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AMERICAN :ιΜΙ^ CONTEMPORARIES Samuel Cate Prescott
T
o SAMUEL C A T E PRESCOTT, one of the
widely known and well-loved chemists in New England, the fall meetings
of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY will
resemble home-coming week. Countless happy memories of student contacts, welded into friendships, fostered over more than four decades of efficient kindly teaching and painstaking research will be renewed in September, as his former students come from all parts of the country to the meeting. The life of this very active scientist, teacher, guide, and administrator, now Dean of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been one replete with both scientific attainments and human relations of the highest order. T o gather all the interwoven threads of the life of such a person, which have led into many lands and lives, is as difficult as attempting t o capture all the shafts of fight from a finely cut gem. Dr. Prescott was born of an old New England family in the rural community of South Hampton, Ν. Η., on April 15. 1872. His early education was acquired in a small ungraded school, attended by children of ages from 4 to 18 years. The entire winter of his fifteenth year was spent as a chain man in a survey party laying out the state boundary between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Here he had t h e opportunity for a first experience in science, using the trigonometry he had learned in the country school for the computations of the survey. Returning home he entered the first class of the Sanborn Seminary and was graduated in its first graduating class in 1890. That his interest in this school has continued is demonstrated by the fact that for years he has been chairman of the Board of Trustees of that institution. The aptitude of young Prescott as a scholar drew t h e attention of Allyne Merrill, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty, who summered at South Hampton. The following fall Prescott entered the chemistry course at Technology through Mr. Merrill's interest and received his bachelor's degree in 1894. Since this time he has served as secretary of his class, and on June 1, 1939, was chairman of arrangements for his fortyfifth class reunion. As an undergraduate he had a diversity of interests, of which perhaps two determined in part his later career. One of these was a recognition of the importance of chemistry in respect to foods; the other, the relation of chemistry to biological phenomena of all kinds. A part of this was doubtless due to the inspiration of one of his instructors, W. T. Sedgwick. Young Prescott's first job was in the sewage treatment plant at Worcester, but after a few months he was selected by Professor Sedgwick t o become his assistant. This association continued, with succes sive promotions t o instructor and profes sor, until 1922 when Professor Sedgwick passed away and he was succeeded as head of the Department of Biology and Public Health b y t h e man whom he had ap pointed as his assistant in 1894.
Some of the earlier researches of Dr. Prescott concerned what was probably the first utilization of chlorine compounds on sewage effluents, the chemical and bacteriological relation of water purifica tion systems, the utilization of chemis try and microbiology in the development and control of safe milk supplies. One of his outstanding contributions, made in 1896, was the establishment of the fact that chemical spoilage in canned foods was due t o microorganisms. This work has had much to do with the improvement of heat-treatment techniques in the canned food industries, thereby reducing the tre mendous losses which previously existed owing to lack of fundamental knowledge as to the cause of trouble of this nature. In 1905, Dr. Prescott founded and acted as director of the Boston Biochemical Laboratory, one of the very first of its kind in the country. Previous t o the World War he established and directed the tropi cal research laboratories of the United Fruit Co. During the World War he was in charge of the Division of Dehydration, United States Department of Agriculture, which set up methods for the preparation of dehydrated foods for the emergency period, and reached the grade of Colonel in the Sanitary Corps Reserves of the Army before his retirement recently. Many of his research activities have been concerned with foods. Contribu tions have been made in the field of food chemistry, of which those concerning milk and coffee have been of particular signifi cance. His interest in the heat treatment of microorganisms as it relates to the can ning industry has continued since 1896 and during the past decade he has been intimately concerned with the researches relating t o the use of low temperatures in the preservation of foods. He is president of Commission I I I of the Institut Inter national du Froid, an organization con cerned with researches of this character, and this year he has been president of the Technology Chapter of the Sigma Xi. His wide experience in the problems of the food and fermentation industries has caused him t o be frequently sought as a consultant, and he has long advocated the need of a common ground for those inter ested in all the various scientific aspects of foods and their manufacture. The Food 410
