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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 15, No. 4
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES William H. Nichols
About 1898 Dr. Nichols conceived the advantages of a merger in the chemical trade. This was accomplished in 1899 by the What is here said of Dr. Kichols is said behind his back, for corisolidation of twelve chemical businesses under the name of he is at the moment far away on one of the occasional vacations the General Chemical Company. The Nichols copper business which he permits himself. was kept separate. This new merger was large enough to realize This vacation, following close upon the celebration of his the advantages of larne-scale Droduction, but not extensive golden wedding, may be regarded as a sort enough to unduly restrict competition. It of golden honeymoon. No man deserves is significant that the legality of this merger one more and few can point back to fifty under the trust laws has never been quesyears of happy married life as one of the tioned by any public authority. main inspirations to their achievement. The contact or catalytic method of makDr. Nichols’ achievements have been ing sulfuric acid next attracted Dr. Nichols’ important and varied. He has touched life attention. I n 1905 certain foreign basic at many points. His career has been based patents were acquired, and since then all both on science and on business; but the the plants of the company have been science has been applied science devoted to equipped with contact units, which alone turning scientific knowledge to practical are capable of making oleum, so essential uses, and the business has been of the kind for munitions in war and for colors and torexploit science for the general good. heavy oil refining in peace. His scientific attainments found their As catalysis was the new slogan in chemiscrowning expression when he, an American try, the next thought was how through catalfor generations back, alter having been ysis to reach that unlimited supply of raw president of the British Society of Chemical material-the refractory nitrogen of the Industry, was made, in succession to Sir air. That a largecommercial plant at SyraWilliam Ramsay, president of the Inter-. cuse is now making anhydrous ammonia national Congress of Applied Chemistry. from the nitrogen of the air is due to Dr. This organization, which the war disrupted, Nichols’ original impulse. Pivic MacDonald had been the most distinguished body of To coal-tar colors he had given much WILLIAM H. NICHOLS international chemists and workers in apthought, but all the conditions in America plied chemistry in the world. In his own seemed against this industry. However, country he has been president of the American Chemical he succeeded in forming, with two other concerns, the Solvay and the Barrett companies, a little company to make aniline Society. His business attainments have lately found their crowning oil out of coal-tar crudes. This was prior to 1914. This company achieved success technically, but German “unfair methods” expression-or so he would think-in the formation of the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, of which he is chairman of the kept it down until the war broke out. It then came into its own and it formed the basis for the new National Aniline board. The steps by which these distinctions have been won may be & Chemical Company. It is not too much to say that just as the contact method of of interest. They came as the reward of a life of hard workguided by that highest form of self-interest which finds one’s making oleum assured to the country its war munitions, so this little aniline company assured to the country and its textile own interests in the things that benefit others. Dr. Nichols commenced his career in the chemical business in interests during the war the coal-tar intermediates necessary to 1870 in association with a friend named Walter, under the the making of colors and high explosives. Dr. Nichols’ next important and, so far, his latest work, was fmn name of Walter & Nichols, subsequently incorporated as Nichols Chemical Company. As he was then but eighteen the merger which resulted in the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation. Cooperation in aniline and subsequently in colors years of age, he borrowed his father’s name for the firm, pending had led those concerned to perceive the essential unity of their his minority. Sulfuric acid, then as now, was the foundation stone of the interests and the advantage of integrating the industry by merging complementary processes. business, and oil of vitriol standardized as 66’ Be. was its most Naturally, Dr. Nichols has not been alone in accomplishing important strength. The young Nichols soon learned that many makers produced under this name acid of only 65” Bk., but he all these results. He would be the last person to make such a made his of standard strength and was soon rewarded by a great claim. The truth is, he is a born leader of men and has known demand for his high-quality acid for the newly discovered busi- how to surround himself with the best. His was often the vision where others did the work. It has been his boast that he would ness of refining oil. In those days, too, the acid was made from Sicily brimstone, never himself do what he could find some one else to do better. It was both by good luck and by good judgment that early in containing 97 to 99 per cent pure sulfur, but this young concern learned how to use pyrites containing only 35 to 45 per cent sulfur life he found as a n associate such a man as J. B. F. Herreshoff, -a far cheaper source of supply. Ultimately, a copper pyrites an accomplished chemical engineer and an inventor of great mine was acquired and the smelting business undertaken, and the merit. And so it was with the late Sanford H. Steele, with whom concern thus controlled its own raw material both for acid and he enjoyed an almost life-long association. Dr. Nichols was often for copper matte. One thing led to another and later a refining heard to declare how much of his success he owed to Steele’s plant was built and the concern refined its copper and sold rare judgment and acumen as a lawyer and a business man. But Dr. Nichols is not merely a chemist and a manufacturer; refined ingots.
