Despite being foreign born, William J. Kroll’s involvement with the Bureau of Mines in his adulthood distinguishes him as a respected part of the history of Albany, Oregon. Born Guillaume Justin Kroll November 24th, 1889 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, Kroll endured a classical education in Greek, Latin, chemistry, and physics before moving to Berlin to pursue metallurgy. Throughout his lifetime, Kroll brought attention to the potential uses for several elements as while as attaining patented methods for extraction of these elements, despite the wariness of others. Working in Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and , eventually, the United States, Kroll was renowned for his endless dedication to his work and his notoriously radical ideas. After
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After inventing a precipitation hardening stainless steel in 1929 by utilizing small amounts of titanium, Kroll turned his focus on the uses of Titanium and its alloys. Preferring to work alone, Kroll only hired a secretary, a mechanic, and a labourer to assist his work. After Cerametal, a company in Luxembourg, produced the first samples of titanium in 1938, Kroll contacted founder Dr. Nicolas Lanners, with the hopes of a future partnership. As is was, the two began a lifelong friendship when Kroll became a shareholder after the reorganization of Cerametal after World War II. Prior to his involvement in Cerametal, Kroll attempted to share his theories of titanium uses in the United States, specifically his process to produce pure titanium from ore, but interest was limited, Nevertheless, Kroll chose to emigrate to the United States a mere three months before the Nazi invasion of Luxembourg, which would last for four years. Without his personal library or laboratory, he he entered the services of the Union Carbide and Carbon Research Laboratories as a consulting engineer in May of 1940. There, he applied for United States citizenship and received a patent for a method of refining titanium (later known as the Kroll Process). Unfortunately, after the United States declared war on the Axis-nations, Kroll’s patent was forfeited in 1941 due to the Alien Property
After inventing a precipitation hardening stainless steel in 1929 by utilizing small amounts of titanium, Kroll turned his focus on the uses of Titanium and its alloys. Preferring to work alone, Kroll only hired a secretary, a mechanic, and a labourer to assist his work. After Cerametal, a company in Luxembourg, produced the first samples of titanium in 1938, Kroll contacted founder Dr. Nicolas Lanners, with the hopes of a future partnership. As is was, the two began a lifelong friendship when Kroll became a shareholder after the reorganization of Cerametal after World War II. Prior to his involvement in Cerametal, Kroll attempted to share his theories of titanium uses in the United States, specifically his process to produce pure titanium from ore, but interest was limited, Nevertheless, Kroll chose to emigrate to the United States a mere three months before the Nazi invasion of Luxembourg, which would last for four years. Without his personal library or laboratory, he he entered the services of the Union Carbide and Carbon Research Laboratories as a consulting engineer in May of 1940. There, he applied for United States citizenship and received a patent for a method of refining titanium (later known as the Kroll Process). Unfortunately, after the United States declared war on the Axis-nations, Kroll’s patent was forfeited in 1941 due to the Alien Property