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15 Little-Known Facts About Alice Ball

Alice Ball, a chemist, is one of the youngest and most well-known developers who has accomplished a lot at a young age. Ball invented the Ball method, which was renowned and considered the most efficient method of treating leprosy in the twentieth century. She was the first woman to get a master’s degree from Hawai’i University, and she was also the university’s first female and African-American chemistry professor. She died at the age of 24, and her contributions to science were not recognized for many years. These and many other facts associated with her name will be addressed in this context. Join us as we examine the 15 Little Known Facts about this great science professor;

1. Her parent’s career drove her to chemistry

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Her family had nothing to do with medicine or being in the scientific field. What exactly are we saying? We are accustomed to seeing children follow in their parents’ footsteps, at least most of the time. Ball’s family was middle-class and prosperous, as her father was the editor of The Colored Citizen, a photographer, and a lawyer.

Her mother was also a photographer. Her grandfather, James Ball Sr., was a photographer who was among the first African-Americans to employ daguerreotype, the process of printing images onto metal plates.

However, her parents’ use of mercury vapors and iodine-sensitized silver plates to develop images led her to fall in love with chemistry.

2. She studied chemistry at the University of Washington

Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Alice Ball grew up in a prosperous middle-class home. Her parents were photographers, which some scholars feel influenced Ball’s interest in chemistry due to the chemicals they used to develop photographs.

She graduated from high school with honors and went on to study chemistry at the University of Washington, where she got a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and a second bachelor’s degree in pharmacy science two years later.

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3. She accepted an offer from the University of Hawaii to pursue a master’s degree in chemistry

Following graduation, Ball was awarded numerous scholarships, including one from the University of Hawaii. She accepted an offer from the University of Hawaii to pursue a master’s degree in chemistry.

Her master’s thesis examined the chemical properties of various Kava plant species, and it was this research that piqued the interest of Harry T. Hollmann, a doctor at the US Public Health Service’s Leprosy Investigation Station in Hawaii.

He offered her the chance to research chaulmoogra oil and its chemical qualities – an oil that, until Ball’s discovery, had been the finest therapy for leprosy for hundreds of years. Later, Ball went on to create a more potent injectable version of it.

4. First Black American to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii

, , via Wikimedia Commons

She was the first woman and the first Black American to receive a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii in 1915. She was also the first African-American research chemist and chemistry instructor at the University of Hawaii.

5. Ball Method

Ball labored long hours as a laboratory researcher to create an effective therapy for Hansen’s illness (leprosy).

Until her investigation, the chaulmoogra tree’s oil had been the most commonly used remedy since the 1300s. However, it was ineffective, and each technique of application had flaws.

Ball developed an injectable form of the oil, which proved to be an extremely effective means of treating leprosy symptoms. This became known as the “Ball Method” and was performed on thousands of leprosy patients for nearly thirty years until sulfone medicines were introduced.

6. Her legacy was not celebrated in her Lifetime

Despite the hurdles and lack of acknowledgment that women experience in science, there are innumerable amazing women who have made historic contributions to research and helped develop our understanding of the world around us.

Many, like Alice Ball, were not recognized during their lifetimes, but they left legacies and their work will continue to inspire future generations of female scientists.

7. Ball developed a method for extracting oil from the chaulmoogra tree’s seeds

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Ball developed a method for extracting oil from the seeds of the chaulmoogra tree based on features of her prior research on ethers and ingredient extraction.

The fatty acid components of the oil were separated using a method known as “The Ball Method.” This lowered the oil’s thickness and stickiness, allowing the active ingredient to be injected and absorbed by the body without the discomfort or adverse effects associated with traditional ointments.

8. She died before she was fully recognized for her research in  chaulmoogra oil

Ball discovered a better way to use chaulmoogra oil to cure leprosy, but she died before her work was officially recognized.

Despite the fact that she had performed the necessary study, the college’s president, Dr. Arthur Dean, claimed Ball’s work as his own and referred to the process as “The Dean Method” despite the fact that she had just continued her research.

9.  Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara and Stanley Ali published her work

Hollmann stepped in and attempted to remedy this injustice by releasing a paper in an attempt to properly credit Ball with the discovery.

Despite this, Ball’s contribution to medical and scientific research would go unnoticed for the next 50 years. Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara and Stanley Ali searched the University of Hawaii archives in 1977 as part of their research into the history of Black people in Hawaii.

They discovered Ball’s records and were instrumental in bringing attention to her research so that her contributions could be recognized.

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10. The cause of her death is unknown

She suddenly on December 31, 1916, at the age of 24. She became unwell while conducting research and had returned to Seattle for treatment a few months before her death.

The reason for her death is unknown, while a 1917 newspaper story in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser speculated that it could have been chlorine poisoning from exposure while teaching in a laboratory.

11. A bronze plaque was installed at the University of Hawaii in her honor 

Alice Ball’s legacy endures. The University of Hawaii honored Ball with a bronze plaque on the only Chaulmoogra Tree on the UH-Manoa campus in 2000.

Mazie Hirono, the former Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, designated February 29 “Alice Ball Day” that same year, which is currently observed every four years. Ball was awarded a Medal of Distinction by the Hawaii Board of Regents in 2007.

12. She earned two bachelor’s degrees within four years

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Her family relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii, when she was ten years old. They returned two years later. She attended the University of Washington after graduating from Seattle High School in 1910.

In four years, she acquired two bachelor’s degrees: one in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and one in pharmacy in 1914.

Ball collaborated on an article that appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. She was most likely the journal’s first African-American chemist to be published.

13. The first woman to teach chemistry at Hawaii College

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Ball was the first woman and the first black student to receive a master’s degree in chemistry from the College of Hawaii after graduating in 1915.

The college then hired Ball as a chemistry lecturer, and she became the college’s first female chemistry instructor at the age of 23.

14.   February 28 ” was declared Alice Augusta Ball Day” in Hawaii 

At a special recognition event on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus on February 28, 2022, Hawaii Governor David Ige signed a proclamation establishing February 28 as “Alice Augusta Ball Day” in Hawaii.

The event took place in the shade of a Chaulmoogra tree planted in Ball’s honor near Bachman Hall. In her honor, a bronze plaque is on display.

Over 100 individuals attended, including First Lady Dawn Ige and University of Hawaii President David Lassner.

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15. A Park in Seattle’s Greenwood was named after her

Ball was honored with a brand-new park in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood in 2018.

In honor of her, Florence Nightingale, and Marie Curie’s contributions to science and global health research, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine affixed their names to the frieze atop its main building in 2019.

A short film called The Ball Method had its world premiere at the Pan African Film Festival in February 2020.