Rebecca "Becky" Hall Sparling, P.E. (née Hall; June 7, 1910 – 1996) was an American materials engineer and registered mechanical engineer in the manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace industries from the 1930s to the late 1960s, who had "established a nation-wide reputation as a metallurgist". Often working on classified projects, Sparling advanced the field of metallurgy in severe environments and developed non-destructive engineering test methods, especially in brittle, high-strength, or specialized materials. Sparling developed a new, non-destructive liquid penetrant method for defect inspection, and she also co-invented a non-destructive ultrasonic immersion technique called “immersed scanning”. She was a key contributor in drafting the early industry standards for non-destructive test methods that paved the way for evaluating engineering functionality without destroying the part. Non-destructive test methods became ubiquitous as an important time and money-saver for expensive prototypes. Sparling also wrote 14 of the 16 chapters of the 1943–1944 revised edition of the American Malleable Iron handbook for the Malleable Founders' Society. It became a reference book for those working on iron castings. During her career, Sparling – a licensed mechanical engineer in California – worked at foundries, consulted for automotive companies, and was a materials engineer and staff consultant for Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, respectively. She retired from General Dynamics. The Society of Women Engineers recognized her specialty in high-temperature metallurgy when awarding her their highest honor, the Engineering Achievement Award, in 1957.
Early life and education Sparling was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of ten children. Her parents were Kate (Wallace) Sampson Hall and Robert Meredith Hall. Both her parents graduated from college. Her father earned a law degree and was a businessman. She spent her formative years at "Pinewood", the family country home in Hickman County. Later, she also lived in Nashville, Tennessee. Sparling attended Hollins College in Virginia before transferring to Vanderbilt University. There, she received her B.A. cum laude in Physical Chemistry in 1930 and her M.S. in Physical Chemistry in 1931. When she spoke about her career during an awards speech in 1957, she thanked Vanderbilt: “...But there's no denying the fact that I have had many breaks. [In school at Vanderbilt], it looked as though I wouldn't be able to carry on, because I didn't have any money, and Vanderbilt very nicely came to my rescue with undergraduate and graduate fellowships so that I was able to go ahead and study the work that I liked.” Between 1944 and 1975, she also took additional courses on light metal castings at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, beryllium at University of California Los Angeles, corrosion at the U.S. Department of the Army, and additional courses at Cal State San Bernardino.
Career Beyond her daily work, Sparling participated in abstracting and standardizing the key properties and tests required of various structural materials. These properties could be tuned to optimize the overall performance and reliability of any product made from that material across the aerospace industry. She also was involved in setting the early standards for future established industry references on the visible liquid dye penetrant inspection method that she developed. Sparling's professional activities included authoring over 30 technical papers, including "Testing in the Guided Missile Industry," for publications like The Iron Age, Western Machinery and Steel World, Non Destructive Testing, American Society for Testing Materials, and more. She also presented over 100 technical talks at American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, American Society for Non-destructive Testing, American Society for Metals (now known as ASM International), Society of Women Engineers, the U.S. Air Force, and Vanderbilt University. At the 1955 American Society for Nondestructive Testing's national meeting, Sparling was the National Meeting Chairman for the Ultrasonic session. She served as a committee member and attended conferences for multiple engineering trade associations such as American Foundrymen's Society, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and American Society for Nondestructive Testing. Sparling also attended the 1957 World Metallurgical Congress in Chicago.
1931 – 1944: Metallurgist and Consultant Sparling began her career working in foundries in the South and the Midwest for 10 years. She started at the American Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Birmingham, Alabama, which helped her gain experience working with metal alloys. She then became a metallurgist at Lakeside Malleable Casting Co. in Racine, Wisconsin, developing special alloyed malleable irons and learning the oil and whiting technique used in the automotive and railroad industries. Sparling later moved to Detroit and began consulting for Cadillac, Ford, McCord Radiator, and more on the commercial performance of special materials in severe environments. Her failure investigations as a consultant demonstrated that the failures were often due to incorrect selection or usage of materials for a specific application, not the intrinsic characteristics of the materials themselves. As a metallurgist for the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. for one year, Sparling also tested and troubleshooted anti-aircraft guns and worn barrels.
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