BENJAMIN
SILLIMAN
1779-1864
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
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HEN the Sterling Laboratory of Yale University was dedicated on April 4, 1923, i t was generally known that the day chosen was to honor Benjamin Silliman, Yale's first Professor of Chemistry, who took up his duties on April 4, 1804. Silliman's first Benjamin laboratory and lecture room was a deep, gloomy cellar. Silliman, He remarked that the architect's private opinion must 1779-1864 have been that "the deeper down in Mother Earth the dangerous chemists could be buried, the better." That eventually his Alma Mater lifted the laboratory out of the cellar and made it an object of pride is due largely to his own struggle for the recognition of science. Somewhere among his writings we find this statement: "We must fight ourbattles, not in the circumstances and positionpohich we have chosen, but in those that are forced upon us, by imperious necessity." His own career illumines that statement. When Yale decided to establish a Professorship in Chemistry and Natural History, President Dwight, realizing the youth of scientific investigation in America, felt i t would be better t o choose a man of known qualities and to train him for the position than to risk the appointment of a foreigner. Silliman, who had graduated from Yale in 1776 and had later returned as a tutor, was elected to fill this important place. We can but marvel a t his versatility. A student of law, who had shown little or no interest in science, and who, in connection with his degree, had submitted an original poem entitled "Columbia," he turned a t once to grapple wit6 the task of preparing himself for this new career. c To Philadelphia, then America's chief center for culture and learning, he went to study under Professor Woodhouse, xho, he later declared, "supplied the first stepping stones by which I was enabled a t no distant day to mount higher." Doubtless duiing the hours he spent here in the company of Hare and Priestley the chemists, Wistar the anatomist, Barton the botanist, Seybert the mineralogist, to mention but a few of his colleagues, were formulated the broad views on science and its teachings to which he frequently gave expression. From several months' sojourn in Europe in 1805, he seems to have gained much that was of permanent value to him. It was while abroad that he became interested in mineralogy and geology, and on his return to Yale he added these two suhjects to his teaching schedule. Perhaps we look for a long list of the important researches carried on in the underground laboratory. It is true that Silliman was the first American scientist to make hydrofluoric acid, that he showed that carbon is volatilized in the electric arc, that he discovered bromine in American brines. But, for the most part, to him fell the nobler task of inspiration. 5
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
JANUARY,
1930
In his own words: "We wait in vain for continued seasons of leisure and repose, in which we may refresh and brighten our faculties, and perfect our knowledge. After we are once engaged in the full career of duty, such seasons never come; our powers and our time are placed in incessant requisition; there is no discharge in our warfare." Because of his unexcelled ability to present scientific facts and his infectious enthusiasm his powers were in constant demand, and all time for research was crowded out of his life. Many of his biographers try t o defend him. We think he needs no defense. He belongs preeminently t o the ranks of "those who labor that others may be wise." While upholding Robert Hare's claim t o the invention of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe, Silliman seems t o have realized the need of a publication in which American scientists could record and discuss scientific discoveries. Accordingly, in 1818, he founded the American Journal of Science and Art, America's first permanent scientific journal. This journal "is intended t o embrace the circle of the Physical Sciences, with their application t o the Arts, and to every useful purpose. . . .While Science will be cherished for its own sake, and with a due respect for its own inherent dignity; it will also be employed as the handmaid to the Arts." The success of this publication is one of Silliman's greatest claims t o recognition. We feel i t necessary t o impress upon our readers that we are writing of a time not our own; that, in America a t least, the cellar was the proper place for the chemist, and that re!igion was rearing an impressive barrier t o the acceptance of science on the part of the general public. Silliman saw no reason why religion and scienfe need conflict. "In a word, the whole circle of physical science. . . . everywhere demonstrates both supreme intelligence, and harmony and beneficence of design in the Creator." The deep respect in which he was held for his high Christian ideals and profound belief in the scriptures induced audiences t o listen to him that otherwise would have rejected all discussion of scientific investigation. "Without being profound or original, he selected from the great storehouse of knowledge, all familiar to him, so judiciously, and threw such an enchantment round his theme that all felt a kindling of enthusiasm as they listened. They drank in the doctrines of latent heat and chemical equivalents, saw through all the forms and laws of crystallization, and plainly read in minerals and fossils and rocks of the fields the geological eras which stretched back into the immeasurable past where no human eye ever saw." As time went on he was more and more in demand for public lectures. For instance, from 1840 to 1843 he gave four public courses in geology and chemistry a t Boston. One of his colleagues said of him that he was "the principal medium between those who dwelt in the academic shade and the great public."
