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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEEMNG CHEMISTRY
VOl. 20,’Mo. 11
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES Leo Hendrick Baekeland
S
OMETHING over fifty years ago in the city of Ghent, a supported himself by tutoring and by the aid of a lecture aslad possessed of a superabundance of vitality and no little sistantship in chemistry. Two years after graduation he beinitiative came by chance upon a lecture which promptly came professor of physics and chemistry at the Government captivated his interest t o the point of supplanting the urge for Higher Normal School of Science at Bruges, Belgium, and in the sea, which up to the moment had been cherished as the only 1888 he was called t o an associate professorship at his Alma adequate outlet for an irrepressible spirit of adventure. The Mater. Most important t o chemistry in America was the lecture was in chemistry and the privilege of attending a whole fact of his award, in 1887, of the first prize in a competition series of such lectures was promptly sought and obtained. Then among those who had been graduated from the four Belgian and there was spoiled in the making a rear admiral or a director universities during the preceding three years. Besides a gold of merchant marine, and development started of something medal, the prize carried with i t a traveling- scholarshiD which greater than either-an outstanding leader permitted him t o visit French, German, in the science-industry of our time. British, and American universities. That There is interest, if not significance, in is how we happen to be privileged to call the fact that this first chemistry lecture Baekeland an American chemist, for on his concerned silver and its salts; and we find visit t o the United States, in 1889, he deour young enthusiast, in order t o have cided t o cast his lot with us. material for his experiments, dissolving in For a time he was in general consulting nitric acid the silver chain which accompractice, but his first love, silver, as applied panied a silver watch his father had given to photography, which had engaged his him at an early graduation. Even a t this earnest attention a t the university, formed time was our hero more interested in disthe basis of his first triumph in industrial covery than in possession, though it must chemistry, as everybody knows who has be admitted t h a t his accomplishments then pressed the button and done the rest for were not altogether constructive. As our himself, with Velox. chronicle is to be true t o record, we feel Here he displayed the powers destined t o constrained t o limit ourselves t o a descripmake for him an even greater success in tion of only one of several interesting exlater years. I n his research he was unperiments that were performed. As is to orthodox, was guided by original thought, not precedent nor prevailing style. As he be expected in the light of subsequent achievement, this experiment was not unrehimself has put it, all his successes had their origin in clashes between observed fact and lated t o photochemistry. It was chosen t o determine the degree of indelibility characaccepted theory, in which he recognized the Leo H. Baekeland fact and revised the theory. In this particuterizing the discoloration produced by a solution of silver nitrate when applied to the lar case he picked as a winner an emulsion __ of silver chloride commonly believed t o be inferior, and made countenance of a freshman. Whether or not the “collaborator” displayed commendable scientific enthusiasm does not appear, it by a method that has been characterized as “photographic but we are told that the results were positive, and at least heresy.” He showed his business acumen as well as his patience prompted keen interest on the part of that gentleman, who ap- and enterprise by developing the process and product until he pealed for aid, in carrying out further experiment, to the medical had not simply a n unexploited laboratory experiment, but a profitable industry. As such it was purchased by the Eastman profession, then as now not specially known for its knowledge of chemistry. At any rate, it turned out that, whatever the Kodak Company. And so it was that the vigor and enthusiasm of early life were effect on the silver stain, the hydrochloric acid prescribed by the physician was the direct cause of our hero’s being summoned supplemented by the freedom t o follow his own bent without before the school authorities and being put definitely on the the hindrance of inadequate means. When most men would defensive. As the purpose of this narrative is to show how early have retired, Baekeland went back to school; this time t o acbent presaged subsequent achievement, it is important t o record quaint himself more thoroughly with the theory and practice of that our youthful scientist, appearing in his own defense, obtained electrochemistry, then coming into industrial prominence. As complete exoneration on the strength of his argument that i t a result, one of the world’s largest electrochemical industries was not the silver nitrate but the hydrochloric acid that had was able to profit much by his thoroughness and untiring deinjured the subject, and that had the medical practitioner votion during its period of development. The urge t o achieve was still strong; the spirit of research used means well-known to science for removing the stain, the disfigurement, harmless in itself, could have been made to dis- dominated. He sought a new field of labor, and found it in the appear without harmful result. This he demonstrated by stain- phenol-aldehyde reaction and its resinous products. This field, ing his own cuticle and effecting prompt removal without damage for thirty years in the hands of one experimenter after another, had yielded nothing of industrial value. By persistent effort, t o himself and with great benefit to his case. Thus was begun a career having few parallels in creative chem- painstaking thoroughness, and penetrating insight amounting ical industry. Leadership began a t the university, where Leo to genius, he succeeded where others had failed. He studied the Baekeland, age twenty-one, youngest of his class, was graduated literature and repeated the work of his predecessors to learn with the degree of Sc.D., maxima cum laude. This was in 1884 where they had been wrong; then avoiding their errors he builded and at the University of Ghent. As an undergraduate he had his greatest success. Here also he displayed his great ability
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November, 1928
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
