INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
February, 1923
a s t h e ultimate standard of length,8 and later developed the apparatus and method in collaboration with A. A. Michelson. Of the fifty-two papers he has published, twenty-three are in pure physics, twenty-seven in pure chemistry, and two on general subjects. He had four collaborators in scientific work-all physicists. The physicists have always felt that they have a * strong claim on Professor Morley as one of their group. Professor Morley has been an indefatigable worker, frequently spending three-fourths of the night in his laboratory and then being on hand in the morning for his classes. In his work, he had the active, intelligent, and sympathetic interest of Mrs. Morley, who during her lifetime frequently spent the evenings helping him look up the literature of his investigations and in many ways assisted him in his work. With his habits of clear thinking, precision, thoroughness, and carefulness, which led him to clear-cut plans of operation, there was combined a mechanical skill of a very high order, 8
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which was evidenced in his expert glass-blowing, in his skillful manipulation, and in the elaborate attention to details in his experimental work. Fortunate indeed are the chemists and physicists who have had the privilege of knowing him and working with him. Not only has he a mind of rarest quality, but a kindliness equally great. This has frequently been evidenced by the assistance he has always been ready to give his friends and acquaintances. One of his friends, C. F. Mabery, has said, “Such examples of devoted application to the expansion of knowledge concerning the fundamental forces of nature as that of Dr. Morley’s wide range of effort are greatly needed as an inspiration to the present generation. For, with the aid of all the modern appliances, the present worker must understand, first of all, that there never has been and never will be but one way to overcome the resistance of natural forces-by the application of persistent and well-directed labor.”
HAROZD SIMMONS BOOTH
A m . J . Sci., 131 38 (1889),181.
PERKIN MEDAL A W A R D The Perkin Medal was presented to Dr. Milton C. Whitaker a t a meeting of the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry on January 12, 1923, with introductory remarks by Dr. Ralph H. McKee. The Perkin Medal is awarded for the most valuable work in applied chemistry. This medal was founded in 1906 at the time of the Perkin semicentennial celebration of the coal-tar dye discoveries. The first medal was awarded to Sir William H. Perkin himself in 1906. All other awards have been and must be to chemists resident in the United States. As will be seen in the following list, the men who have since received this award form a nearly complete roster of the great industrial chemists of America of this century. DATEOF AWARD 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
AWARDED TO Sir W. H.Perkin J. B.F. Herreshoff Arno Behr E. G. Acheson Charles M. Hall Herman Frasch
1913 1914 1915
James Gayley John W. Hyatt Edward Weston
1916
L. H.
1917 3918
Ernst Twitchell Auguste J. Rossi
1919 1920
Frederick G.Cottrell Charles F. Chandler
Baekeland
1921
Willis R. Whitney
1922
William M. Burton
PRINCIPAL FIELDSOR INVENTIONS Discoverer of first aniline color Metallurgy; contact sulfuric acid Corn products industry Carborundum; artificial graphite Metallic aluminium Desulfuring oil and subterranean SUIfur industry Dr air blast Cogoids and flexible roller bearings Electrical measurements: electrodeposition of metals. flaming arc Velox photoprint paper: bakelite and synthetic resins; cdustic soda industry Saponification of fats Development of manufacture and use of ferrotitanium Electrical precipitation Noteworthy achievements in almost every line of chemical endeavor Development of research and application of science to industry Achievements in oil industry: efficient conversion of high-boiling fractions into low-boiling fractions
Impressions By A. A. Backhaus The committee has suggested that I give an impsessionistic view of the Medalist, or, as someone has put it, “a close-up out of focus.” A close-up on so large a subject is very likely to be out of focus.