Technology Conferences at Μ. Ι. Τ. in September» 1937, and June of this year are the direct result of his thought. T h e interest manifested by chemists, engineers, and biologists in these meetings appears t o verify this conclusion. In 1910 he married Miss Alice Chase, of Derry, Ν. Η., daughter of a Technology alumnus, and this happy union resulted in a daughter and two sons, both of whom followed in t h e footsteps of their father and grandfather as graduates of the Mas sachusetts Institute of Technology. Very recently Dr. Prescott became a grand father, and he hopes his grandson will also follow the family precedent. Civic interests have also been included along with those of family and school. As a member of a commission appointed in 1935, he took an active part in the revision of the entire legal structure of the health laws of Massachusetts and has served in numerous other fields of public service. An extremely retentive memory and an early interest in figures have given rise to a hobby of many years' standing, for one, of Dr. Prescott's interests has been in popu lation trends in various countries and cities all over the world. Although he ap parently spends no time on this subject» it is indeed oifficult to mention a city of any size concerning which he cannot quote the population within a t least a few per cent. Many a former student will agree that it is almost impossible for any of his former students, back even 40 years, to enter the Dean's office without his immediate recol lection of the man, his name, his class, and quite a bit of personal information about that man's classmates. Work in itself is a diversion for many people. Despite numerous interests as a member of t h e AMERICAN CHEMICAL S O
CIETY, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Natural ists, the Society of American Bacteriolo gists (of which he was president in 1919), the American Public Health Association (of which he was president in 1927), the Society of Chemical Industry, and various other scientific organizations, i t has been the custom of Professor Prescott t o work practically a seven-day week and most of his evenings on his researches, his teach ing, and his writing. Besides having pre sented well over 100 original papers, he has been author or co-author or works on water bacteriology, enzyme action, sani tary science, food technology, and has re cently been working on a textbook, about to be published, on industrial microbi ology. In addition to being head of his own de partment at the institute from the time of rrofessor Sedgwick's death in 1922. he was appointed Dean of Science of Tech nology in 1932 and has since shared his wealth of administrative ability and ex perience with the other science depart ments in the institute, of which the De partment of Chemistry is one. It would be most unfortunate, however, if one were to confine a discussion of the interesting points in Dr. Prescott's life to his pursuit of science. H e showed very definite aptitude as a teacher in his early
J U N E 20, 1939 years under Professor Sedgwick and has legions of friends among his former classmates, students, and colleagues. His ability to understand the student viewpoint has made him a constant source of counsel to students and junior members of the instructing staff at Μ. Ι. Τ. and others, for in his first years after graduation he was lecturer at the Framingham Normal School and Simmons College. Numerous young men could vouch for his generosity i n responding t o their personal emergencies without publicity. The kindly twinkle in his eye, together with the sincerity of his thought and action, has made friends for him in all parts o f this country and also in Europe where he traveled in the pursuit of his scientific studies in 1900 and on numerous European tripe in recent years. Dean Prescott is both a fisherman and a poet. About t h e time the ice goes out in the Maine lakes, one may expect a new spring poem, always different from the others but having some underlying theme close to the heart of every fisherman when the trout begin to bite. Some part of each of his summers is spent at the Duck X*ke Club in Maine where the glorious outdoors, fine fishing, and good company prevail. It is obvious that a man having these characteristics, a love of both science and people, should be extremely interested in all progressive movements for the benefit o f students. H e has been chairman of many committees set up to encourage frank student-faculty discussions and has been extremely interested in the de velopment of the scholarship and loan funds which have grown apace with the rapid development of the institution he lias served. T h e past seven years as Dean o f Science have enabled him to contribute generously, as always, of his time and efort for the continued improvement of all those things which result in the better pur suit of science, in the making of better scientists, combined with the development o f finer men. The following citation was made in 1923 when Bates College conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of science: Pioneer in the science of Sanitary Bac teriology and foremost living authority on Food Technology; practical administrator who rendered invaluable services to hie country during the Great War as Major i n charge of food dehydration; patient investigator whose researches in the field o f microbe organisms have made possible incessant warfare upon invisible but re lentless enemies of mankind.
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Those who have had the privilege of knowing Dean Prescott intimately agree that no better advice could be given to an embryonic chemist and scientist than to pattern his activities in like fashion for the service of his fellow men, as happiness and satisfaction are bound to go nand and band with such a program. Boston Meeting Abstracts HE A. C. S. News Service, 706 T Mills Bldg., Washington, D. C , will supply abstracts of papers presented at the Boston meeting at $1.00 a set if remittance is sent with order. Sets are not guaranteed to be complete, but contain abstracts from au divisions a s submitted by authors. Abstracts will be mailed shortly after the meeting, and will also be on sale at Boston.
