CHEMISTRY AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY-THE NICHOLS CHEMISTRY BUILDING AT UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS* ARTAmt
E. HnL, NEW YORKUNIVERSITY,NEWYORK CITY
Dr. Nichols' article has given a picture of chemistry a t New York University during the seventies. It may be of interest to connect this period with preceding and succeeding decades. New York University was founded in 1831, and erected its first building for general educational purposes a t Washington Square, in what is now the heart of the city. Shortly after its founding, John W. Draper came to the University in 1839 to occupy the Chair of Chemistry and Natural History; i t was a t this site that he conducted his well-known researches in photochemistry, including its application in the first photograph of the human face, taken in 1841. During the latter years of his lengthy service he was assisted by his sons, Henry and John C. Draper. Following his retirement in 1882,the instruction in chemistry was given first by John J. Stevenson and later by Albert Gallatin, who were succeeded by Robert W. Hall (1888) and Morris Loeb (1891), the department of natural history having been by this time divided into our modern departments. In 1894 the University removed its undergraduate colleges of Arts and of Engineering to a splendid new site of fifty acres in the north of the city, a t University Heights. Here for the first time chemistry was developed to a complete curriculum in the College of Arts, and a chemical engineering course in the College of Engineering was established in 1898; a series of graduate courses was also begun a t University Heights. From 1906 to 1912 the department was under the headship of Arthur B. Lamb, who did much to enlarge its activity in undergraduate and in graduate courses. In 1912 Arthur E. Hill became the head of the department. In 1913 the University founded a new College of Arts a t the original downtown site, to help in caring for the almost overpowering numbers of New York City students, and the department of chemistry was reopened a t its original location in the Washington Square College in 1922. In
* This paper is based upon an address delivered by Professor Hill upon the occasion of the dedication of the Nichols Chemistry Building, December 3, 1927.
1926 James Kendall was made head of the division a t this location, and in 1927 he became Dean of the Graduate School of the University. The present organization in chemistry, therefore, consists of two autonomous undergraduate faculties a t the two locations, and of a single graduate faculty made up from selected teachers of both groups, the latter giving instruction interchangeably a t both locations. The graduate curriculum has been enlarged to include fundamental and advanced courses in inorganic, organic, physical and analytical chemistry, and in chemical engineering, given this year to a group of sixty-two graduate students, of whom a considerable proportion are part-time assistants giving a few hours of instruction per week in the undergraduate colleges. The
graduate faculty for the present year is as follows: Arthur E. Hill, Raemer R. Renshaw, John P. Simmons, James Kendall, John C . Ware, Henry J . Masson, John J. Ritter, H. Austin Taylor, Eric R. Jette, Frederick W. Miller, Edgar R. Wagner, Robert E. Lutz, Ralph H. Miiller, and Joseph Niederl. A most important addition to the equipment in chemistry is the recently completed Nichols Chemistry Building, a t University Heights, the gift of Dr. William H. Nichols of the class of 1870. The laboratory was completed dnring the past autumn and dedicated, on December 3rd, a t an interesting ceremony a t which Dr. Arthur B. Lamb of Harvard was the principal speaker. The exterior of the building is of modernized classical design, in accord with the general architectural scheme inaugurated a t the Heights in 1894 by the late Stanford White; the architect of the build-
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ing was Mr. Augustus N. Allen of New York City. It faces north upon Ohio Field, the athletic ground of the University, and has a frontage of 210 feet and a depth of 58 feet; in the rear of the oblong structure is an extension for the main lecture hall, so located that its height may be independent of the floor heights used in the main buildmg. The building has four stories and a basement for general instructional uses, and an attic for the mechanical equipment; the volume is a trifle short of 1,000,000 cubic feet. The basement of the building contains the large laboratory of chemical engineering, the lahoratories of technical analysis and of electrochemistry, five research laboratories and the main stock room; the latter occupies the space beneath the lecture room, and is connected by dumb-waiter with a subsidiary stock room on each floor of the building. The main floor contains a handsome marble foyer leading to the lecture room, with cabinets for museum specimens. A second smaller laboratory for chemical engineering occupies the west end of the building, and the laboratory of inorganic chemistry the east end; the latter is arranged to take as a maximum 100 students a t a time, with lockers for six sections. To avoid detail as to the building arrangements as a whole, the general system can be stated in a few words, and the accompaning diagram of the thud floor taken as an example. The two ends of the building, on all floors, are used for the undergraduate laboratories, so as to make use of the maximum depth of the building; an interior hallway connects the two large rooms, leaving a series of rooms of 28 feet in depth on the one side and 17 feet in depth on the other. These are used for offices, for research laboratories, and for class-rooms. The fourth floor is arranged to be largely free from undergraduate laboratories. It contains the Loeh Library of chemistry a t one end, and the remainder is given over to a battery of research laboratories; these, with the addition of a smaller number on other floors, amount to 25 in all, the capacity ranging from 2 to 6 men per laboratory. The building as a whole has the usual equipment for draft, gas, water, air, suction, and hydrogen sulfide, and an electrical installation for direct and alternating current. The addition of such an ample equipment should make possible an irnproved environment for the undergraduate courses, and also a considerable extension of graduate work and research. The research facilities of the Nichols Laboratory are open tograduate students whether located as assistants a t University Heights or a t Washington Square, and the graduate faculty is giving its earnest attention to an expansion in the direction of research. An increasing number of fellowships and teaching assistantships a t the two locations will, i t is expected, help towards that end.
