AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES
John Van Nostrand Dorr
N
OT every career in science and engineering has an auspicious beginning, but in the case of John VanNostrand Dorr one would like to imply, at least, that his early association with Thomas A. Edison foreshadowed a brilliant record of achievement. Investigation shows that, prior to graduation from Rutgers University in 1894, Dorr had the benefit of personal association with the great inventor. And although in all probability he would not now subscribe to the well-known Edisonian method of research and investigation, he must have gained inspiration from the tireless energy and inquisitive mind of his distinguished employer. Dorr and I first met in 1905 in Deadwood, S. Dak. Perhaps it was the distinguishing mark of our respective Van Dyke beards that first drew us together. In any event the attraction was mutual and has continued undiminished. Several years later when we were both living in Denver we were the only two specimens of the genus homo in that city still wearing beards. I succumbed to the fashion of the day, shaved my beard, lost my identity, and dropped into obscurity. Dorr, on the other hand, with characteristic independence of thought and action, defied convention, retained his beard, and went on to fame and distinction. It was as a chemist that Dorr went to the Black Hills of South Dakota where he followed the traditional path of many a young mining engineer and metallurgist by taking a job as assayer and chemist at the Deadwood and Delaware smelter. A sidelight reveals him as a lay reader in the Episcopal Church—a service which, we can well imagine, he rendered with dignity and with such regularity as his technical duties would permit. After about 10 years' experience as assayer, chemist, and metallurgist for several mining companies he launched a personal venture as managing partner of Lundberg, Dorr, and Wilson, operating a cyanide mill in Fan Tail Gulch, near Terry, 8. Dak. The undertaking fared none too well. It encountered the unforeseen obstacles of all pioneer projects, and the monthly financial statements had to be summarised in red ink. Obviously this was not the road to success. It was a cheerless prospect for three men who had invested all
they possessed, to say nothing of being a gloomy outlook for creditors. Under such distressing circumstances Dorr's genius came to the rescue and converted imminent failure into ultimate success. One of the early requisites to successful cyanidation was the separation, or classification, of ground ore into coarse and fine products—sand that could be leached, and slime that could be thickened, agitated, and filtered. The accepted method of classification consisted in running the ore pulp into a huge, inverted cone-shaped tank, drawing off the settled sand at the apex, and collecting the overflowing slime at the rim. At Dorr's mill the slime overflow from the classifying cones was further treated in a separate cone in order to dewater and thicken the .slime product. As a means of classification the cone was a tricky device, subject to unpredictable whim and caprice, yielding a sand product that would not leach readily, and a slime product badly contaminated with sand. It was rapidly leading to our subject's downfall when fresh disaster overtook the mill. The slime-thickening cone collapsed under the weight of its load and brought operations temporarily to an end. But only temporarily. Earlier experiments had indicated the possibility of mechanical classification. For illustration, picture yourself as a man with a hoe, manipulating a mixture of sand, slime, and water in a box with an inclined bottom. As you draw the hoe through the mixture and up the incline, you drag a small load of sand to the top while the watery slime flows back into the pool.
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If you have an observing mind, and particularly if you are confronted with possible disaster owing to poor classification, you may see a hint of salvation in the experiment. In any event, Dorr decided to abandon cone classification and test his new idea. While the wreckage in the mill was being removed he designed a commercial-ewe mechanical classifier, based on a few weeks' small-scale experimental work and embodying the principle I have crudely illustrated. Like all new-born infants, it demanded a vast amount of attention. Adjustment and modifications had to be made. But shortly it proved successful, converting a monthly deficit into a profit, greatly to the relief of the partnership and the satisfaction of the creditors. From this initial installation in 1004 the use of the Dorr classifier has spread through the world until today it is one of the best known and most widely used pieces of metallurgical equipment for separating mineral pulps into coarse and fine products. I have dwelt in some detail on this early accomplishment for several reasons. In the first place, it was of vital importance to Dorr's financial welfare. Second, it proved to be of tremendous significance in the treatment of base- as well as precious-metal ores. Third, it was the forerunner of later inventions of the thickener and agitator, all of which greatly influenced practice in the field of metallurgical and chemical engineering. It was natural that Dorr's devotion to research, as well as the demands of his business, should call for facilities for research and development, and for the investigation of related industrial problems. Here his esthetic and artistic qualities dictated a departure from the usual course. Having due regard for the atmosphere of peace and quiet in which research could thrive, free from the distractions of urban life, he acquired in 1917 an old grist mill of the post-Revolutionary period in the Saugatuck Valley, near Westport, Conn. Ten years later it was destroyed by fire, and then replaced with a new structure specially designed for its purpose but architecturally suited to its rural surroundings. For his contributions to science and engineering Dorr has received generous