During the summer of 1914, Dr. Whitaker, then head of the Chemical Engineering Department at Columbia University, was seeking an assistant. Professor Chambers, with whom I had done my undergraduate work, recommended me. The job was offered me and I accepted it. The entire negotiation consisted of but two letters, one in which the position was offered me, the other in which I accepted, although neither of us knew the other. I arrived in New York on the morning of September 16, and in the afternoon I reported to Havemeyer Hall, Columbia University, wondering what my new boss was going to look like. Dr. Whitaker was in his office, seated at his desk, completely filling a roomy chair. He had his coat off, sleeves rolled up, hair ruffled, and was hard a t work as one usually finds him. I was impressed, not only by the size of the man, but also by his speed, “his velocity coefficient,” for before I knew it I had been hustled into the laboratory and put to work. From that day until now I have been honored in calling Dr. Whitaker my boss. Dr. Whitaker has an unusually keen insight into chemical processes and chemical plants. He can size up a plant operation, see the weak spots, and suggest remedies or improvements. He invariably turns the spot light on jokers in proposed new processes. His mind not only grasps broad features and general principles, but also takes in minute details. In this respect he sometimes exhibits an almost uncanny faculty of pouncing upon some minor detail. Such an instance occurred in connection with the installation of a new plant unit not long ago. The equipment for this installation had all been ordered and deliveries were being made when a letter came from Dr. Whitaker asking if the packing material for a certain part of the installation had been ordered. Investigation showed that it had been overlooked. Another instance of this kind came up in connection with a newly designed heater. This job was in the shops under construction when Dr. Whitaker asked whether manholes had been provided for inspection and repair of the tubes. While the drawings did not show these manholes, the equipment came from the shops provided with manholes. Experiences of this kind have at times made Dr. Whitaker impatient with engineers. Dr. Whitaker’s viewpoint is distinctly that of the operator. He visualizes the operation and in his imagination goes through
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all the operator’s motions, and in this way usually picks out defective designs in equipment or installation. Dr. Whitaker has said on several occasions that the successful plant or works superintendent must have the faculty of instinctively “happening on the spot” a t the psychological moment. Nothing grates on his sense of the fitness of things more than to see a wooden case opened with a hatchet. One day while touring the plant he happened on a man breaking open a case. He immediately had orders issued to have nailpulls purchased for every department receiving cases and a ban put on the use of any other tool for this purpose. These instructions were drilled into all the men handling cases until the practice of using the nailpull was firmly established. Three months after establishing this rule Dr. Whitaker again visited the plant and in one of the storerooms happened on a man mutilating a case with a hatchet. This was probably the only instance of breaking the rule in the entire three months. I have often been impressed with the fact that Dr. Whitaker can make a little chemistry go farther than any man I know. This applies not only to chemistry but to other information. The ability of applying knowledge or practice from an unrelated field to a problem a t hand comes up again and again. It is probably not necessary t o dwell upon the ability of Dr. Whitaker to express himself in clear and foroible Gnglish. His clearness in expression is due to his extensive vocabulary and his apt choice of similes and metaphors. Many here have probably heard him speak of research chemists as prima donnas who must be handled with kid gloves. The internal revenue regulations require records which will enable them to trace every individual package of alcohol from the plant where it is made to the ultimate user. This Dr. Whitaker calls “tagging the molecules.” He describes a consulting man as one who comes in to your plant, looks around, bellyaches about everything, and sends a bill. Unfortunately, his most picturesque expressions would not appear well in print. I n the beginning I referred to my meeting Dr. Whitaker. I recall very vividly his first remark, “Well you reported on time.” Dr. Whitaker is very punctual in his appointments and expects others to be the same. Dr. Whitaker is big hearted and sympathetic and always willing to help anyone in trouble. A few years ago while professor at Columbia University he was aroused out of bed late one night by the telephone. The son of one of his college-professor friends was at the other end of the wire. He said he was being locked up because of some scrap on the Bowery and wanted help. Dr. Whitaker dressed, went down town, and arranged for bail with a professional bailer and got the lad out. No doubt a considerable part of Dr. Whitaker’s success is due to his ability to pick men. On a recent visit to the Welsbach Plant a t Gloucester, N. J., where Dr. Whitaker was plant superintendent from 1903 to 1910, I was impressed with the fact that the men forming the backbone of the present Welsbach organization were the men developed and installed by Dr. Whitaker during the time that he was connected with that company. In his make-up Dr. Whitaker is essentially a n organization or corporation man. He does not take personal credit, but rather shares i t with his co-workers. He not only stimulates thought on the part of those associated with him, but also inspires confidence, loyalty, and willingness to work. He goes at his work with enthusiasm and makes everyone working with him enthusiastic. I have often heard men say that if it were for anybody else they wouldn’t do it, but seeing it is for Dr. Whitaker they will do it. Dr. Whitaker differs from many other executives in that he thinks his problems out clearly and completely. He not only fixes a definite goal, but also works out in his own mind at least one good way of reaching it. In all his dealings with his men he plays the game with all the cards on the table.
