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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 23, No. 6
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES Willard Dell Bigelow
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H E personnel files of our federal bureaus concerning the influence of food preservatives show many instances of chemists who, on digestion and health. I n the three years after demonstrating exceptional fitness b e t w e e n 1 9 0 4 and 1907 Bigelow was the for certain lines of work, have stepped from author of no less than thirty bulletins and their stations in the government service to papers and the joint author of nine additional higher salaried positions of industrial imporpublications, from which one may form a partance. The resignation of so many competent tial picture of his almost ceaseless enterprise experts for this cause has been a source of during the important period which culminated anxiety t o department officials, although they in the passage of the Federal Food and Drugs have recognized that this loss is attended with Act on June 30, 1906. a certain compensation in helping to establish Following the enactment of this law a large more intelligent relations between the governpart of Bigelow’s attention was devoted to ment and industry, with a consequent strengthcreating the organization necessary for its enening of the entente cordiale. The benefits forcement, and in this second phase of the purewhich result from this interchange of governfood movement he rendered a public service Harvrs e k.wrng Willard D. Bigelow fully equal in importance to that performed mental and industrial activities can find no b e t t e r i l l u s t r a t i o n than in the career of in its preliminary stages. The selection of new Willard Dell Bigelow. personnel and the equipment of new branch laboratories largely This newly elected member of the brotherhood of American devolved upon Bigelow, who as assistant chief of the bureau now Contemporaries was born at Gardner, Kan., on May 31, 1866. gave the greater part of his time t o administrative matters. After completing his high-school education, he entered Amherst Within four years after the passage of the Food and Drugs Act no College-a splendid choice for any boy who aspires to distinction, less than twenty-two branch food-control laboratories were estabfor have we not recently been told that Amherst leads all Ameri- lished in different parts of the United States, chiefly under the can institutions in the percentage of its graduates who find a place direction of Bigelow. in that great repository of prominent men known as “Who’s He also took a leading part in designing the plans of the new Who in America?” Young Bigelow’s scientific preferences upon building to which the Bureau of Chemistry moved in 1910. entering college wavered between geology and chemistry, but The growth of the expanding activities of the Bureau of Chemistry a chance observation during a field trip convinced him that ge- during the period of Bigelow’s connection with the Department of ology was not his forte, and thus the scales of his choice were Agriculture is indicated by the increase of its personnel from 25 dehitely and permanently tipped in favor of chemistry. Had t o 473. If Doctor Wiley, the Father of the Food and Drugs Act, Bigelow in his youth possessed a sharper faculty for detecting has been compared for his courageous leadership with the ancient fossils and finding minerals, food chemistry in America would Trojan hero Bneas, then Doctor Bigelow deserves to rank as today be deprived of one of its leading representatives. the “fidus Achates,” for a large part of the success in accomplishAfter graduating from Amherst in 1889 Bigelow served for ing the passage of this act and in establishing the machinery for one year as associate professor of chemistry a t Oregon State its execution was due to his faithful cooperation. In 1913, when Bigelow resigned his position with the Bureau College, for one year as post-graduate student a t Amherst, and then for one year as instructor of chemistry in the Washington of Chemistry to become chief chemist and subsequently director High School. of the research laboratories of the National Canners Association, His residence in the National Capital naturally brought him there was no chemist in the United States who possessed such into contact with H. W. Wiley, who was then engaged in his extensive practical knowledge in matters relating t o the chemstrenuous campaign against food adulteration. Being strongly istry, technology, and regulatory control of foods. The scientific attracted by the opportunity for service in this field, Bigelow and administrative experience acquired in his twenty-one years made the great determining choice of his career when he accepted of bureau service enabled him t o organize his new work with a position on July 1, 1892, in the Bureau of Chemistry. He be- speed and effectiveness. He collected about him a loyal band came at once a n active participant in the great reform movement of co-workers, who under his direction have made the laborawhich Doctor Wiley was conducting, and collaborated with vari- tories of the National Canners Association one of the foremost inous associates in helping to write several installments of that im- stitutions of the world in food research and technology. They portant series of publications upon “Foods and Food Adulterants” have led the way in placing the canning of foods upon a thorknown as Bulletin 13 of the Bureau of Chemistry. It is interest- oughly scientific basis. It is impossible to enumerate here the many lines of research ing to note that in Part VI11 of this bulletin, upon “Canned Vegetables,” Bigelow made his first entry into the field which which Bigelow has initiated since his connection with the Natwenty years later was to become his final specialty. I n this tional Canners Association. The most important of all these is early period he published also numerous articles upon methods unquestionably his work upon the processing of canned foods, of food analysis and took an active part in the work of the Associa- which first established the exact conditions of time, temperature, tion of Official Agricultural Chemists. As the pure-food cam- and p H that must be maintained for insuring the satisfactory paign progressed, he issued many reports upon food adulteration, keeping quality of the different sized cans of each product. Since beginning the duties of his present position Bigelow prepared a series of important compilations of the food laws of has kept constantly in touch with the food research and regulathe different states, conducted studies upon the composition of American fruits and other food products, and collaborated with tory activities of his old associates in the Department of AgriDoctor Wiley in the publication of several important researches culture, t o whom he has rendered very great assistance by his
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I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
advice and friendly spirit of cooperation and by his interest in the public welfare. He continues to manifest the same sincerity, absence of prejudice, and unselfish devotion to his work that have always characterized his business and social relations. Those who have collaborated with him upon committees refer with pleasure to the frank cordial attitude and the unbiased mind with which he approaches the problem under discussion. His recent reelection as one of the Directors of the A M E R I C A N CHEMICAL SOCIETY is an evidence of the appreciation in which his services are held by all our members. The career of Bigelow has coincided with some of the most important developments in the history of food and nutrition. Indeed, the future student of these subjects will mark the first quarter of the twentieth century as a period of outstanding importance. I n this period the dietary habits of the American people underwent an important change, the per capita consumption of milk, fruits, vegetables, and sugar having greatly increased and that of cereals having declined. In this period the vitamins were discovered and the importance of minute traces of certain mineral constituents in the diet was first realized. It was this period that witnessed the passage of the federal pure food law and saw the regulatory control of foods established for the first time upon an effective basis. It was in this period also that the technic of preserving fruits and vegetables underwent a great reform with a vast improvement in the quality and healthfulness of all canned foods. T o have lived in such a time as this has been a privilege, but to have taken a prominent part in the realization of its accomplishments has been an honor deserving of the widest recognition.
