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chusetts Institute of Technology; he is the prime mover of Albany Medical College, and as trustee of Union College a t Schenectady has so tied his laboratory to the college that they constitute a joint educational institution. I n a very striking way and more nearly, as it seems to me, than any of his contemporaries, Whitney has the mental attitude and scientific breadth of an earlier generation in the scientific world, the ability to correlate and integrate observations and deductions in wide and different fields. I n 1909 Whitney was honored by election to the presidency of the American Chemical Society, then, as now, the largest organization of chemists in the world. Under his administration the Society enjoyed a year of continued growth and success. Several new divisions were organized and four new sections. Many of the sections were visited by the president and always with a gain to their enthusiasm and esprit. Two years later he was similarly distinguished by the American Electrochemical Society. For its Toronto meeting he organized a notable symposium on electric furnaces and for the Boston meeting another on electrical conduction, the subject of his presidential address in which he brought out many interesting points. He directed attention to the fact that whereas the resistance of pure metals disappears a t absolute zero, that of alloys does not; that we cannot predict a t all the conductivity of definite compounds such as CuaSn; that no poor conductor is ductile; that if electrical apparatus were made with copper having only 2 per cent higher resistance, it would involve, on the 1912 basis of consumption, about $2,500,000 added cost for power; that in the arc the consumption of the positive electrode is apparently secondary, and that we know nothing about the theory of magnetism. During the war Whitney was ubiquitous and untiring as a member of the Naval Advisory Board, where perhaps his most important contribution was a method for the detection of submarines. The Perkin Medal is the badge of knighthood in American chemistry. It has never been more worthily bestowed. Its latest recipient has inspired numberless young men; he has brought distinction to a great corporation and proved to finan ciers that research pays; he has added new luster to American chemistry. The spirit of research has laid her hands upon him, and the spirit of youth as well.
PRESENTATION ADDRESS By Charles F. Chandler NEW YORE,N. Y .
I t is my privilege and very pleasant duty as Senior Pwt President of the Society of Chemical Industry, residing in this country, to present to Willis R. Whitney, B.S. and Ph.D., the fourteenth impression of the Perkin Medal, in recognition of his most original and valuable work in applied chemistry. Dr. Willis R. Whitney was born in Jamestown, N. Y . , August 22, 1868, and was the son of John and Agnes (Reynolds) Whitney. He was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of in 1890, and in 1896 received Technology with the degree of S.E. the degree of Ph.D. from Leipzig. He held the following positions a t the Institute of Technology following his graduation: Assistant, Sanitary Chemistry, 1890 t o 1892 ; Instructor, Sanitary Chemistry, 1892 to 1894; Instructor, Theoretical Chemistry and Proximate Analysis, 1898 to 1901; Assistant Professor, Theoretical Chemistry, 1901 to 1904; Nonresident Associate Professor, Theoretical Chemistry, 1904 to 1908; Non-resident Professor, Chemical Research 1908-. Since 1900 Dr. Whitney has been Director of the Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company a t Schenectady,
N. Y. Among his early work, Dr. Whitney, in conjunction with Professor A. A. Noyes, successfully developed a recovery pro-
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cess for alcohol and ether from collodion which insured the commercial practicability of the present photographic film. His most notable achievement has been the creation and development of the Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company a t Schenectady. This laboratory, one of the earliest of its kind in this country, the embodiment of the application of science to industry, has gained a world-wide reputation by the quality of its work and the importance of its results. These results speak for themselves, but only those associated in t h e laboratory with Dr. Whitney can realize to what extent they are due to him personally, or how truly the story of the laboratory, from its inception with a small staff, to its present development with 275 people on its payroll, has been the story of his personal achievement. Its growth has followed naturally from the value of its accomplishment, but its accomplishment has been due primarily to him. His broad scientific knowledge,. his ability as a chemist, his resourcefulness in experiment, his energy, enthusiasm, and optimism, combined with a clear sense of proportionate values, laid the foundation for, and guided and inspired all the work of the laboratory, while his democratic and magnetic personality created an esprit de cor;bs in his staff which has been a powerful factor for success. It is necessary to realize this fully in order that his personal achievements. may be justly appraised in considering the successes of the laboratory. These successes have often been recited specifically, to prove the value of the application of organized research to industry. I n electric lighting, the first radical improvement in the carbon incandescent filament, since Edison first produced it, was due to Dr. Whitney’s personal work. The “metalized” filament, or “GEM” lamp, which he developed, and which embodied a new form of carbon, gave 25 per cent more light for the same wattage than the standard carbon filament lamp. Millions of these