Vol. 15, No. 2
Milton C. Whitaker By Arthur D. Little Men are sometimes distinguished for what they do and sometimes for what they are. More rarely are we permitted to honor them for both. Milton C. Whitaker is a chemist, who has earned distinction by his works, but he is first, last, and all the time a man. The realm of chemistry is not a single and isolated state, nor are its workers unionized. It is, instead, a commonwealth of federated nations, each rich in resources of its own which require special aptitudes for their development. So i t happens that chemistry can only realize the potentialities of her estate through the coiirdinated efforts of workers of many types and with diversified endowment. Some must be patient and persistent garnerers of facts and gleaners of detail; others, highly skilled manipulators to divide that which we have called the indivisible. Some must be students and thinkers, whose thinking leads to generalizations. There must be teachers and expounders, to spread the truth; and doubters and disputants, lest error pass for truth. Finally, that mankind may derive material benefits from these accumulations of knowledge, there must come the organizer and doer, whose bottles are tank steamers, whose test tubes are digesters, and whose beakers, 50,000-gallon tanks. As student, teacher, editor, Milton C. Whitaker has won high place in our esteem, but to-night it is primarily for his position and achievement as the organizer and the doer that we are met to honor him. Those of us whose professional activities center in the study, the classroom, or the laboratory are commonly inclined t o award a disproportionate meed of merit to that one whose discovery of fact, material, or reaction supplies the basis for a great industrial development. They seldom recognize or appreciate the obstacles and difficulties along the steep and rocky road which leads from the laboratory to the plant. They do not see the caulkers on the first Burton still closing the leaking seams between hot boiler plates in an atmosphere of gasoline. They do not know how it feels to work sixty-four hours a t astretch to push along repairs, or how Saturday looks on Friday with no money in the bank to meet the pay roll. It is a wise invention that knows its own father. Countless examples can be adduced to show that the organizer, the adapter, the engineer, plays a part in the development of industry that is often vaztly more constructive than that of the discoverer. We commonly and properly attribute the telephone to Bell, but the instrument, as we know and use it, is the child of many minds and the godchild of the organizer. Braconnot, in 1819, effected in a laboratory operation the conversion of cellulose to sugars and through them to alcohol. It required thereafter nearly a century of effort to transform that relatively simple laboratory procedure into a commercially operative process. The vast and intricate coal-tar industries, which have so greatly stimulated chemical science, owe their many-sided development as certainly to the organizer and administrator as to the laboratory worker, even though that worker be Perkin himself. It is, therefore, peculiarly fitting that the medal which commemorates Perkin’s great contribution to our science and to industry should this year be bestowed on one who has shown superlative ability in the application of chemistry to industry on the grand scale; who has the faculty of sensing fundamental principles and necessities in their broad commercial and economic relationships and of building on them great producing agencies. Milton C. Whitaker was born in Frazeysburg, Ohio, December 16, 1870. Doubtless there were boys in Frazeysburg who tried to lick him, but history records none who did. Later, his family moved to Colorado, and during the four years ‘beginning with 1890 young Whitaker worked ih the various lumber mills of
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