I
Chemical Digest
11
CHEMISTRY IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE* In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Blatchford, dated November 5, 1824, Stephen Van Rensselaer wrote: "I have established a school a t the north end of Troy for the purpose of instructing persons in the application of science to the common purposes of life. . . . . . . .the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy and natural history, to agriculture, domestic economy, the arts and manufactures." The choice made by the Patroon of Rensselaerwyck of a suitable person to head the new school was singularly fortunate. He selected Amos Eaton, one already known to science, an author and lecturer well versed in things chemical, a man who had given thirty courses on his chosen subject, each illustrated by six hundred experiments, before he became connected with the new educational venture. Van Rensselaer's first movement was to send Professor Eaton with a competent corps of assistants to traverse New York State along the route of the Erie Canal with sufficient apparatus, specimens, and the like to deliver in all the principal towns, where an audience could gather, familiar lectures with experiments and illustrations on chemistry, natural philosophy and natural history. This was designed to arouse a widespread popular interest, and the experiment was snccessfnl. Amos Eaton's name looms large in the history of education of a century ago. He was, as already stated, the senior professor a t the very starting of Rensselaer and he taught chemistry, together with other branches such as geology, physics, and natural history, a combination which was retained in many schools for many years. The field of knowledge was rather restricted in those days and i t was often considered uneconomic to assign a teacher t o cover one subject only. That Rensselaer's first professor of chemistry had the ability to impart what he knew has been attested by those who sat a t his feet and who never seemed t o tire of recounting incidents of the lecture and class-rooms where the great teacher held the attention of his students firmly fixed with a power which we of today so often long for but so seldom attain. I n his "Chemical Instructor," which appeared in 1822, Amos Eaton says: "I have endeavored to bring down the sublime science of chemistry within the reach of the laboring agriculturist, the industrious mechanic, and the * Abstrad of a paper read by W. P. Mason at the Ithaca meeting of the American Chemical Society, September 10. 1924.
VOL.3. No. 3
RENSSELABR POLYTECHNIC INS~T~E
347
frugal housekeeper. But in doing this, I hope I have not degraded the science by low or vulgar descriptions. I have made my descriptions more accessible to juvenile minds by writing, as I would talk, to a class of young persons whom I wished to instruct." This early and able instructor maintained "that the teacher learns more in teaching than the scholar" and therefore he made each scholar a teacher of his classmates. It is interesting to note the following rule: "When a student is giving a lecture, he shall have two auditors at least, to be appointed in rotation, who shall be critically attentive to him." The system of "student lectures" which Amos Eatou introduced lasted for many years at Rensselaer, and those who gave that form of instruction were termed "repeaters." From among the men who were taught chemistry by Amos Eaton there went out a group who taught in their turn and who carried his methods with them. John Torrey of Columbia University was one of these, and Chester Dewey, professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester, was another. Amos Eatou started the first of the chemical courses given to women and among his early students was Mary Lyon, who afterward founded Mount Holyoke Seminary, now Mount Holyoke College. Among the early graduates of Rensselaer, who established chemical courses elsewhere, we note Douglas Houghton, of the class of '29, who taught a t the University of Michigan, John L. Riddell, of the same class, who established the chemical course at the University of Louisiana, Ebenezer Emmons, of the class of '26, who taught at Williams College, Michael Tuomey, of the class of '35, who taught a t the University of Alabama, Ezra S. Carr, of the class of '38, who taught a t the University of Wisconsin and later at the University of California, and E. N. Horsford, of the class of '38, who taught for many years a t Harvard. After returning from Germany, where he studied with Liebig, E. N. Horsford induced Abbot Lawrence to establish a school a t Harvard devoted to Theory and Practice of Chemistry, whence grew the Lawrence Scientific School. An earlier man than Horsford, James C. Booth, of the class of '31 a t Rensselaer, was the first American to aoss the sea to study chemistry in Germany. Upon his return, he established a laboratory in Philadelphia for Analysis, Research, and Instruction in Chemical Technology. This was the first institution of its kind in America and from it grew the widely known firm of Booth, Garrett, and Blair. Booth was the earliest alumnus, and for nearly half a century, the only one who bore the degree of Doctot of Philosophy from Rensselaer. He served as President of the American Chemical Society during 1883 and 1884, declining reelection for 1885, and it is due to him to note that he was the first person in the United
States to propose the control of metallurgical processes by chemical rather than by rule-of-thumb methods. S. R. House, of the class of '34, carried the chemistry learned at Rensselaer into distant parts indeed. He wrote: "Lectures on chemistry with experiments given soon after my arrival here (Bangkok, Siam) secured for me the respect and lasting friendship of the knowledge-loving Crown Prince, who a few years after was called to the throne and reigned for 17 years over Siam." James Hall, of the class of '32, taught chemistry a t Rensselaer in the early days and subsequently founded the Department of Chemistry in the University of Iowa, although he did not teach the subject there. For many years he was State Geologist of the State of New York. Sundry of Rensselaer's early graduates became teachers of chemistry in high schools of the State of New York. To name only one, Fay Edgerton, of the class of '28, held such a position a t Utica. The chemical chair a t Rensselaer, from 1855 to 1861, was held by William Elderhorst, a native of Celle, Germany. Upon his sudden death during a trip to Brazil, the vacant position was filled by another German, C. A. Goessmann. Both of these men were instrumental in sending graduates of Rensselaer to finish their chemical work in the German universities. Goessmann was in turn succeeded in 1864 by H. B. Nason, an old pupil of Wohler, under whom he studied a t the University of Gottingen, Germany. Nason, who was an early President of the American Chemical Society, held the position of professor of chemistry a t Rensselaer for many years, and for not a few of them, the present writer had the good fortune to act as his assistant. For those who might be interested in the fact, let it be added that Dr. R. P. Baker, head of the department of English, at Rensselaer, has written a "History of the Work of Rensselaer Graduates" (Scribner & Sons).
I,. C. N.
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS TO BE DELIVERED AT THE TULSA MEETING The Planning of a Chemical Laboratory J. N. SWAN
The planning of an up-to-date chemical laboratory is more distinctly a research problem than many of the so-called research problems used in our laboratories. This paper gives a discussion of the following general problems which meet the planner of a chemical laboratory. How many workers, faculty, and students, must the building accommodate? How much money must
