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AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES William Hoskins much t o the latter’s embarrassment, for Mr. Hoskins prefers to do a good turn and then completely dismiss the matter, of &fariner and ~ ~ A rugged gentleman entered the (a firm name which cherishes a life gratitude, for William Hoskins alone has for many years been the heart and head of the organiYOUNG chemist who was considering with some hesi- zation) and cautiously laid a parcel on the table. It proved to tation the possibility of going into consulting work in be a sample of gold ore wrapped in a rough package. The cusChicago went t o a n older man in t h a t branch of the pro- tomer asked for an appraisal of the sample. “Is there much of this ore on your Alaskan claim?” inquired fession for information and counsel. H e got both and in such the presiding genius of the House of generous measure t h a t a t the end of the Mariner and Hoskins. interview he expressed surprise and grati“How did you know this ore was from tude a t the friendly and helpful attitude Alaska?” queried the astonished stranger. of the older man toward a potential competitor. “Why, I see it is wrapped in a piece “Don’t feel grateful t o me,” was the of D a w s o n newspaper,” replied the reply. “Thank William Hoskins. I’m candid and observing subject of this article. merely passing along what he did for me when I started in years ago.” The story recounted above indexes a This true incident suggests the keydirect, common sense that is native and note t o the character of him whom the has contributed so much to his success as Chicago chemist thinks of as “my friend one of the profession’s leading consultWilliam.” William Hoskins is a happy ing chemists. While never brusque, but example of what one man can do t o on the contrary gentle and of fine motivate a group with a spirit of friendsensibilities, there is invariably a surprise liness and cooperation. For nearly fifty element in Mr. Hoskins’ response to a years he has been a consulting chemist in situation. This comes from a mind of Chicago, and during t h a t time he has high natural endowments, not convenfound ways of being helpful to so many tionalized in its processes by the great of his professional brethren t h a t i t is the educational mill t h a t gathers in our exception today to find a member of the modern youths and turns them out too Chicago Section who is not directly inoften comfortably and harmlessly alike. debted to him for something of imThis is the supreme quality of intelliWalinger, Chicago portance. gence. Wiggams says: “Intelligence is William Hosklns that which enables a man to live without One story t h a t is typical of many must suffice to illustrate. A discouraged young education, while education is that which chemist many years ago sat across the enables a man to live without intelligence.” e While a striking epigram, i t needs elaboration to convey table from him. H e was a stranger in Chicago and without the whole truth, for it seems to contemplate only men who are employment. There is a force of gravity at play among human wholly intelligent or wholly educated, whereas mixtures of educabeings, and this strange attraction had brought the late beloved Bill Brady, as i t has brought many another seeking counsel and tion and intelligence are thinkable. However, Mr. Hoskins posaid, into the genial presence of Mr. Hoskins. Brady was a sessed t h a t intelligence which proves the doctrine. He never graduate of Case and personable, b u t his quest for a position attended college. After graduating from the Chicago High had ended only in a series of negatives, variously embellished. School in 1880, he received some private instruction from G. A. Mariner, a classmate of Chandler’s at the Lawrence Scientific Here is the way Bill Brady told the story himself in after years: at Harvard graduating in 1854. A few months after School He inquired if I had received any favorable replies. I told be exact, in February, him somewhat disdainfully t h a t the Illinois Steel Company at taking up study with Mr. Mariner-to 1880-Mr. Hoskins became assistant to Mr. Mariner in the South Chicago had offered me a job a t ten dollars a week, but t h a t I felt after so many years of expensive education I should latter’s business of consulting chemist and after Mr. Mariner’s do better than that. Mr. Hoskins startled me by asking if I death in 1903 became sole owner of the business. knew how they made carbon determinations a t the Illinois Steel We suspect he cannot remember a time when he was not inWorks. I was constrained t o acknowledge I did not. He then terested in scientific matters. The Third Annual Report of the suggested t h a t I aFcept t h e position and hold it so long as I was gaining experience. He said he suspected t h a t between Chicago Department of Public Works for 1878 contains a page my present equipment and qualifications for the position of chief chemist at the Illinois Steel Works there was a lot of new experi- plate reproduction of drawings of algz and related forms made ence. H e encouraged me t o believe I could win a worthy posi- by young Hoskins who was then only a high-school student. tion with the company. I went right out and accepted the job At fourteen he was a member of the State Microscopical Society and took considerable satisfaction some years later in dropping and soon afterward became its secretary. in on him, recalling our conversation, and telling him I was now .Mr. Hoskins helped to organize the first Chicago Chemical chief chemist for the company. Society, which became the Chicago Section of the AMERICAN Brady continued in this responsible position to the time of his CHEMICAL SOCIETYon June 3, 1895. H e was president of the death and often told of his first meeting with William Hoskins, organization in 1897. When the Chicago Chemists’ Club was
T h e attractions of this subject are n o t t o be resisted, a n d I leave for t h e time, all account of subordinate social values t o speak of t h a t select and sacred relation which is a kind of absolute, a n d which even leaves t h e Ianguage of love suspicious a n d common, so much is this purer a n d more divine.-EMeRsoN O N FRIENDSHIP.
