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INDUSY’RIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 22, No. 1
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES William McPherson
T
HOSE who were fortunate enough to attend the meeting research was the heart and spirit of chemistry. How t o do reof the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYin Columbus last search and a t the same time provide for more and more instrucApril, and see one of the best equipped laboratories for tion to larger and larger numbers of students is a problem faresearch and instruction in this country of excellent laboratories, miliar to most American universities; not all have solved it. will be particularly interested to know of the personnel behind it. The solution involved a change in the character of the university For the story of the Department of Chemistry and the Graduate itself, from a kind of elementary school to one whose trustees and School at the Ohio State U n i v e r s i t y i s faculty would have a bigger conception of largely the life work of William McPherson. what a university is and the part which The history of this Department of Chemcreative work must have in such an instituistry is probably paralleled in other Amerition. This was brought about with the decan univerisities of the Middle West, but velopment of the Graduate School, of which a t Ohio State this development has been Professor McPherson was the first dean. under the leadership of one man, Professor Last year the number of graduate students McPherson, for the whole period of growth, was 824. from a modest little laboratory teaching Along with the growth of the Graduate little else but analytical chemistry to the School and its research activity there has present department. This period from 1892 been efficient organization, without which to date has witnessed here, as elsewhere, graduate instruction would have been imgreat changes in the attitude of industry, possible. educational leaders, and the general public No debt of mankind to one of its number toward chemistry. is greater than that to a great teacher. The P r o f e s s o r McPherson’s predecessor was writer remembers a day, one of those rare Sidney Norton, and a few quotations from days that count so much, when Professor Professor Norton’s reports to the university McPherson put aside the usual routine and t r u s t e e s reflect the ideas and conditions read aloud to the class several excerpts prevailing a t the time. Four years after from the now widely known “Life of Pasthe university started its career, he states teur,” by Valery Radot. One of these that his work is hampered by the need “of passages was from an address by Biot a stock of minor conveniences in experibefore the Academie des Sciences, as follows: m e n t ” and asks for, an appropriation of William McPherson Perhaps your name, your existence will twenty-five dollars to secure t h e s a m e. be unknown to the crowd. But you will be known, esteemed, sought after by a small number of eminent Later he writes, “We need a small library for daily reference,” men scattered over the face of the earth, your rivals, your peers and asks for seventy-seven dollars with which to purchase Watt’s in the intellectual Senate of minds; they alone have the right to Dictionary of Chemistry. Several years later Professor Norton appreciate you and to assign to you your rank, a well merited states, “At present the chemical library of the University conrank, which no princely will, no popular caprice can give or take away, and which will remain yours a s long as you remain faithful sists of Watt’s Dictionary of Chemistry-a valuable work, but to Science, which bestows it upon you. not fully supplying our needs. * * * We have begun to take a chemical journal.” What a rare hour1 The first chemistry building at the unfversity was a small, Not long ago the writer heard a former “CO-ed”say that she inflammable structure finished in 1882 and costing $20,000. came to the university feeling as militant as Mrs. Pankhurst, This burned t o the ground a little later and was replaced by but that Professor McPherson’s kindly, deferential courtesy left another, also not fireproof. Up to this time the emphasis, here as her with the feeling that she was glad after all t o be a woman. elsewhere, was on analytical chemistry. The course in qualita- Anyone who can do that is a gentleman. tive analysis was described as follows: Professor McPherson is not a golfer, a base-ball fan, or a fisherman. These very pleasant but notorious time-consuming First Term-Reactions in the dry way and determination of pastimes have had no place in his life. On the other hand, he has twenty-five unknowns. always had time for his friends, and when his son Laddie was a Second Term-Reactions in the wet way. small boy, he never allowed anything t o interfere with the pleasThird Term-Same continued; seventy-five unknowns. ure of those leisure hours which he so enjoyed with the boy. During those trying years of the World War, when nearly The expressions “in the wet way” and “in the dry way” became everybody’s nerves were on edge, Professor McPherson was in by-words among the students. This will give a fairly good picture of the situation when khaki, and the military authorities soon discovered that when William McPherson came t o the department in 1892. Two years things got into such a jam t h a t the only output was profanity later he became head of the department. A little later C. W. there was one man who could be depended upon t o smooth things Some will no doubt say that the Army Foulk and William E. Henderson joined the department, followed out again-McPherson. needed many McPhersons, but so does every community. by William L. Evans, James R. Withrow, and Cecil Boord. I t is a great tribute to the leadership of Professor McPherson that he What a wonderful thing it would be if some of our efficiency has enjoyed the uninterrupted service and loyalty of this group engineers, some of our chronic malcontents and agitators could have an advanced course in “McPherson.” of associates through the years. BENJAMIN T. BROOKS Like Remsen and Nef, McPherson believed that creative
