NEWS EDITION VOL.
11, N o . 12
JUNE
20, 1933
Industrial AND ENGINEERING
Chemistry VOL. 25, CONSECUTIVE NO. 21 PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY HARRISON E. HOWE, EDITOR
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The American Chemical Society at The World's Fair 1893-1933 O N E H U N D R E D AND T E N of the 460 members of the young AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY assembled for a meeting during the
week of August 21, 1893, a t the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At the same time the World Chemical Congress, in which the SOCIETY cooperated, brought t o t h e city many leading scientists from abroad. Some of the news items in the Chicago papers of that day were: active propaganda for free silver; election in France—Clemenceau defeated; parade of the unemployed; Edison at the Fair; Bedouin encampment on the Midway. These have a far-away and yet a familiar sound. This year the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY meets again at
The World's Fair in Chicago. And if it can assemble from its present membership of 17,700 the proportion which attended in 1893, it will be the greatest meeting ever held. The words of Harvey W. Wiley in opening the congress of 1893 live today and are in large part applicable to the Fair and the meeting of 1933: From the whole civilized world there have been collected in this city the fruits of man's inventive genius and of his industry. By night the shore of the lake and the borders of the South Pond are transformed into fairy scenes, more beautiful than the poet has ever pictured. The whole world of art, the whole world of skill, are brought to us in a reality which, were it not so tangible, would seem the deception of a wizard. The objects of our congress are wider than the mere listening to papers. The chemist is a social being, and there is a life outside of the laboratory as beautiful and useful as the life within * * * *. The highest culture is not found in books, but in men. And thus to widen his horizon and broaden his views the chemist must leave his desk and seek the acquaintance of his fellows. Every time you take a brother chemist by the hand you enlarge your life and extend your strength, and the farther apart the field of your activities, the greater the benefit.
• Today, as in 1893, Chicago has gathered "the fruits of man's inventive genius and of his industry." B u t with this difference, that the 1933 World's Fair is dedicated t o showing t h e achievements of 100 years of science and has given chemistry the central place. B y a series of fascinating displays, dynamic and moving, actual chemical reactions appear by simply pressing a button, and the statement of Wiley that chemistry is "illy suited for display" is disproved. Nor will one, as he complained in 1893, "look in vain among the bas-reliefs for the names of Lavoisier, Priestley, Berzelius, Liebig, Hofmann, Lawrence Smith, or Chevreul," for here is thrillingly told the story of the discoveries and the men which have made our science. We have endeavored t o get those who attended the meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and t h e Chemical Congress
in 1893 t o search their memories and let us have their impressions of it. I t is strange how many of those whom the printed records show were present are not entirely certain that this was the case. One prominent member confesses that "this information has entirely escaped m y memory, and I am very sorry to say that I have little recollection of the meeting as I was very much more impressed b y the Fair itself." Another writes that "if the records show that I attended the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY meeting
in 1893, they are probably correct. I have a faint recollection that I was herded with the rest to a joint meeting with the A. C. S." The reason for the bad memories of these chemists is perhaps evident from the letter of Alfred Springer, who writes: "while the papers presented justified a good attendance, the counter-
attraction of The Midway Plaisance was t o o attractive f o r our gay young chemists to withstand. Under t h e able leadership of Charles Munroe, Harvey Wiley, and Ira Remsen, about 92 per cent of our members could be found, at almost any hour, studying the habits of the benighted natives of those far-away countries." There was also a banquet which Louis Kahlenberg remembers at which Doctor Wiley presided and "translated into English all the different speeches that were made. Each chemist from a foreign country spoke in a foreign language, and Wiley translated all of these speeches, whether he knew t h e language or not." Be that as it may, t h e scientific sessions a t the 1893 F a i r included a very solid group of papers by foreign, as w e l l as American, chemists. Engler discussed the artificial production of petroleum, and Ostwald spoke on chemical energy. Tollens presented a paper on "Polyhydric Alcohols." W i t t discussed "Chemistry of Colors," and Lunge presided a t one meeting. Of well-known Americans, W . D . Bigelow, F . W. Clarke, A. B. Prescott, C. B. Dudley, W. D . Atwater, L. L . Van Slyke, E . W. Morley, W. R. Orndorff, W. A. Noyes, and C. L. Parsons presented papers. For Charles H. Herty and W. D. Bigelow i t was the first meeting; Julius Stieglitz was present as a visitor, but it was some years before he joined the SOCIETY. A. H. Sabin attended this meeting, as he had every previous meeting o f the SOCIETY, since 1886.
