ALFRED WALTER STEWART (Frontispiece)
MANY chemists, like other intellectuals, find recreation in detective stories, but probably few of them have tried their pens a t this type of writing, or at least the products do not seem to be good enough to find a publisher. Most chemists who have enioved "The Case with 9 Solutions." "Death at Swaythling Court," "Murder in the Maze." "Tragedy a t Ravensthorpe," or any of the dozen or so mystery yarns by J. J. Connington, will he surprised to learn that this is the pseudonym of a distinguished colleague. A. W. Stewart, barn in 1880 at Glasgow, received his B.Sc. in 1902 a t the University there. After a year a t Marburg under Zincke, he was appointed 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholar, and in 1905 continued his investigations and training as Carnegie Research Fellow. H e worked in London under Collie and Ramsay. Dr. Stewart (Sc.D. Glasgow. 1907) began his teaching career in 1907 as Lecturer on Stereochemistry a t University College. London. I n 1909 he went to Queen's University, Belfast, as Lecturer on Organic Chemistry. He was called to his alma mater
in 1914 as Lecturer on Physical Chemistry and Radioactivity, and remained until he was appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry a t Queen's University in Belfast. He has occupied this chair with signal success since 1919. He is the author of about forty research papers, mainly on spectrographicsubjects. His prediction of isobarism among the elements was later verified by Aston hy means of the maw spectrograph. He discovered the Teslaluminescence spectra of organic compounds and elucidated the relationships between these spectra and the chemical constitution of the compounds. Professor Stewart's name has become familiar to a wide circle of chemists through his very excellent books: "Stereochemistry" (two editions) "Recent Advances in Organic Chemistry" (sixth edition in conjunction with Hugh Graham); "Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry" (six editions); "Chemistry and Its Borderland." -Contributed by Ralph E . O e s p e r ,
University of Cincinnati
