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I N D U S T R I A L Ah’D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES William Albert Noyes L E T me
begin with a confession. In the fall of 1901 I went out to Rose Polytechnic Institute a t Terre Haute, Ind., to become instructor and research assistant in chemistry. The laboratory was deserted save for a mildmannered man in working clothes, apparently some sort of caretaker who was engaged in cleaning up apparatus. I did not dream that this was the already distinguished Doctor Noyes-but it was! The utter absence of “front” has always been characteristic of him. Combined with unfailing kindliness, it has endeared him to his friends and to multitudes of young chemists, while a t the same time it probably caused many persons to underrate a t first his real ability. The opinion was expressed to me more than once that Doctor Noyes was “not such a very big man,” a conclusion which was no doubt largely due to his modest personal bearing. That was years ago; his position in chemistry is well enough recognized now, and has been attested by medals and other honors. But let no one err in judging those mild blue eyes, Their owner is a keen, hard, W. A . and persistent fighter for what he believes to be the right policy. During his long and honored service for the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY as councilor, editor, secretary, and president, he has frequently had to exert all his ability in this direction in order to realize the visions which he had for our SOCIETY. In these conflicts of ideas there have been sharp matchings of the blades of argument, but no one has attributed to Doctor Noyes animosity or unworthy motives. There is a downright directness in his manner of getting a t things with people, yet without personal offense. That sometimes seems impossible to do. A man once said to me, “When a man calls me a liar, I usually take it personally.” But Doctor Noyes doesn’t call anyone a liar. He somehow,manages to put the matter, however delicate it may be, on the plane of a scientific inquiry. “Please tell me frankly” is one of his favorite phrases, and in this he asks no more than he is willing to give. A sturdy ancestry, a farm rearing, and simple habits have combined to give Doctor Noyes the constitutional energy that has carried him through a tremendous amount of work. I t enabled him, in middle age, to set a hot pace on a bicycle over Indiana roads as he traveled about visiting children placed by the county in farm homes. It has also made it possible for him to be busy a t some kind of mental employment almost every waking minute through a long career. While he was editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society one could scarcely encounter him in “leisure” moments, a t home or on the train, when he was not reading manuscript or proof. Doctor Noyes spent seventeen years at Rose, a small but highstandard institution, and he will soon have completed an equally long term as professor of chemistry and director of the huge chemical laboratory of the University of Illinois. During an interval of four years he was chief chemist of the Bureau of Standards. In the professorships, which have been a large part of his life work, neither research, teaching, nor administration has been
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slighted. The wideness of his interest in the most varied phases of chemistry has been unusual. His investigations on atomic weights, on the compounds of the camphor series, and on other matters are well known, as are also his series of textbooks, and one would easily conclude that the qualities of acute reasoning, impartial judgment, skill, and patience must be his in large measure. The lastnamed trait, however, deserves to be emphasized. On one occasion Doctor Noyes was gazing intently a t a tiny distilling bulb, which contained the product of many weeks of work. In some way the glass slipped from his hand aild was shattered on the wooden floor, and the liquid was lost. There was a sharp “Oh pshaw!” followed by a long, reflective whistle, Then, without a further word, he turned to the desk and began measuring out materials for a repetition of the work. Most of us would a t least have taken the re5t of the afternoon off. “Directing” research has meant for Doctor Noyes, at least in his less crowded years, getting off his coat and offering a full share of work and companionship; such contact with a scientist of his qualities has been a university of the highest type to many an advanced student and NOYES assistant. To his insistent “Don’t you see that it would?” and “You knew that, didn’t you?” one is ashamed to answer “No,” and one thinks harder as a consequence. This inadequate sketch would be too slight without a mention of the deep religious nature of its subject. Like R. A. Millikan, he is combatting, by word and life, the notion that science and religion are incompatible, or indeed that they need be in conflict at all. It is not surprising, then, t o find that in him altruism is another prominent characteristic. Doctor Noyes has been devoted to an ideal of close cooperation among scientists. He has been striving for many years to bring together the chemists of different countries, just as he has helped t6 bring American chemists together in the SOCIETY.Now that the war has carved gulfs of hate between nations, he looks to scientists, with their common interest and minds trained to be fair and impartial, to lead in bridging the chasms. To that end he is working a t present while living for a year in Europe. AUSTINM. PATTERSON
Itaiy’s Artificial Silk Industry Artificial silk is produced in Italy by means of the viscose process. While it is difficult to give an accurate figure in regard t o production-undoubtedly on the increase-information obtained by Trade Commissioner J. Allen Palmer seems to indicate that Italy’s output of artificial silk amounts t o 12,000 t o 15,000 kilos per working day. About 14,300 workers are employed. Switzerland is Italy’s best customer for artificial silk, taking about 37 per cent of the Italian exports. In 1922 the United States came next with 25 per cent, and Spain third with about 16 per cent, but during the first nine months of 1923 Spain disappeared almost entirely from the Italian market, and the share of the United States dropped to about 14 per cent. In compensation, however, Switzerland and especially the United Kingdom, as well as miscellaneous countries, increased their purchases in 1923, the net result being a marked gain in the total exports