Charles Lee Reese in 1893 was a cub chemist, deeply interested in art, little dreaming of a distinguished career i n chemistry culminating forty years later in the highest honor within the gift of chemists—the presidency of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
Charles L. Parsons, professor of chemistry at N e w Hampshire Agricultural College in 1893, attended his second AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY meeting in Chicago, presenting an address on "American Progress in Methods of Nitrogen Determination." Young Charlie Parsons was farseeing, even forty years ago, when he endeavored t o make t h e agricultural chemists agree to using the same strength of acids in titrations. The Federal Government exhibited an actual operating laboratory under the direction of Harvey W. Wiley, and H. H. Huston, writing from England, assures us that i n answer to the question of the populace "a lot of startling and original chemical ideas were distributed with which the science of chemistry has not y e t caught up. This laboratory w a s not merely an operating exhibit. I t was the laboratory in which a i l the chemical work required in connection with t h e awards was done. The most notable contest was between the beers o f St. Louis and those of Milwaukee. Every determination o f each was identical, except those of chlorine, which in the case of o n e was recorded as a 'trace' and in the other as a 'slight trace.' Poor Krug, who made these entries, had no idea when h e made them that they would develop into a hair shirt." Other exhibits which aroused comment were those o f the German chemical industries and of the Standard Oil Co., the latter showing "everything connected with the industry o f collecting and refining oil represented here by profile maps, models of plants, samples of various crude oils, samples of light and heavy refined oils, and other products." Remarkable as these exhibits were, they have been far outstripped by those of t h e present Fair. Here one m a y see every operation in oil-refining in a working glass model of an entire refinery, with simulated oil actually passing through each step.
185
Chicago Is Calling September 10, 1933
NEWS
186
Today the exhibits of the chemical industries are predominantly American, and show our great advance in this field in vivid fashion. A high point in the meeting at the Chicago World's Fair this year will be a banquet to honor those who attended the chemical meeting in 1893. This will be a unique occasion. Few, indeed, are those whose span of active participation in chemistry totals forty years. And it is particularly notable that those whose careers began at an AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY meeting a t a
World's Fair forty years ago, when chemistry was but meagerly represented, can again gather at a world's fair where science is the keynote, and where the gains of forty years in chemical science and in chemical appreciation are so unmistakably shown by the character of the exhibits and by the place of honor given this branch of knowledge. The following men now living are known to have attended the meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY in 1893: W . D . Bigelow A. W . Bur well Pontius Conradson F . B . Dains Moses Gomberg G. H . Goodell C. H . Herty William Hoskins
H. H . H u s t o n Lewis Kahlenberg J. B . Lindsay K. P . McElroy C. E . Munroe W. A. Noyes C. L. Parsons C. L. Reese
Vol. 11, No. 12
EDITION George W. Rolfe Ludwig Saarbech A. H . Sabin F . T. Shutt
H . E . Smith Alfred Springer J u l i u s Stieglitz A. L . Winton
Undoubtedly there are others who attended t h e 1893 meeting, who have been inadvertently overlooked- That the record may be complete, and that the committee m a y know who will attend the commemoration dinner, it is requested that they advise Gustav Egloff, 2120 Straus Building, Chicago. The veterans of 1893 will be the guests of the Chicago Section on this occasion. In urging the chemists of America to come to Chicago this year, may we quote from t h e words of the invitation t o the 1893 meeting, which are as true today a s they were forty years ago: The lake breezes do much t o render the c l i m a t e moderate. N o one need be d e t e r r e d from attending the conference o n account of fear of severe heat. I n view of t h e large number of eminent chemists, h o m e a n d foreign, who h a v e already signified an intention t o attend, a n d the valuable character of the papers t h a t will b e presented, t h i s meeting w i l l doubtless b e the m o s t im portant gathering ever held by chemists in t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s . T h e t i m e and place are therefore particularly auspicious, a n d t h e promise of a most success ful and enjoyable occasion very great.
