INSTRUMENTATION Dr. Murphy contributed greatly to analytical chemistry. Professor Heyrovsky receives Nobel prize. Instrumental analysis grows in importance Ι τ is one of the consequences and -*- rigors of getting a journal out on time which makes much of what we say somewhat belated. We never man age to keep more than a month or six weeks ahead of those patient and selfsacrificing souls in Washington who have to meet deadlines, printer's sched ules, and a host of other chores, none of which are ever evident to the reader of ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.
Consequently, as these remarks ap pear in print, we note two events of December: one of sadness and regret, the other of joy and encouragement to all analysts. The circumstances of the unfortunate and unexpected death of Dr. Walter J. Murphy have been related in our news journals and the national press. We were privileged to know Walter per sonally and professionally. I t is sad to relate that the true estimate of his im portance to analytical chemists and to their profession will become fully ap parent only as time goes on. In the first place, he was largely responsible for
the
publication
of
ANALYTICAL
CHEMISTRY as a separate journal, mak ing it independent of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. As an inde pendent journal, it provided a medium for the exclusive dissemination of ana lytical chemistry. Up to that time, articles of distinctly analytical import were included in other journals of our Society, wherein they competed \vith papers of allegedly greater scientific im port. There were many who complained bitterly and incessantly that Dr. Murphy was not an analyst. That he was a superb journalist, a competent chemical engineer, and completely and unselfishly dedicated to chemists and their professional welfare seems to have escaped his detractors. I t was no acci dent that this journal, under his guid ance, soon became the world's largest and most respected repository of new and progressive developments. Whatever may be said of this jour nal's shortcomings, it must be recalled that from the very beginning Dr. Murphy enlisted the advice and coun sel of an advisory board and in the intervening years there has been hardly any American analyst of note who has not served on that board.
by Ralph H.
In the latter part of 1945, Dr. Murphy induced us to write a monthly column on Instrumentation. On his part, this was an early and pioneering appreciation of the tremendous im portance of instrumental methods. What he may have lacked in taste and good judgment in selecting a particular contributing editor is one of those things to which the best of men are susceptible. At least, his heart was in the right place and he very shrewdly anticipated the importance and promise of the subject. For a considerable time we have had a new Editor whose analytical back ground is beyond reproach. While many of us claim extensive under graduate or graduate training in analy sis, Dr. Hallett's vast experience en compasses analysis in its entirety. He is competent in the most classic of classical techniques and thoroughly familiar with the most advanced tech niques. His advanced outlook and complete belief that "we ain't seen nothing yet" present a refreshing out let and a happy augury for our science. We believe he is fully convinced that what he inherited from Walter Murphy was a rich heritage and worthy of his best efforts and competence to perpetu ate.
"ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY" was
but one of Walter Murphy's many ac complishments. Some men have the happy faculty of erecting their own monuments before thev are called.
Heyrovsky—Nobel Prize Winner
A pleasant event, of great satisfac tion to all analysts, was the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Jaro slav Heyrovsky. That it came 35 years after his discovery and after some six thousand publications on polarography seems understandable to us. As we all know, the Swedish Academy of Sci ences never makes a mistake, but of necessity its deliberations reflect the opinions of the world's scientists. We have always felt that this distinguished Czechoslovakian scientist and gentle man committed a serious psychological error in developing an entirely auto matic instrument for chemical analysis so early in his studies. Long before Ilkovic, Brdicka, and his other associ
Müller
ates formulated the mathematical prin ciples of polarography, Heyrovsky and Shikata developed a recording polarograph. Any competent analyst of the time could have told you that an auto matic instrument which could tell you what reducible species was present, and how much, was a palpable absurdity. Analysis was just not done in such simple fashion. I t is a matter of record that Professor Heyrovsky's visit to the United States in the early thirties was a source of great frustration and dis appointment. Most physical chemists were prepared to prove that he was wrong, and with the single exception of the Ε. Η. Sargent & Co., American instrument manufacturers were com pletely indifferent to his ideas. A lot of people, including instrument manu facturers, have gotten on the band wagon since that time. If it is a source of satisfaction to Americans to note how many Nobel Awards have come to our countrymen in recent years, analysts will also note the trend to honor analytical chemists. Heyrovsky is the third (or the fourth if we choose to include T. W. Richards). Many years ago, Fritz Pregl concluded that medical and biochemical research would get nowhere unless micro or ganic analytical methods were devel oped. The British biochemist Martin had been plagued with difficult separa tions and was sufficiently annoyed with prevailing methods to revive, refine, and completely define the principles of paper chromatography. As a brilliant encore he also evolved the basic prin ciples of gas chromatography. The latter is now so highly developed that in many respects it can be considered as one of the greatest analytical achievements of all time. There is in creasing evidence that the most in fallible criterion of purity is chromato graphic homogeneity.