NEWS EDITION
411 nology. Professor Gaudin goes to the institute from t h e Montana School of Mines a t Butte. Ray C. Gralow has been transferred from the Technical Service Department of the Corn Products Refining Co. at Argo, 111., t o the N e w Products Depart ment of the same company at 17 Bat tery Place, New York, Ν. Υ.
R. W. Carlson, associate professor of civil engineering at the Massachusetts Insti tute of Technology, has been awarded the Dudley Medal of the American So ciety for Testing Materials, for his paper on "Drying Shrinkage of Concrete as Affected by Many Factors." The award will be made June 28 at the society's meeting in Atlantic City. Harold P. Connare, a senior in chemical engineering, The Ohio State University, has been chosen as the 1939 recipient of the Toulmin Award. The award was won in competition open to students in the College of Engineering or in engineering courses in the Graduate School, by his paper on "The History of Synthetic Products from Natural Products." Daniel B. Curll, Jr., has been appointed assistant to the president of the Rumford Chemical Works, Rumford, R. I. For the past nine years Mr. Curll has been chemist and technical adviser of the Philadelphia Quartz Co. Clinton Doede has resigned his position as head of the Physical Chemistry Divi sion of the Research Laboratory of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., to join the staff of the Connecticut Hard Rubber Co., New Haven, Conn., as chief chem ist. He plans to conduct considerable experimental work on latex and syn thetic rubber products. Cyril D . Evans has recently become a member of the technical staff of the Research Foundation of Armour Insti tute of Technology, Chicago, 111. Dr. Evans was previously connected with the University of Minnesota as instruc tor in the Department of Biochemistry. He will devote his time exclusively to the study of corn protein for the purpose of expanding the commercial usefulness of zein. Norman A Evans, since 1931 a member of the sales force of the Pressed Steel Tank Co., Milwaukee, Wis., has been appointed sales manager of the com pany. F. Miller Fargo, Jr., executive vice presi dent of the Calco Chemical Co., Inc., Bound Brook, N. J., has been elected president of the company, succeeding Robert C. Jeffcott, who retired April 30. Mr. Fargo has been connected with Calco since it was founded in 1915 by Mr. Jeffcott. H. Freundlich of the University of Minne sota and G. von Hevesey of the Insti tute of Theoretical Physics, Carlsberg Laboratory, Copenhagen, have been elected to foreign membership in the Royal Society (London). Antoine M. Gandin has been appointed Richards Professor of Mineral Dressing at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
J. £ . Hatfield has left the Willard Stor age Battery Co., to become chief engi neer of the several plants of the Grant Storage Battery Co., Minneapolis, Minn. Arthur Edward Hill, formerly of New York University, was posthumously elected an honorary member of Phi Lambda Upsiion a t its luncheon in Balti more in connection with the meeting of
the
AMEBIC A N CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
Douglas G. Hill, of Duke University, son of the late scientist, accepted the certificate. W. M. Hoehn, recently associated with the Mayo Foundation, University of Minnesota, is now endocrinological chemist for George A. Breon & Co., Inc., Kansas City, Mo. James J. Lingane, now at the School of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, has accepted an appointment to the University of California for the coming academic year. Morrill L. Riehl, for a number of years associated with Charles P. Hoover, Water Purification Plant, Columbus, Ohio, has been appointed instructor in chemical engineering at the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Riehl has just received the degree of bachelor of chemical engi neering from The Ohio State University. Charles H . Riesz, Fellow in Chemical Engineering, is the first person ever to receive an earned degree of Doctor of Philosophy in a n y branch of engineer ing from Armour Institute of Tech nology. The doctorate was conferred on him at the forty-third annual com mencement exercises on June 8, 1939. He
is
a
member of
the
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
E. W. R. Steacie of McGill University has been appointed director of the Division of Chemistry of the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, and will begin his new duties in July. For the past ten years Dr. Steacie has been teaching and directing research, giving most of his time to graduate students. President Charles A. Kraus appointed Hugh S. Taylor and F. O. Rice as the delegates of
the
AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY on the occasion of the cele bration of the Sesquicentennial An niversary of Georgetown University, Washington, D . C , May 28 to June 3, 1939. Stanley D . Wilson, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and professor of organic chemistry at Yenching Uni versity, Peiping, China, is returning to America for a year's furlough beginning July, 1939. H e plans to study and make observations of methods for teaching and research a t Harvard Uni versity, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and the University of Chicago.
