Walter Otheman Snelling (December 13, 1880 – September 10, 1965) was a chemist who contributed to the development of explosives, aircraft ordnance, and liquefied petroleum gas.

[1] Alice Lee Hornor, from a Quaker family, became a suffragette who studied law and medicine and traveled and wrote extensively.

A major focus of his job was mine safety, but he also researched the production of propane,[4] which had been discovered dissolved in light crude oil in Pennsylvania by Edmund Ronalds in 1864.

[9] A separate method of producing LP gas through compression was created by Frank Peterson and its patent granted on July 2, 1912.

However, expansion was slow, and in September 1912, M. L. Benedum and J. C. Trees of Pittsburgh financed the company, paying $10,000 for 200 shares of stock each.

On August 25, 1913, E. W. De Bower offered Snelling, Peterson, and Kerr a certified check for $50,000 for American Gasol, and gave them 30 minutes to decide whether or not to sell.

[12] In 1946, he became a consultant to the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission, serving as a member of the Raw Materials Advisory Committee until 1960 when it was dissolved.

[15] The family purchased a home at the edge of the city's West Park in either 1940 or 1941, and Walter remained there until his death on September 10, 1965.

Another son, Charles Darwin Snelling, was appointed chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a life trustee of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, a member of the Propane Education and Research Council, and past president of the Pennsylvania Society.