Instrumental Analysis Grows in Importance
As we have reported frequently, we work in a stimulating and exciting sci entific community and live in a tour ist's paradise. Among other things we have served ineffectually on the ad visory board of a local institution, VOL. 32, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 1960 e 1 2 5 A
INSTRUMENTATION
FUNDAMENTAL OH STRETCHING WATER BANDS
FUNDAMENTAL OH STRETCHING WATER BANDS RANGE: 2.50-2.65 microns
RESOLUTION: 1 cm (6À)
The above curve illustrates the high resolution that users of Cary Model 14 Spectrophotometers are getting for measurements in the near-IR region. The Model 14's ability to resolve such fine structure is a feature not ordinarily found in a general purpose instrument having a wide wavelength range ( 1860 Â-2.65 microns). In most of the ultraviolet-visible region, resolving power of the Model 14 is better than 1 A. High resolving power is just one of many features that make the Model 14 so useful. A broad wavelength range, a wide choice of scanning and chart speeds, accommodation of a variety of types and sizes of sample cells, stray light of less than 1 ppm, photometric reproducibility better than .004 in absorbance even at high absorbance, and many special accessories suit the Model 14 to a wide variety of spectrophotometric problems requiring fast, accurate analyses. These and other performance features have made it the preferred recording spectrophotometer of leading research laboratories throughout the world.
Details of these benefits and complete specifications on the Model 14 are yours for the asking. Write for Data File A12-20
Cary APPLIED
126 A
·
PHYSICS
RECORDING SPECTROPHOTOMETERS
C O R P O R A T I O N • 2724 SOUTH PECK ROAD Circle No. 14 on Readers' Service Card
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
MONROVIA,
CALIFORNIA
largely unknown and unheard of before World War II. When graduate curricula have been discussed and it was concluded that quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and similar learned subjects were absolutely essential in the education of a chemist, we invariably suggested some modern analytical chemistry. So far, our proposal has been greeted with wide-eyed astonishment, as if we were suggesting ballroom dancing or intermediate Turkish. Our surprised colleagues must have had vague and unpleasant memories of hydrogen sulfide precipitations or of weighing barium sulfate. Does this sort of thing go on elsewhere in the country—or are we living too far beyond the rail head? We continue to draw encouragement from great analytical achievements as they are reported in the world's literature. There are some people who are smart enough to become biologists early in their careers. Many other scientists turn to biology late in life, perhaps, as some one remarked in an uncomplimentary way, because they have one foot in the grave and the other firmly planted on a banana peel and feel an urgent need to know what it's all about. In our firm conviction that modern analytical chemistry is one of the most scientific, progressive, and exacting disciplines of modern science and is irrevocably committed to instrumental methods, we draw conviction and confirmation from the recent remarks of two Nobel Laureates—both biochemists. Carl Cori has said, "The level of significance, the depth to which one can penetrate into a problem, is severely limited by methods. It can be clearly seen how recent methodological advances have led to solutions of problems which were previously unattainable. Among others, the use of isotopes, of chromatography, and of precision instruments for physical measurements come to mind." In attempting a formulation of some basic biochemical questions Fritz Lipmann has said, "It is astonishing to realize that the more one proceeds with the understanding of the workings of the organism, the more one becomes concerned with methodological problems. Strangely, the prying into the mystery of life reduces more and more to an unravelling of a sometimes rather unusual and unexpected methodology of the cell. On the other hand, it is significant that the complexity and methodology of man-made instruments seem to converge increasingly towards the complexity or organismic methodology and instrumentation."
