.July, 1933
INDUSTH1.41,
A N D E N G I N E E R 1N G C H E M I S T R Y
Seen a tenderness towards, and a aolicitude for, the sufferings oi others that are not often met. Among his characteristics are extreme modesty and humility and an invariable tendency to consider the rights of others. Nevertheless, he can be quite positive and firm, but under no circumstances does he become aggressive. Some who enjoy only a.n acquaintanceship s i t h him have called him "a dexr old pessimist" because oi a certain critics1 attitude that he shows a t times towards poor methods, earelefis work, or too hastily drawn conclusions. This attitude, in reality, is not even tinged with pessimism; it is merely a
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protest against lack of thoroughness. To understand it, one has brit to hear him addressing a student in his work or, better, to see him a t vork in his own laboratory. His interest in science embraces a generous willingness to eoiiperate with his colleagues in the Department of Chemistry and in ot,her departments and t.o place a t their disposal his wide range of expert knowledge and skill. His friendship is highly esteemed by his colleagues to whom the breadth oi his knowledge and his interests itre R constant source of admiration and satisfaction. G . W. CI*YAIN.AUGH
Samuel Cox Hooker S 1885 a young Englishman came t o thii; country seeking a few early abortive attempts, struggling to opemte factories his fortune. Educated a t scientific schools in England and with many Americans of good intentions and little technical just endowed with a Ph.D. degreee from Munich, we may knowledge, and with a few Europeans of more or less technical knorlodge but of an utter lack of adaptation of it or of themconceive that he early showed that love for the truth and thoroughness in every detail which he displnyed in later life and which selves to domestic conditions. This was perhaps the stiflest are so characteristic of the scientific investigator, or of the truly problem of Hooker's career and would have discouraged a man of any less persistence. In a few years Hooker big mnri who is called upon to handle imbrought the domestic beet sugar industry to a portant technological problems. high stage of technical development, and any Doctor Hooker hsd evidently already deprogress which i t hss made since haw been termined that his life work would be research largely due to the firm foundation which he in organic cheniist,ry. Though diverted from gave it. He is particularly remembered for this to an active career in industry, he never the great amount of research work which he lost sight of his first love and returned to it carried out on the Steffen process for the ren,ith eagerness when lie decided to give up his cowry of mgar from beet. molasses by means business rtetivities. of lime, and for the improvements which he Soon after he came to the United Strrtes he introduced into it, accept,ed a position as chief chemist n i t h tho Chnrncteristio of the man was his attitude Franklin Sugsr Refining Company of Philatoward the then universal use of bluing to give delphia. Refusing to surrender himself ensugar B perfectly white appearance. Against tirely to industry, he wits able far mme time strong opposition from those who said that it to carry on considerable organic research, in could not bo done, hc early insisted on the comaddition to the supervision of the chemical plete elimination of bluing from beet sugar, control and the investigation of the technoS.~MUEL Cox HOOKP:R with the result that not only I ~ anS objectioqlogical problems of the refinery. able p r a c t i c e abandoned, but also a new At an early age he wits married to an stimulus was given to the production of sugar of better quality American girl, also of scientific attainments, whom he had met than ever beiore. in England. Mary Owens was 31 member of the first gmdunting class of the Gniversity of Cincinnati and possessed the disTo many beet sugar men their principal memory of Doctor tinction of being the first "co-ed" whom the famous IIurlcy was Hooker is that of a man oi impressive height and commanding personality, who wa8 possessed of an amazing capacity for detail persuaded to take into his classes. Severs1 yams later the Franklin Refinery w ~ acquired s by the and was continually finding fault. It must be admitted that Amoncan Sugar Refining Company, and Doctor Hooker was his criticisms could possess that high dogwe of causticity t o which eventually transferred to the Spreckels Refinery in the same only a master of concise and perfect hbglish could give full city when the Ihmklin was shut down. Here his ability was expression. If Doctor Hooker had ever used a cussword, it is probable that the tension might sometimes have k e n relieved. recognized by El. 0. Havemeyer, president of the corporation. and he v a s rapidly given assignments of increasing rcuponsibility. Such men hoaevor