new lamps were sold in a single year. A little later the laboratory made a still greater contribution to electric lighting by solving the problem of mechanically working tungsten, and taught the world how to make the drawn wire which has given the tungsten lamp its universal application. The latest achievement of the laboratory in incandescent lighting is the gas-filled or half-watt lamp, which, in its larger sizes, has twice the efficiency of the vacuum lamp, and nearly equals the most efficient arcs. I n arc lighting, the laboratory developed the magnetite electrode, and thereby produced the most successful arc lamp of to-day. The laboratory has produced many new and useful forms of insulations and molded compounds, many new alloys, for resistance units and other purposes, new processes, like “Calorizing,” for giving metals protective coatings, new articles of manufacture like “sheath wire,” with its core of resistance alloy, its mineral insulation, and its metal sheath, adapted for heating devices, new materials like “water japan” and “Genelite,” new electric‘ furnace products, like boron carbide, useful as a flux f o r casting copper, and titanium carbide for arc lamp electrodes, new laboratory tools, such as the Arsem vacuum furnace, the tungsten tube furnace, and the Langmuir condensation vacuum pump, high resistance units for lightning arresters, improved carbon and graphite brushes, and brushes of new and special composition, such as “Metite.” The development of wrought tungsten has been followed by several important applications worked out entirely in the laboratory. Tungsten contacts have practically replaced platinum in spark coils, magnetos, and relays, and tungsten targets have replaced platinum in X-ray tubes. As a result of a study of high vacuum, the laboratory devised means and methods for producing much higher vacua than before obtained, and the study of the phenomenon of electron discharge in high vacuum has produced a number of new types of vacuum tubes which have revolutionized more than one art. The
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Coolidge X-ray tube was the earliest result of this investigation a n d has practically displaced all other types of X-ray tubes. It has made possible many results not otherwise obtainable, as, for instance, the development of a truly portable X-ray outfit. Another result was the pliotron, the first real power tube suitable for radio transmission. The pliotron practically created radiotelephony, and has revolutionized radiotelegraphy. Other types of these tubes resulting from this investigation are the dynatron, magnetron, pliodynatron, etc. The contributions of the laboratory to pure science have been numerous, varied, and important, as is indicated by the titles taken from the list of laboratory publications: Factors Affecting Relation between Photo-electric Current and Illumination Structure of the Atom Theory and Use of the Molecular Gage Theory of Unimolecular Reaction Velocities Absorption and Scattering of X-Rays New Method of X-Ray Chemical Analysis New Method of X-Ray Crystal Analysis Roentgen-Ray Spectra High Frequency Spectrum of Tungsten Arrangement of Electron in Atoms and Molecules Chemical Reactions a t Low Pressures Constitution and Fundamental Properties of Solids and Liquids Dissociation of Hydrogen into Atoms Effect of Space Charge and Residual Gases on Thermionic Currents in High Vacuum Evaporation, Condensation, and Reflection of Gas Molecules E'undamental Phenomena in Electron Tubes Having Tungsten Cathodes Isomorphism, Isosterism, and Covalence Mechanism of the Surface Phenomena of Flotation Octet Theory of Valence and Its Applications with Special Reference t o the Organic Nitrogen Compounds Properties of the Electron as Derived from the Chemical Properties of the Elements .Structure of the Helium Atom Structure of the Hydrogen Molecule and the Hydrogen Ion
Dr. Whitney is a trustee of the Albany Medical College and .of Union College, and a member of the Corporation of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the U. S. Naval Consulting Board, National Research Council, American Chemical Society (president in 1910), American Electrochemical Society (president in 1911), American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Physical Society, and British Institute of Metals. He received the Willard Gibbs M,edal in 1916 and the Chandler Medal in 1920. Dr. Whitney's translation of Le Blanc's textbook of electrochemist.ry is well known. Among the papers which he has personally published are the following : 1-"The Rate of Solution of Solid Substances in Their Own Solutions" (with A. A. Noyes). J . A m . Chem. Soc., 19 (1897), 930. 2-"The Nature of the Change from Violet t o Green in Solutions of Chromium Salts." J . A m . Chem. Soc., 21 (1899), 1075. 3--"The Precipitation of Colloids by Electrolytes" (with J. E. Ober). J . A m . Chem. Soc., 23 (1901), 842. 4-"An Investigation of Ammonio-Silver Compounds in Solution" (with A. C. iMelcher). J . Am. Chem. Soc., 25 (1903), 69. 5-"The Corrosion of Iron." J . A m . Chem. Soc., 25 (1903), 394. 6-"Electrolysis of Water." J . Phys. Chem., 7 (1903), 190. 7-"The Migration of Colloids" (with J. C. Blake). J . A m . Chem. Soc., 26 (1904), 1339. 8-"Colloids." Trans. A m . Electrochem. SOL,7 (1905). 225. 9--"Arcs." Trans. A m . Electrochem. Soc., 7 (1905), 291. 10--"Suspensions in Dilute Alkaline Solutions" (with Alonzo Straw). J . A m . Chem. Soc., 29 (1907), 325. 11-"Organization of Industrial Research." J . A m . Chem. SOC., 82 (1910), 71. 12-"Some Chemistry of Light" (Presidential Address, American Chemical Society, Dec. 29, 1909). J . Am. Chem. SOC.,32 (1910). 147. 13--"Alloys." A m . Foundrymen's Assoc., 1910. 14--"Chemistry of Luminous Sources." Johns Hopkins Univ., 1910. Lccfurcson;Illum
