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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IND UXTRIAL AiVD ENGIh7EERlhiG CHEMIfiTRY
various products connected with its electrometallurgy an important but by no means a sole concern. Pyrites also engaged much of Doctor Pitkin’s attention, a large proportion of the imports of this material from Spain and other fields passing through his hands; a single contract a t one time calling for the weighing, sampling, and analysis of a billion pounds (440,000 long tons) of the material. While Doctor Pitkin’s practice during many years was largely that of a metallurgical laboratory, the success of which was evinced by the large number of referee and umpire assays which have always flowed into it, yet in his earlier life he became interested in the then young science of bacteriology and in the sanitary side of chemistry, as is shown by papers in the Journal ofthe American Chemical Society. In his consulting work of the last couple of years he has devoted considerable attention to subjects as diverse as the injurious action of fumes and some special problems connected with the manufacture of paper. A mistaken diagnosis, finally completely cured by a major operation, caused several years of ill health and a partial interruption of his chemical activity. Luckily that is now a thing of the past. A member of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY a t a very early
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age, there are probably less than a dozen members with a longer membership record, though many are much older than he. Joining the New York Microscopical Society in 1882, he is also a senior member of that Society, and in 1888 was elected a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. A lover of books, his personal library numbers about two thousand five hundred volumes. While naturally books on literature, travel, and art predominate, works on biology, astronomy, and kindred scientific subjects show that, while chemistry is regarded as first, i t is not the only science of interest to him. Doctor Pitkin, a true gentleman of the old school, is admired and respected by those who know him, not only for his genial character, but for his wide knowledge and happy faculty of being able to explain matters scientific and seemingly mysterious so that they become easily understandable to the layman. Those who have come in close personal contact with him have realized that his interest is always in their welfare: this is borne out by the way in which so many former employees still retain their interest with him. A good test of the real character of any man lies in whether he can hold his friends.
ERSKINE B. MAYO
BOOK REVIEWS Industrial Chemistry. An Introduction. BY EMILRAYMOND for supplementary reading. Each chapter is followed by probRIEGEL. 650 pages The Chemical Catalog Co., Inc., New lems relating to the reading matter, and references to authoritative texts and journals for further study. It is well illustrated York, 1928. Price, $9.00. with photographs of machinery and processes, supplemented by The author has prepared a concise and very readable volume the author’s own line drawings and diagrams of flow sheet and describing the more important chemical industries. It should not apparatus. Although in the first edition of a volume of such diversity, only prove of value as a general textbook for colleges and engineering schools, but serve as an outline to the engineer and tech- errors of detail and typography will inevitably creep in, the nical man who wants to familiarize himself with modern develop- reader has found exceptionally few, and these only of minor ments in industries that are outside of his own specialty. It significance. In general, the volume shows a very broad view should also serve the layman who has had very little chemical of chemical industry as practiced in the United States a t .the background, but who wishes t o know more about these fascinat- present time. The author has shown keen judgment in eming subjects, for it is written, in greater part, in plain, non- phasizing and expanding the major processes, subordinating or technical language with frequently an explanation of those tech- eliminating the less important and, in the main, presentingwhat an outline or introduction to industrial chemistry should nical terms that are used. In the main, new and modern developments in industry have do-a broad, comprehensive, non-technical, but accurate, picture been faithfully presented, without the voluminous and often of modern present-day chemical industry .-CHAs. W. CUNO tedious detail usually found in such a compilation. On the other Engineering Chemistry. BY THOMAS B. STrLr,MAN. 6th edihand, one is increasingly impressed as he continues to read, first, with the mass of accurate detail Doctor Riegel has been 1093 pages. tion, revised by ALBERT L. STILLMAN.xv able to incorporate into what is intended to be merely an outThe Chemical Publishing Company, Easton, Pa., 1928. line, and second, the diversity of subjects with which he is able Price, $12.50. t o deal in this book of 650 pages. This well-known manual represents an attempt to describe in Minor criticisms will undoubtedly come, of course, from experts who fail to find detailed description of more or less impor- concise form the methods to be followed in the analysis of ores, tant factors or processes in their own pet specialty. Organic building materials metals, alloys fuels, gases, liquid hydrocarand dye chemists will probably quarrel with Doctor Riegel’s bons, grease, cleaning compounds, paint and varnish, water, adherence to the older classification of dyefhromophores. Water and paper. The appendix contains schemes for the analysis of and sewage chemists will feel that their most important branch cyanide, cylinder deposits, and dynamite. The methods deof chemistry has been somewhat slighted, but, on the other hand, scribed are in most instances those proposed as tentative and the teacher of industrial chemistry will welcome this book as a official by the American Society for Testing Materials and the new and refreshing outline for his lecture course, with excellent government bureaus. The title is misleading in that it is not a treatise on engineering chapter arrangements. Many topics that have been ignored or given little elaboration chemistry, as the term is used today. The author defines engineering chemistry as “that branch of the science that treats of in older industrial chemistries have received deserved emphasis. Among these may be mentioned those dealt with in the chapters: the methods of analysis of materials used in engineering,” and Processes Based on the Activity of Yeasts and Bacteria; Phenol this manual as “a manual of testing of engineering materials to determine their use or availability id industry.” The first seven Resins, Synthetic Phenol, Celluloid, Fibre; Photographic Plates, Films, and Papers; Lithography; Insecticides, Fungicides, Disin- words of the latter definition would be a more appropriate title fectants; and an excellent chapter on Patents. A chapter for this bork. Since this is the aim of this work, it should be considered, not worthy of special mention is that on Chemical Factors Other as a textbook on quantitative chemistry, but as a reference book than Explosives for Warfare. which would be useful to the analytical chemist who is called The teacher of industrial chemistry will also find interesting rearrangements of the usual chapters on general processes in upon t a examine industrial products, and as such is a valuable the four chapters on Appliances Used by the Chemical Engi- addition to any technical library. The typography, including plates and cuts, is excellent, and neer, also an interesting chapter, Materials Used by the Chemithe book contains numerous tables of properties, typical analyses, cal Engineer, and a most important chapter, Instruments of and formuIas which should be useful to engineers or chemists in Control Used by the Chemical Engineer. The book is replete with footnotes, references, and suggestions the industrial_field.-MAmIcE E. SMITH
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