are unfortunate if they have not had At this time the lapachol preparations were put a m y in 8 opportmrit,y to know the personality of the real man. Hooker cupboard, and pure science was abandoned. Together with expected a job to be faultlessly performed, and, if it was so done, the late Henry E. Niese,' Hooker soon became one of the imlittle comment seemed to be required. If a high standard was portant executives and consultants in the company with regard expected of others, it was no greater than the standard which to sugar-refining technology. Hooker demanded of himself in every one oi his activities. On A t this time, r i t h the foresight of its able president $Tho occasions when a more than ordinary piece of work has come to sensed the rise of a wmpetitive industry, the American h g : i r his attention, he has been known to express his appreciation in Refining Company acquired some heavy financial interests in the most gloaing terms. At home in his own laboratory, where the newly developed and groaing beet sugar industry of the the succession of problems usv. not so tumultuous, Doctor West. Without previous experience in beet sugar Hooker K ~ S Hooker I V ~ Sa1wa.y~most patient with the shortcomings of the given the colossal task of organizing the technical operation of writer and his other laboratory assistants. all the beet sugar factories vest of the Mississippi in which the combined with a high ideal was a remarkable capacity and eastern company had sufficient interest t o make its influence memory for detail. A t a meeting of plant executives tho que* effective. t,ion arose as to the cost of R pump purchased three years before He found a,n industry almost new to this country, except for n-],ich of thotie clorely concerned with such details could ___ remember. Hooker immediately stated the exact figure and ' I m . E m . C ~ e r . 19. , 429 (1927).
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INDUSTRIAL AND
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confirmed it from the records. Some hold that a great executive must leave detail to others, but this was not true in Hooker’s case, for he was a truly great executive as well as a great technologist. He picked men for responsible positions in whose integrity and ability he had confidence and then held them to a strict accountability. His system was sometimes hard on his men, but it worked. In his devotion to his ideals, Doctor Hooker’s outstanding characteristic was his remarkable thoroughness. He would refuse to accept the word of five authorities for a scientific statement, and go on to learn from a sixth that the five had copied the statement from the same source and were all wrong. Hooker would utterly sweep aside the apparently brilliant conclusions of an investigator if he considered that the experimental work was based on too few repetitions or on an inadequate number of samples. For the “sloppy” experimenter he had no use, and if, as sometimes happened, he checked a man’s work to his own satisfaction and found it to be wrong, such a luckless individual could seldom regain a place in Hooker’s scientific esteem. As the eastern company gradually withdrew from beet sugar interests, Hooker returned to the refinery work and for several years maintained offices in New York and Brooklyn. At this time he moved his residence from Philadelphia to the Remsen Street house in Brooklyn where he still resides. At little more than fifty he elected to retire from business, not to rest or to loaf or to amuse himself in the ordinary sense, but to devote his If you are energies again to research and to his hobbies. privileged t o call on Doctor Hooker, he will conduct you across the back yard to the former stable which is now a workshop. On the ground floor he has fitted up a study where he has part of his remarkable library and allows himself the dissipation of an occasional cigar. Then he will take you to the laboratory, where he will show you his beautifully colored lapachol derivatives, and tell you many interesting things about his research if you belong to the craft. For a man of his prominence Hooker has succeeded in avoiding publicity to a highly successful degree. He has seldom, if ever, attended a chemical meeting and has not sought the society of his fellows. If the writer has so far created the impression, however, that Hooker is a recluse and a kind of human machine, let the falseness of this idea be immediately dissipated. If you run Doctor Hooker down-and his friends are most welcomeyou find a man happy in his home with his family and his activities, a cordial host, and a man of engaging personality interested in men and affairs. He is devoted t o his home, where he and his charming wife enjoy frequent visits from their married children and grandchildren. Having applied several tests of greatness to Hooker, we can add one more in which he also measures u p h i s simplicity and lack of ortentation. Having