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T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
Vol.
IO,
No.
2
OFFICERS FOR 1918 The instincts of the pioneer in Dr. Nichols led t o the origin in his plant of many ideas and appliances used in chemical industry to-day, for example, the well-known practice of storing and transporting sulfuric acid in steel. The manufacture of sulfuric acid from pyrites was first carried out profitably in the Nichols Chemical Works a t Laurel Hill. The pyrites used contained some copper and the search for the proper metallurgical treatment of i t led t o the invention of methods still employed for smelting such ores and also t o the devising of a method for analyzing copper by electrolysis, which was the foundation of the industry of the electrolytic refining of copper. These processes for smelting and refining copper ores were so sucDR. NICHOLS-LEADER cessful t h a t the business IN CHEMICAL grew rapidly t o such diINDUSTRY mensions t h a t in 1898 By C. F. CHANDLER i t was transferred t o a special company, the Dr. William H . Nichols Copper ComNichols was one of the pany, of which Dr. Nichsmall group of New ols is president. The York chemists who, in works, located on New1876,originated this b y town Creek, Brooklyn, far the largest chemical constitute one of the society in the world. It most extensive copper now has 5 I local sections plants in the world. In and a p p r o x i m a t e l y 1899, the c h e m i c a l 11,000 members, and branch of the business publishes three distinct went into the General chemical journals. Chemical Company. Dr. Nichols was born The superior execuJanuary g, 1852, in tive ability of Dr. Brooklyn, N. Y. He Nichols shows in the g r a d u a t e d f r o m the success he has had in Brooklyn P o l y t e c h n i c such enterprises as t h e Institute in 1868 and rehabilitating of t h e then entered New York Granby Consolidated University, where he Mining, Smelting and had the good fortune t o Power Company, Ltd., study chemistry under converting it into one of Dr. John W. Draper, the the best-managed copfirst President of the per companies in the WILLIAMH. NICHOLS,PRESIDENT AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY American Chemical Society. He received his world; the recent orB.S. in 1870. I n 1873 he received his M.S. from ganizing of the National Aniline and Chemical Company, the same institution; in 1904,LL.D. from Lafayette and Inc., looking t o the permanent relief of American textile Sc.D. from Columbia. I n 1912 he was decorated by manufacturers and others; the bringing of a new lease the King of Italy with the Order of Commendatore of of life t o his Alma Mater, the Polytechnic Institute of t h e Crown of Italy. He was president of the English Brooklyn, which seemed t o be on the decline but is toSociety of Chemical Industry 1904-1905 and of the day a school of engineering of high mark, due largely Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry t o the good work of Dr. Nichols. held in Washington and New York in 1912. With all these business activities Dr. Nichols has I n 1870, when only eighteen years old, he f m ~ n d e d acted as chairman of the Committee on Chemicals for his Own chemical business under the title G. the government and just recently has been appointed Nichols and Company, using his father’s name be- by Secretary Lane chairman of the Committee of cause he was not yet of age. Later the business was Chemists advisory t o the Bureau of Mines. incorporated as the Nichols Chemical Company. N E W YORKCITY The following officers have been elected by the American Chemical Society for the year 1918: President: William H. Nichols, General Chemical Company, New York City. Directors: H. E. Barnard, State Laboratory of Hygiene, Indianapolis, Ind.; and G. D. Rosengarten, Powers -Weightman - Rosengarten Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Councilors-at-Large: H. E. Howe, A. D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; G. A. Hulett, Princeton University, Princeton, N. J . ; W. A. Noyes, University of, Illinois, Urbana, Ill.; and Allen Rogers, Pratt Institute, B r o o k l y n , N. Y.