VOL.7, NO. 1
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
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A biographer speaks of him as "America's first great scientific publicist." Yet, for all his power t o sway the public, he was perhaps a t his best in the classroom, teaching, discussing, assisting in every way. I n his own words, the great object of teaching "should be t o find our way into the mind of the pupil, and to fix there the knowledge that we present." Quite in keeping with this viewpoint, he emphatically stressed visual instruction, and modern educators will be interested in the fact that he made frequent use of demonstration experiments, which he performed with amazing manipulative skill. Some one has remarked that the "story of his laboratory would make a good prelude to the histoty of university education in this country as distinguished from collegiate." We have sufficientproof of his gift t o teach-"Dana, world-renowned geologist and mineralogist; Brush, whose exhaustive mineralogical chemical studies are authoritative everywhere; Johnson, pioneer leader in chemistry applied to agriculture; Willard Gibbs, first among physical chemists of modern times; T. Sterry Hunt, profound in chemical philosophy and theory1'-all of them studied as undergraduates under Silliman, and all gratefully acknowledged their debt to his inspirational leadership. We look to a man's friendships t o complete our estimate of his character. Silliman was highly respected by all with whom he came in contact and enjoyed the confidence and friendship of many of the most men of his time, both in America and abroad. His dearest friend was Robert Hare, whom he met while studying under Professor Woodhouse. The correspondence between the two,has been preserved and throws much light on the development of American science during the middle of the r nineteenth century. Silliman did much that was praiseworthy for Yale University; that does not concern us here. It is important to us that he had a wider sphere of influence, that American science of today is indebted t o him for his commanding and genial personality and for his unintermittent labors for an adopted profession. The Journal gratefe~llyacknowledges its indebtedness to Prqfessor A. J. Hzll of the Chemistry Department of Yale University for the loan of the daguerreotype from which the accompanying frontispiece was made.
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THE DIALYZER 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
8.
Who was America's first great scientific publicist? (pp. 5-7, 198-9.) (For questions 2 4 see pp. 11-26.) What is tung oil? What industries are dependent upon it? What country has been the source of the world's supply of tung oil? What progress has been made with the cultivation in the United States of the tungoil tree? Does the condition of the soil affect the growth and productivity of the tnng-oil tree? What are the criteria for an optimum soil? From what is India ink made? Arrange the aqueous solutions of the salts of the (1) heavy metals, (2) alkalies, and (3) alkaline earths in the order of their conductance ability. (pp. 30-34.) (For questions 8-11 see pp. 35-44.) To what woman do we owe the discovery a t the beginning of the 18th century of a very productive source of electricity?
9. What is "voltaic electricity?" 10. What investigator isolatcd the elements, potassium and sodium? 11. Does the size of the electrode cause any variation in the chemical action of a givcn quantity of electricity upon water? 12. How may the thermochemistry of high temperatures be taught graphically? (PP. 45-9.) 13. Are you interested in elcctrochemical education in England? (pp. 5040.) 14. In what fields of electrochemistry is an analytical training invaluable? (pi. 64-i.) 1.5 What electrical measuring instruments arc availahle for use in laboratory work in electrochemistry? (pp. 71-82.) 16. What are the educational activities of the Mellon Institute? (pp. R3-96.) 17. What is phosgene? Describe its properties. Would you choose winter or summer to bc placcd in an area drenched with mustard gas? (pp. 97-110.) 18. Are you interested in a lecture-demonstration method for presenting the subject of water of crystallization? (pp. 111-8.) for American chemistrv students to studv abroad? 19. Are there any opportunities ~(pp. 132-9.) (For. oztestions 20-22 see up. 14042.1 20. Do crystal planes really rejled X-rays? ~
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21. Why does a pencil of monochromatic X-rays give rise to "reflection" only when i t meets a crystal plane a t certain definite angles? 22. Assuming the commonly accepted crystal structure for rock salt, how could one calculate the distances between atomic centers? 23. Name several factors that (1) increase and (2) decrease the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (pp. 153-64.) What shall we teach our chemistry majors? (p. 179). Are you acquainted with the "Code of Ethics" of the teaching profession aformulated by the N. E. A,? (p. 183.) 26. What is the program for the Third Organic Symposium? (pp. 209-10.) 8
24. 25.