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Although he has now reached the age when he can qualify as an American Contemporary, Doctor Bigelow is still a young man both in spirit and mind. He enjoys golf and other outdoor recreations, but his chief pleasure consists in lending a helping hand to his younger friends and co-workers. I t is for this riason that he was dubbed “The Big Brother” by his old associates in the Bureau of Chemistry. Many examples can be told of Bigelow’s aid in obtaining promotions, in helping t o alleviate the restrictions of red tape, and in smoothing out the rough spots in the paths of his fellow workers. There are many prominent chemists in all parts of the United States, both within and without the government service, who attribute their advancement to the timely assistance and encouragement extended to them by Bigelow. His philosophy of life is well illustrated by the following incident. A friend, who once spoke to Bigelow about some of the trials and disappointments of a government chemist, received this very characteristic reply. “You are bound of course to encounter criticisms and discouragements, but there is one recompense which with me outweighs all these objections. I refer to the wonderful opportunity and satisfaction which a government position affords of starting young chemists upon promising fields of research and of helping them upon the way to success.” These qualities of helpfulness and of sympathetic interest in the advancement of one’s associates have always been cardinal principles in the code of W. D. Bigelow. I t is a rich experience to know a man who holds to such ideals of life and its relations. C. A. BROWNE
AMERICAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES Acheson Oildag Company
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WENTY-THREE years ago the Acheson hinders. In the course of his experiments he Oildag Company started operations a t noted that certain clays, though of similar comNiagara Falls, N. Y . It was formed position, varied greatly in plasticity. Since for the purpose of producing commercially the sedimentary clays were generally more plastic than the residual type, Acheson attributed this final product obtained by Edward Goodrich Acheson in a now famous series of closely redifference to some effect exerted by the water lated experiments. responsible for the transfer of the sedimentary In 1891, after having succeeded in effecting clays from their original beds. Working on the the large-scale production of silicon carbide, belief that this change was brought about by “Carborundum,” Acheson sought to produce a organic matter leached from the fertile regions still harder abrasive by subjecting the same elethrough which the streams flowed he improved ments to a higher temperature for a longer the plasticity of clay bodies by treating them period of time. Practice did not bear out his with aqueous extracts of straw. theory, however, as the silicon volatilized unSearching the literature to see if anyone had der these conditions, leaving the carbon in the discovered this effect before h i m , A c h e s o n form of an extremely unctuous graphite of found but one reference to a similar use of very high purity. Further work showed the E. G. Acheson Chairman straw. This was in Exodus 5:7-19, wherein is preliminary formation of silicon carbide to be Board of Directors described the brick-making operations of the unnecessary in the production of artificial graphEgyptians. Feeling that the Egyptians used ite and that any form of carbon, when subjected to the proper the straw to render the clay more plastic rather than as a fibrous temperature conditions, could be converted into the graphitic binder, Acheson called his treated product “Egyptianized clay.” form. This little high-temperature experiment was important, The then newly invented ultra-microscope revealed that the nevertheless, as it resulted in the organization of the Acheson increase in plasticity was due to a reduction in the particle size Graphite Company. of the clay. Jerome Alexander was in possession of one of these Acheson neat sought to utilize the graphite he was producing instruments and showed Acheson that by his deflocculation procin competition with Nature. The crucible trade was then con- ess he had unquestionably produced particles of colloidal dimensions. suming most of the graphite being mined, so Acheson decided to engage in the manufacture of crucibles. I n this connection he Knowing his manufactured graphite to be far superior to the did considerable work on clays, which he hoped to employ as natural product for lubrication purposes because of its freedom
