refractories, such as silicon carbon waterwalls for power station boiler furnaces, was originally conceived by Dr. Tone. In developing the commercial process for production of silicon metal, he paved the way for making non-aging transformer steel, aluminum silicon alloys as a reducing agent in producing low carbon ferro alloys and in the generation of hydrogen for dirigibles and other purposes.

In 1938 Dr. Tone received the Perkin Medal of the American section of the Society of Chemical Industry for "valuable work in applied chemistry". In 1931 he was chosen as the first winner of the Jacob F. Schoelkopf god medal of the western New York section of the American Chemical Society, the citation recognizing his silicon metal work as "one of the principal feats of modern metallurgical chemistry".

Many other honors were bestowed on Dr. Tone, including the Edward Goodrich Acheson Medal of the Electro-Chemical Society in 1935. He also received the degree of doctor of science at the University of Pittsburgh in 1935.

Was Cornell Graduate

Dr. Tone was born in Bergen, N. Y. and was graduated from Cornell University in 1891 with the degreee of metallurgical engineer. For the next two years he was with the Thompson-Houston Electric Company at Lynn, Mass., and Pittsburgh, and in 1893-'94 was an engineer with the Pittsburgh Railways Company.

In 1895 he became associated, as works manager, with Edward G. Acheson in the development of carborundum and artificial graphite at the Carborundum Company. Four years later he was placed in charge of the production of abrasives and refractories. In 1919 he became president of the company, retiring from that post in 1942 to become chairman of the board.

Dr. Tone also was president of the Republic Carbon Company, a director of the Canadian Carborundum Company, Ltd., and a director of the Power City Bank. He was author of many scientific papers on chemical and metallurgical subjects and was a member of many professional societies.

Surviving, in addition to Franchot Tone, are his wife, Mrs. Gertrude Franchot Tone, and another son, Dr. Frank Jerome Tone Jr., a vice-president of the Carborundum Company.

  • His work at the Pittsburgh Railways Company was almost certainly related to his brother Sumner's work there.
  • In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. (via Wikipedia)
  • Carborundum is also known as silicon carbide, and has a variety of industrial uses.
  • The Carborundum Company still exists.

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