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organized in 1919, Mr. Hoskins was its first president. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY,the Electrochemical Society, the Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Illinois Academy of Science, the Western Society of Engineers, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In all of these associations he has been a helpful force, contributing freely of his time and money in furthering their several purposes. During the war he served on the Naval Consulting Board in the capacity of expert on inventions and held a similar position on the Engineering and Inventions Board of the State of Illinois. He was also on the Advisory Board to the Bureau of 1Mines when that bureau had charge of chemical warfare. He is a member of the National Research Council. Mr. Hoskins has participated in many famous patent cases and has been retained as consultant by many large manufacturers of technical products. H e was retained by the Standard Oil Company in the suits involving the Burton patent, in legal controversies involving the flotation of ores, in the Haynes-Stellite patents, and many others. His professional activities have been primarily along industrial lines and a complete history of them would give an accurate picture of the growth of industrial chemistry in the Chicago region, for he has been connected with a very large percentage of Chicago chemical developments. H e has, however, always conducted independent research involving his own ideas, for his is a creative mind of the inventive type. It was in his laboratory that the development of the re-
Vol. 19, No. 1,
sistance wire now universally employed for electric heating devices of various kinds was carried on, Mr. Marsh, now the general manager of the Hoskins Manufacturing Company, having been research man doing the active work. Billiard chalk, metallic arsenic, gelatin film, gasoline blowpipes, assay furnaces, chlorine recovery of gold, chemical safety paper, and luminous paints are only a few titles culled a t random from the list of problems to whose successful solution he has made important contributions. He probably has the honor of being the first chemist t o establish a laboratory in a Ford truck, for in 1912 he conducted for the Association of Commerce an investigation of the atmosphere of Chicago, utilizing a movable laboratory in which it was possible to sample and test the air continuously a t any desired point. The results of the investigation have been published in what has been considered a classical volume on this subject. H e has always been active in the affairs of the AMERICAN SOCIETY and the local section, as well as the Chicago CHEMICAL Chemists’ Club. To the gatherings of Chicago chemists he has contributed always his bit of philosophy-clean humor-pleasing reminiscence-discerning and stimulating prophecy-above all, the word of professional help, encouragement, and admonition. To those of the Chicago Section privileged t o know him more intimately, Mr. Hoskins is the beloved patriarch, a term without chronological import, for if sprightly enthusiasm and a tireless industry betoken youth, Mr. Hoskins is still on the sunny side of life. It does reflect, however, the esteem of his colleagues and the place he has won as their counselor and friend. CARLS. MINERAND W. LICELEWIS
BOOK REVIEWS The Modem Soap and Detergent Industry. Volume 111-The Manufacture of Glycerol. BY GEOFFREY MARTIN. 264 pages. Crosby, Lockwood & Son, London; D. Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1926. Price, $12.00.
fame is persistently misspelled “Allan.” The book is excellently printed on heavy paper and should be in the hands of every one desiring a n up-to-date and detailed work on glycerol A. C. LANGMUIR
This book is divided into six sections and an index for the entire three volumes. Each section is separately paged, which makes the use of the index a little troublesome. It is the only work in the English language devoted entirely to,,the subject and compares very favorably with Deite-Kellner’s Das Glyzerin” (1923), which has not been translated. The author uses the scissors freely. The book opens with a general description of various crude glycerols, in which are incorporated a number of paragraphs taken word for word from an article by the reviewer on the Twitchell process. Quotation marks are dropped but references are freely cited. The latest journal reference noted was for 1923. Statistics are listed up to 1925. Section I treats of the purification of spent soap lye, its evaporation in single, double, and triple effects, the recovery of the salt, film evaporators, and the production of crude from saponification sweet waters in 78 pages with numerous diagrams. Section I1 takes up the distillation of crude glycerol for the production of dynamite and chemically pure glycerol in 36 pages. The Van Ruymbecke and Garrigue systems are given the most space. The F. J. Wood process, using the multiple-effect distillation method, is dismissed with a paragraph. The author doubtless is ignorant of the fact that some 1.50 million pounds of r e h e d glycerol have been produced in the United States alone by this system. The Wood patents and the articles descriptive of the process in Trans. Am. Inst. Chem. Eng., 5, 261 (1909), a reference overlooked by the author, will amply repay a study by those interested in glycerol refining, as the patent rights soon expire. Section I11 discusses the production of glycerol by fermentation and from distillery residues in 13 pages. Section IV describes the properties and applications of glycerol; Section V, polymerized glycerol; and Section VI, its valuation and analysis. Only one error was noted. Allen of “Commercial Organic”
Stone Decay and I t s Prevention. BY J. E. MARSH. 58 pages. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, England, 1926. Price, 3 s. 6 d. net. The author points out in the preface that in 1861 a parliamentary commission was appointed to stop the decay of the stone of Westminster Palace. The commission decided to wait till a remedy had been found and did not expect to wait long. “We have waited sixty years and seem to be no nearer a solution of the problem.” Authorities are unable to agree either as to the cause or the remedy for the decay. Marsh made a very careful study of the subject and briefly records his findings. He discusses a t length the remedies proposed in the past and devotes considerable space to the reports of the parliamentary commissions starting with the report of 1839. Even in t h a t early report emphasis is placed on the importance of laying the stone with its lines of lamination horizontal, a detail very frequently neglected by builders today. A chapter on “air, rain, and smoke” treats of the various elements that hasten the decay of stone structures. The conclusion reached is that microorganisms exist in the pores of the stone and convert the absorbed ammonia, from the air and rain, into nitric acid. The action of the bacteria in the stone is very much the same as in the soil. The nitric acid combines with lime and other constituents of the stone to form nitrates, which crystallize out and rupture the stone. Aside from this chemical decay, there is also a type of decay, met with frequently, due largely to mechanical agents-wind and water, attrition, and erosion. Three methods of treatment are recommended: (1) surgical, (2) therapeutic, and (3) prophylactic. The prophylactic method the author considers the best, although i t is the oldest. The bacteria thrive best in a medium with a pH lying between 6 and 7. Accordingly, by the use of a lime or other alkaline wash the p H is increased beyond the point a t which the microorganisms will thrive.
