Charles Benjamin Dudley (July 14, 1842 – December 21, 1909) was a U.S. chemist who was an early proponent of standardisation in industry. Dudley was born in Oxford, New York, and owing to family circumstances, had to wait until 1867 before he could enter Yale College, supporting himself as a night editor on the New Haven Palladium newspaper. He eventually earned a Ph.D. from the Sheffield Scientific School. In 1875, he became a chemist for the Pennsylvania Railroad and started to investigate the chemical composition and metallurgical structure of rail tracks, breakage being a major hazard at that time. He discovered enormous variation in the properties and quality of steel and the 1878 publication of his results caused an uproar in the steel industry, who saw it as their sole domain to determine the quality of their products for sale. Dudley championed the development of the company and industry standards and demanded rigorous testing of materials to verify conformity. He developed a complete range of standards for the Pennsylvania Railroad, not only for steel, but also for fuels, lubricants, paints, and even locomotives. In 1879, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. In 1898, he was one of the founders of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), becoming president from 1902 to 1908. He died in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Honours Member of Phi Beta Kappa; President of the ASTM, (1902-1909). References Bibliography [Anon.] (2001) "Dudley, Charles Benjamin", Encyclopædia Britannica, Deluxe Edition CD-ROM Dudley, C. B. (1878) "The chemical composition and physical properties of steel rails", Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 1842 births 1909 deaths 19th-century American chemists Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni People from Oxford, New York Scientists from New York (state) Yale College alumni 20th-century American chemists