t o be heterodox, selecting the true road t o success when all accepted signs pointed another way. He chose for his penetrating research the subjugation of the particular form of resinous product, the infusible and insoluble, which others had avoided. The world knows the story. It is seldom given t o one man t o achieve so much-to revolutionize two important industries. Yet it was the natural, almost inevitable result of a well-nigh infallible appreciation of value and a breadth of understanding amounting to vision born of infinite pains in every task, whether in research, in industry, or in commerce. I n recognition of his achievements he was awarded, in 1909, the Nichols Medal; in 1910 the Scott Medal (Franklin Institute); in 1913 the Willard Gibbs Medal; in 1914, the Chandler Medal and the Chandler Lectureship of Columbia University (first award); and in 1916, the Perkin Medal. He has been called to serve his country and his science in many important assignments, including membership on the United States Naval Consulting Board, on the Chemical Advisory Committee of the Department of Commerce, and on a like Committee of the National Research Council. He has served as president of the Chemists’ Club, New York, which he helped t o organize; of the American Electrochemical Society; of the Institute of Chemical Engineers; and of our own AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. He has been decorated by France and on two occasions by his own native Belgium, Baekeland has set us all an example of success through service. But his success has not changed his spirit. Full of faith himself when the way is obscure, he induces optimism and courage in
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those about him. His severest criticism is always prefaced with: “When I was younger I made just such mistakes myself.” A keen judge of human nature, he is considerate of others, and no small part of his power of accomplishment is attributable to the fact that he is the soul of courtesy, In these qualities he is second only to his able, magnetically charming helpmate; sometimes we wonder if here is not to be found much of the secret of his power and success. The qualities that make for leadership are inherent. Had Baekeland remained in the atmosphere of the university, we doubt not that he would have been equally outstanding in pure science. We deem it best that he chose to apply his powers to research in industry, for in our new world of industrial progress the crying need is for leaders with the ability to visualize the potential value of research, financial men willing t o sacrifice immediate dividends for investment in a future that research alone can assure. Doctor Baekeland’s broad experience and consummate energy have been applied to good advantage in the organization of his crowning success, both here and abroad. To the task he has brought the enthusiasm of an amateur and the skill of a professional. We, his associates in research, industry, and commerce, are at times in a quandary t o know whether to appraise him as a business man with research vision or a research man with business vision. Certain it is the world will remember him as a chemist of great creative power, with the will to exploit his discoveries and inventions for the good of all. I,.V. REDMAN
Lucius Pitkin H E N in 1902 I first had the priviCity of New York, from which he received his A. B. degree in 1878. An anecdote which lege of meeting Doctor Pitkin it was at a very active time in his he was fond of relating connected with his career. For seventeen years from the startcollege course in chemistry shows that fifty ing of his laboratory in 1885 he had suffered years ago science was not taken so seriously the disadvantage of adding every few years, as it is at present, for the city fathers, in as business demanded, an additional room their evenvise economy, still made the stut o his working space. He determined t o dents get along with the even then long outstop this duplicative process once and for all, dated textbooks, which gave the atomic and in that year entirely rebuilt, for chemiweight of oxygen as eight to hydrogen unity. cal purposes, the building at 47 Fulton St., This, of course, altered almost all formulas, New York City, still occupied by the cormaking that of water HO. The professor of poration that bears his name. chemistry a t the college was Robert Ogden If twenty-six years with a man, the first Doremus, who consoled the highly indignant half in hourly contact and the latter in chemical students with the question, “Does friendly association, will permit one t o know not the Good Book say-‘HO !every one that that man, then I know Lucius Pitkin, who thirsteth’ ?” forty-two years earlier, on March 12, 1860, ntering the School of Mines of Columbia was born in New York City. niversity in 1878, Doctor Pitkin began his It was a date most easy t o remember, for real chemical education under Charles F. in 1888on the 12th of March came that snow Chandler, obtaining his Ph.B. degree in 1881 storm and wind which even now the daily and subsequently taking his Ph.D. degree Lucius Pitkin papers on the recurring date celebrate as the from the same institution. anniversary of the blizzard. As showing While still a student in the School of Mines, that considerable toughness was contained in a then rather light a couple of papers on the action of sulfuric acid on lead and its form, it can be related that stalled in a train a t Highbridge (155th alloys, which he wrote and read before the AMERICAN CHEMICAL St.), he walked down t o the Grand Central Hotel a t 42qd Street SOCIETY,attracted the attention of William H. Nichols, then in the blizzard and the next morning, with the thermometer a t treasurer of the SOCIETY, and in 1881 he became chemist t o the 2 degrees below zero, he walked through the drifts to his home Laurel Hill Chemical Works, of which Doctor Nichols and his in Yonkers, fifteen miles away. father were proprietors. This connection probably determined Doctor Pitkin came very close t o being a real Yankee, his birth largely the character of the work of the Pitkin laboratory, which in New York breaking a line of New England living dating from was established in 1885, since the Nichols interests became large 1641-his mother, Ellen F. (Wood), and his father, Lucius factors in the field of copper refining, the pleasant relations esPitkin, being Vermonters. tablished in 1881 continuing t o the present day. The laboraHis education was in the public schools and the College of the tory has been largely a metallurgical one, and copper and the
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