December, 1929
INDUSTRIAL S N D ESGINEERISG CHEMISTRY
1299
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES George Purseglove Adamson
T
HIS young lad came from the City of Brotherly Love, where his father and uncle had worked together as manufacturers of glue under the firm name of Baeder and Adamson. His uncle, William Adamson, became so impressed with the importance of chemistry that he endowed the chair of chemistry in Lafayette College. I was the incumbent of this chair when his nephew came to Lafayette seeking education in chemistry. He entered in 1880, having been prepared for college a t Easburns Academy in Philadelphia and Blair Hall a t Blairstown, h-.J. George had been well brought up and was well behaved, but from some one in his ancestral strain he had inherited a fondness for mischief. This gave a pleasant spice t o his comings and goings and led him into a fondness for other things as well as chemistry. He was a great tease, very wide awake; there was little mischief afoot in which he did not have a finger, but this never led him into wickedness. He and Billy Ord, now a fellow trustee of Lafayette, were roommates and knew all that was going on. During his senior year I gave a course in technology and, among other things, described the explosives in common use. I n the course of this exposition I mentioned the fact that a spontaneous explosive might be made by pouring a solution of phosphorus George P. in carbon bisulfide over powdered potassium chlorate. That night about 10 P . M. there was a tremendous explosion in the middle of the street near the place where these boys roomed. No one knew what caused it and there was nothing left but the shattered remains of a tomato can. John Baker graduated from Lafayette in 1882. He and I then went into partnership in the preparation and sale of analytical chemicals. Our entire capital was $750. By the time George graduated, in 1884, we had begun t o capture the market and our orders began to grow a t a great rate. We concluded we must have more help and asked George t o join us, t o which he agreed. We called the firm Baker and Adamson. George was put in charge of the salt department and for some time the results were disappointing; then Goerge became really interested and the fur began to fly. Soon it became necessary t o build new works, .and this I undertook while the other partners kept up the production a t the old plant until the new buildings were ready. For
twenty years we kept on working together, each year adding new articles to our list and improving the old. Then came an offer t o buy from the General Chemical Company, and we finally concluded t o sell. I n 1910 George started the manufacture of photodevelopers in the United States and was the first to produce in this country commercially hydroquinone, metol, and pamidophenol. At the beginning of the World War in 1914 he began the production of diphenylamines for the powder manufacturers, and produced large quantities for the government arsenals and for foreign countries. A little later the production of dimethylamine for explosires and the manufacture of colors was begun. The Army requested the production of materials required for gas masks, so George undertook the manufacture of soda lime until the plant a t ,Long Island was completed. Our plant continued to be operated under our direction until 1918, when management from the New York office was instituted and I withdrew. Baker had resigned several years before and started the manufacture of chemicals under the firm name of the John T. Baker Chemical Company. I n 1916 Adamson was transferred from Easton to New York as manager of organic research of the General Chemical Company. Shortly Adamson thereafter he was promoted t o manager of research, then director of research, in which capacity he remained active until June of 1927. He then retired t o Searsport, Maine, where he spends his time in raising strawberries and other luscious products of the soil on the seven acres which he cultivates. He has been a trustee of Lafayette for several years and is much interested in chemical education. He was elected chairman of the board of trustees of International Critical Tables in 1922 and brought to that enterprise efficient leadership a t a time when it was sorely needed. H e visits his old professor occasionally and took a n active part in raising the endowment of the Edward Hart Fellowship in Chemistry. George is a good boy, a good citizen, and a good chemist. He has done his full share in bringing about t h e advancement of chemistry t o its present high position in the estimation of the American public. EDWARD HART
Error in Vitamin A Value I n our article entitled “Ratfish-Liver Oil as a Source of Vitamin A” [IND.ENG.CHEM., 21,. 1078 (1929)], a n error was made in naming the vitamin A unit. The vitamin A value was computed both for the 5-week period as specified in the U. S.P. method a n d for the longer period of 8 weeks as suggested by Sherman and Munsell [ J . A m . Chem. SOC.,47, 1639 (1925)]. The values when computed t o the 8-week period showed less variation in duplicate determinations. Sherman and Burtis [ J . Biol. Chem., 78, 677 (1928)l have also found the longer period more satisfactory. Consequently, the values were published on a basis
of a gain in weight of approximately 3 grams per week for 8 weeks, but in the final typing a n error was made in calling the unit a U. S.P. unit. When computed to the U. S. P. unit of 10 to 20 grams gain in weight in 35 days, the ratfish-liver oil tested showed a unit of 0.02 gram equivalent to 50 units per gram of oil, the minimum allowable by the U. S. P. specifications, as compared with 0.03 gram when computed as indicated in the article. EARLR. NORRIS IRVIN S. DANIELSON