April, 1923
I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
he is a banker as well, for years connected, as vice pFesident or otherwise, with the upbuilding of the Corn Exchange Bank and its new and original system of branch banking-now being imitated by other banking institutions. Has such a varied and useful career led on to wealth? Most assuredly it has, but his has been a wealth created in the service of the community, in which the community gained more than he. As we are talking behind Dr. Nichols’ back, we might ask ourselves-have all these successes been unmarred by the making of mistakes? I think not; Dr. Nichols is too broadminded a man not to admit his occasional mistakes. But an associate once said of him, “I would rather follow Nichols right and wrung than any other man always right.” The reason is obvious. His sum of successful accomplish&ent was far greater than that
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of the man lacking in vision, always taking the safe, inglorious, and unprogressive course, who could make no mistakes. Finally, it may be asked-after so much accomplishment what has Dr. Nichols done to perpetuate his work and carry it forward? He has two able sons who are guiding two of the important branches of it; and it was he who picked out the very remarkable man chosen as president of the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation. Should any ask what may be the other faults of a man so gifted, I would answer, “They shall not be written down here.” I love the man too well to publish his faults if I knew themand I am not the one to know them. CHARLES ROBINSON SMITH
Obituary Wa ter Stanley Ha nes
teaching. To further show the high esteem in which Dr. Haines was held, they started an endowment fund for the library at Rush Medical College, to be known as the “Walter S. Haines Fund.” An oil painting of him hangs in the college where he taught. His whole life was spent in assisting others, which is exemplified in the following:
Walter Stanley Haines, professor (beloved teacher of students) a t Rush Medical College since 1876, died on January 27, 1923, at the Presbyterian Hospital, from bronchiectasis complicated with chronic nephritis. Dr. Haines was born September 27, 1850, in Chicago. His father, It is for my students, however, that is reserved the warmest place in my John G. Haines, was for two terms heart and the largest measure of my mayor of the city. Dr. Haines thought. I have seen more than six attended the Chicago High School, thousand five hundred of them go graduating first in his class, and forth to every state of this nation, to nearly every town of this land and in then attended the Massachusetts almost every country of the globe, Institute of Technology from 1869 to give comfort to the sick and to to 1871. While there he fell ill with stay the hand of the fell destroyerpleurisy and was compelled to give to teach, to investigate, and to make great :discoveries. My one fondest up his work; since then he suffered hope is that perhaps I have done a constantly with a lung disturbance. little to prepare them for that work In 1871 Dr. Haines entered the and that possibly I have helped Chicago Medical College, from which them, even though slightly, in their splendid careers. he graduated in 1873. Even before WALTER STANLEY HAINES his graduation he showed great promAn able teacher, he kept in close contact with his students, ise his chosen field, and was offered the chair of chemistry in his Alma Mater while still a student, holding the position from 1872 showing a keen and sympathethic interest in all that concerned to 1876. During this period, having completed his medical them. Both faculty and students have lost a valuable adviser education, he served an interneship in Mercy Hospital and spent and ardent friend. His politeness and refinement in speech and several months in Europe in study. I n 1876 he was called to manner should be emulated by more of us. Each time one came the chair of chemistry in Rush Medical College, where he taught in contact with him one carried away some useful information. His influence for good over the student body was far-reaching. for forty-six years. This made fifty years of teaching in medical There is no one who can fill in the hearts of the students colleges. It was his great ambition to round out fifty years of and alumni the place left vacant by “Daddy Haines,” as he was teaching at Rush Medical College. Twenty years ago, when Rush Medical College became affili- familiarly known t o thousands of alumni. Dr. Haines was a member of the Committee of Revision of ated with the University of Chicago, the entrance requirements of the United States Pharmacopeia from 1900 to 1920, has been medical students were raised to include general chemistry. From that time on Dr. Haines was director of materia medica professorial lecturer of toxicology, University OF Chicago, and toxicology and devoted all his time to the teaching of these since 1901, member of the Illinois State Food Commission subjects. Dr. Haines was known nationally by the medical since 1909, member of the American Medical Society, Chemical profession as a chemist and toxicologist. He was the expert Society of London, American Medical Association, and Chicago witness €or the state in many of the famous murder cases where Medical Society and American Chemical Society. He was the poison was the instrument of death. As a witness he was ad- author of a “Text Book of Legal Medicine and Toxicology,” chapters on alkaloidal poison in Hamilton’s “System of Legal mired and respected by court and counsel wherever he was heard. Last summer the alumni of Rush Medical College presented Medicine,” 1894; reviser of Purdy’s “Practical Urinalysis and Urinary Diagnosis,” 1901. WM. D. MCNALLY Dr. Haines with a gold watch in testimony of his fifty years of
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