acquired far more than a competence, he lives in an unobtrusive style and his material wants are few. He has a great appreciation, however, of the artistic and the beautiful. His modest home is richly and elegantly furnished, and the walls are adorned with a collection of paintings of the first rank which he acquired on one of several trips to Europe. In his pictures, xhich represent largely the modern French school, he has shown the same discriminating selection which is characteristic of his habits of thought. We have alluded t o the fact that the stable has become his workshop. He has had little use for a garage because for many years he did not even possess a n automobile of his own, and rumor has it that the early Packard with its acetylene headlights, which finally was the result of family demands, is still providing transportation for the Hooker family. One of Hooker’s pet prides is his scientific library. He commenced its accumulation early in life, and now possesses one of
CHEMISTRY
Vol. 25, No. 7
the best and most complete chemical libraries in the United States-no, in the world, Doctor Hooker will correct you, not as a boast but as a simple statement of scientific fact. His library is especially rich in its sets of journals; for example, it includes bound copies of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Great Britain, complete since 1657, the year of its foundation. Hooker has been and still is a zealous collector, It has been one of his pleasures to browse around bookshops and book auctions with Charles Browne, and it is said that he is a keen buyer and will not be held up. Hooker has one avocation which has always been somewhat of a surprise to some of his friends. How he first became interested in magic the writer is uninformed, although this again dates from his early youth. It is said that in his archives there is an old handbill announcing a benefit performance that he gave a t the age of sixteen. Perhaps it is only natural for a chemist to revert to the black art from which his science has sprung. At any rate he found the pursuit of magic so fascinating that he compelled himself for a long time to give it up entirely because it threatened to interfere with his profession. After giving up business interests, Hooker resumed the study of magic with an avidity that he had probably long anticipated. As in every other interest he was not content to be a dabbler, and he set the same standard of performance which he demanded of himself in every activity. He is a member of the American Society of Magicians and has many acquaintances among them, having been particularly attracted to the late Houdini. Hooker possesses an extensive library of magic, and has a comprehensive collection of all the technical devices of the magician’s art. Report has it that R few years ago he invited his brother craftsmen to a “Little Theater” on the second floor of his stable, where he exhibited some illusions which excited their profound admiration and amazement. A deck of cards waa placed in a houlette, the technical name for the magician’s card container, and any card demanded by a member of the audience rose into view. The kings and queens reviewed a parade of the cards around the table without visible means of support. The guests were asked to bring their own autographed cards and their opera glasses, and the same performance was repeated. Any cards would emerge on demand and they would dance if desired, or remain suspended in space until commanded to return to the pack. All this took place when the houlette was resting on a book supported by three small pedestals of glass, or when it was swinging supported only by two ribbons hanging from the ceiling. A precocious teddy bear named Miltiades also enlivened the show by exhibiting an uncanny knowledge of the location of cards in or removed from the houlette, and by performing some feats of levitation of his own. The illusion remained unsolved by any of the audience. I t may seem an exaggeration, but it is not, to say that the greatest professional magicians regard Samuel Hooker not as their peer, but as their master. I n recent years Doctor Hooker has suffered from long periods of ill health, but he is now able to continue his laboratory researches. The world would be a better place if we had more men of his simplicity and high ideals. If one of his admirers has painted him as almost a perfect superman, let us be fair and state that he has alloyed one vice to creep into his character. He has seen fit to publish none of his work on lapachol since his early youth, so great is his zeal that it be a finished piece of work without the slightest inaccuracy or imperfection. In this he has set himself such a high ideal t h a t one fears he will be selfish enough to carry his work with him and leave no account of it for the benefit of scientific knowledge.
SIDNEYJ. OSBORN
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