Foreign Chemists t o Attend Chicago Meeting of the A . C. S.
GEORGE
BARGER
PAUL
KARRER
J. N . BRONSTED
RICHARD
WILLSTATTER
having to do with the theory of acids a n d bases, and acid and basic catalysis, as well as the general theory of solutions. September 10 t o 15, 1933. The following paragraphs give brief PAUL, KARRER, of Zurich, Switzerland, has confined his re sketches of these men and direct attention to their principal search during recent years chiefly to the pigments of plants interests and achievements: and the vitamins. H e started with the anthocyanins and after GEORGE BARGER is fifty-five years of age and is the first occu- these came the important group of the carotinoids. In collabo ant of a chair of medical chemistry in the University of Edin- ration with H. von Euler, he discovered t h a t t h e a- and βurgh. This chair was founded in 1919. He is an organic chemist carotene have a vitamin A effect, whereas the other carotinoids who has devoted himself especially to the study of substances of are without biological efficiency. The constitution of the most biological and pharmacological interest. He prefers clear-cut important carotinoids (lycopene, carotene, xanthophyll, zearesults to speculation, and is most interested in the determination xanthin, crocetin, bixin) could be well established by means of the constitution of natural substances, and its confirmation by of degradation, as well as with the help of synthesis. synthesis (of late years thyroxine, methionine, various alkaloids). In connection with his work on the carotinoids he took u p Residence in various countries during his youth, and numerous the question of the purification and constitution of vitamin A, subsequent visits, have made Professor Barger well acquainted and succeeded in preparing i t in a highly purified state and also with the Continent of Europe. He speaks half a dozen languages in elucidating its chemical constitution t o a considerable extent. and during the last twelve years has devoted much effort to He has recently started some investigations on vitamin C. promoting international relations among men of science. In RICHARD WILLSTATTER, of Munich, Germany, formerly pro 1928 he was Baker lecturer at Cornell and Dohme lecturer a t fessor of chemistry a t the University of Munich, is now carry Johns Hopkins, and traveled from coast to coast; in 1931 he ing on private research in the laboratories of the Bayerische lectured a t Heidelberg throughout the summer semester; he Akademie der Wissenschaften at Munich. Doctor Willstatter has also given many single lectures in Europe and America. was Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry i n 1925. H e cele His publications include several monographs: ''Simpler Natural brated his sixtieth birthday in 1932. Bases," 1914; "Some Applications of Organic Chemistry t o From 1893 to 1910 Doctor Willstatter worked upon alkaloids, Biology and Medicine," 1930 (Baker Lectures); "Ergot and from 1904 to 1910 on quinones, later on t h e benzene theory, Ergotism," 1931 (Dohme Lectures); and also an elementary catalytic hydrogenation using platinum, experiments to convert textbook "Organic Chemistry for Medical Students," 1932. cellulose into sugar, investigations on chlorophyll, and t h e isola In his exhaustive ergot monograph he has shown a distinct tion of a series of pigments from flowers. Since 1918 be has been penchant towards historical investigation. conducting investigations on enzymes, using the method of Professor Barger is a corresponding member of various Euro selective absorption based on the work of A. Danilewski, and in pean academies, chemical and biological societies, and has re studies on efficient adsorbing substances, such as t h e different ceived several honorary degrees including an M. D. degree from hydrates of aluminum. He is the author of numerous publica the University of Heidelberg. tions. J. N. BR0NSTED, professor of physical chemistry at the PhysicalDoctor Willstatter has been selected by t h e Chicago Section Chemical Institute of t h e University of Copenhagen, Copen of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY to receive the Willard hagen, Denmark, is particularly interested a t present in problems Gibbs Medal September 13. FOUR DISTINGUISHED FOREIGN CHEMISTS will be guests of the
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY during its meeting in Chicago,
p
R o o m s h e l d b y t h e h e a d q u a r t e r s h o t e l , t h e S t e v e n s , f o r r e s e r v a t i o n b y m e m b e r s o f t h e AMERICAN m e n t s m u s t b e made w i t h o u t d e l a y t o i n
