Fred olsen biography

British-born American art collector and chemist (–)

For the Norwegian shipping firm, see Fred. Olsen & Co. For the Norwegian shipping magnate, see Fredrik Olsen.

Fredrich Olsen (–) was a British-born American chemist remembered as the inventor of ball propellant^[1] and as a donor or seller to the art antiquities collections of Yale University, the University of Illinois, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2]

Professional chemist

Olsen was born on February 28, , in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Following education in Canada, he began his professional career in as chief chemist for the Aetna Explosives Company of Gary, Indiana.^[3] When Aetna went out of business following World War I,^[2] Olsen worked at Picatinny Arsenal from to devising a remanufacturing process to preserve deteriorating military inventories of smokeless powder in artillery ammunition manufactured during World War I.

He was then employed by