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NEWS
recognition at the hands of his fellows. In 1916 he was awarded the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute, and in 1930 the James Douglas Medal of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, both for distinctive achievement in nonferrous metallurgy. He has just been elected to receive the Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry for 1911 (NEWS ED., 18, 860 (1940)]. He is past president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and of United Engineering Trustees. He is also a trustee of his Alma Mater, Rutgers University, which has conferred on him the honorary degrees of master of engineering and doctor of science. The South Dakota School of Mines and Michigan College of Mines and Technology also have conferred honorary degrees. These and other evidences of personal and professional esteem he bears with characteristic modesty. In this necessarily brief sketch of Dr. Dorr we get only a few glimpses of the man himself. Professionally, it is obvious that he is a specialist in sedimentation. In simpler English, Dorr settles things. On the human side, his generosity, friendliness, and sympathetic understanding of people are conspicuous qualities, He likes folks, and is liked by them, the world around. His interests extend beyond science and engineering into the realms of art, civics, and economics. Integrity and a high sense of ethics mark his personal and professional relations. As evidence that he possesses persuasive charm, I cite the fact that in hisfirstmetallurgical venture he actually borrowed money from a labor union. Of his moments of weakness 1 shall mention but one, and that to his credit. In his mature years he actually volunteered to write a book. Although I was personally delighted at the prospect of his authorship, I felt bound in all fairness to caution him about the exacting and time-consuming nature of the job. I even quoted Scripture, reminding him of Jobs plaintive desire "that mine adversary had written a book". But he persisted, and the manuscript was written and rewritten, revised and edited until it satisfied his characteristic standards of thoroughness and accuracy. The result was Dorr's "Cyanidation and Concentration of Gold and Silver Ores'9, which is the authoritative work in its field. In this undertaking I think he was at once the pride and despair of his technical staff who, after it was finished, breathed a great sigh of relief and went back to their work. By reason of extensive travel and the world-wide use of his inventions, Dorr has become a citizen of the world, known to chemical and metallurgical engineers wherever science and engineering flourish. We, in the United States, could not have a better representative abroad, personally or professionally. H. C. PARMELES
EDITION
Vol. 18, No. 20 Harrey M. Haiker, assistant general manager of sales of the Organic Chemicals Division, Monsanto Chemical Co., is soon to leave for Australia to conduct a chemical market survey of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. Part of his duties will consist of assisting in the development of production facilities for Monsanto Chemical Proprietary, Ltd., of South Melbourne.
President Lind has appointed A. M. Buswell as the representative of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY on
the
Advisory Committee of the U. S. Public Health Service for the Revision of Drinking Water Standards.
The Trustees of Columbia University have appointed Arthur W. Hixson as execu* tive officer of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Hixson has been ptofeesor of chemical engineering at Columbia in charge of courses in process development and plant design.
G. C. Crooks, assistant professor at the University of Vermont and secretary of the Western Vermont Section of the AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY,
has
been granted leave of absence in order to accept a call to extended active duty in the Chemical Warfare Service. For the present Dr. Crooks will serve as Laison officer between the offices of the Assistant Secretary of War and the Adjutant General of the State of Vermont. John G. Dean recently resigned his position with the Permutit Co. as director of the Laboratory Research Division to become a member of the science faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N. Y. Here he is to explore the possibilities of certain techniques in progressive science education, together with study, research, and writing. R. C. Ernst has been appointed director of the Division of Industrial Research at the Speed Scientific School, University of Louisville. Louisville, Ky.
A. D. MacLcan A. D. MacLean, chief engineer of the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Co., Pittsburgh, Penna., since 1926, has been elected to the vice presidency of the company. J. L. Masterson, formerly western refinish sales manager, has been appointed regional manager of the newly organised southwestern sales office of E. I. da Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., Dallas, Tex. H. R. Lounsbory, formerly manager of eastern refinish sales, has replaced Mr. Masterson in Chicago, I1L, and O. P. Baldwin, formerly manager of refinish sales in the Southwest, has been made manager of refinish sales in the eastern territory, with headquarters at Philadelphia, Penna. Merrin S. Newman, Department of Chemistry, Ohio State University, has been promoted to an assistant pro* fessorship. During the academic year 1039-40, Professor Newman held the Elisabeth Clay Howald Scholarship.
Kurt W. Haeseler Knit W. Haeseler has become an associate with Herstein Laboratories, Inc., 18 East 41st St, New York, N. Y. Dr. Haeseler will continue the general consulting practice which he has tarried on for more than 10 years in New York.
Win. & Wilson has left his position with the Shell Development Co. to become head of the Physics Department, Georgetown College, Georgetown, Ky. A. Zittel, Jr., has been transferred from S t Louis to New York by the Shell Oil Co., Inc., and is now in the Transportation and Supplies Department.
