:“ALY T IC A L. 6 H E M I S T R Y Walter 1. Murghy, Elfrr
Reagent Chemicals, A.C.S. Specifications AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY’S Committee on Analytical TReagents has completed a revised and greatly enlarged HE
book on specifications. We have been assured by Mack Printing Company that copies will be available early in January of neXt year. We are indebted to W. D. Collins, secretary of the Committee on Analytical Reagents, for the following brief summary of early attempts to raise the quality of laboratory chemicals: One of the early pioneers was Edward Hart of Lafayette Coli lege, famous for many reasons, including the establishment of the Journal of Analytical and Applied Chemistry, which was incorporated into the Journal of the America(&Chemical Society in 1893, with Profeseor Hart as editor. Professor Hart continued his editorship of J.A.C.S. until 1902. Professor Hart encouraged two of his students to form the Baker and Adamson Company, manufacturers of laboratory chemicals. He served as president of the company from 1881 to 1913. The two students, John T. Baker and George P. Adamson, were 21 and 17 years old, respectively, a t the time the Baker and Adamson Company was formed. At a meeting of the World Congress of Chemists in Chicago, August 21, 1893, C. B. Dudley and F. ?IT. Pease presented a paper entitled “The Need of Standard Methods for the Analysis of Iron and Steel, with Some Proposed Standard Methods.” The authors in the paper suggested four causes for the many observed discrepancies in analyses: (1) lack of uniformity of samples, (2) impurities in chemicals or defects in apparatus used, (3) the chemist, and (4) the method. The comments of Dudley and Pease helped to stimulate the AMERIC.4N CHEMICAL SOCIETY into a program designed to improve the quality of laboratory reagents. A Committee on Uniformity in Technical Analyscs was established, with W. F. Hillebrand of U. S. Geological Survey as chairman. In a report published in 1904, the committee referred to the Dudley and Pease paper and in substance expressed the hope that the Society’s Committee on Purity of Reagents, working in cooperation with the Xational Bureau of Standards, would help to improve the quality of laboratory chemicals. The Committee on Purity of Reagents held its first meeting on November 20 and 21, l’W3, with John H. Long of the Northwestern Medical School as chairman. Other members of the committ,re were Charles Baskerville, College of the City of New York; L. N. Dennis, Cornell University; H. P. Talbot, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and R. F. Hillebrand, who served as secretary. The Committee on Purity of Reagents propost?d a very elaborate and detailed program, but unfortunately its efforts were unsuccessful. .4t the New &leans meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, December 29 and 30, 1905, there was some criticism of the delay in publication of the committee report. A t a meeting in Kashington, March 24, 1906, the committee decided to abandon the idea of publishiiig a complete book on specifications and instead suggested that its recommendations be published in the Society’s journal.
The committee continued in a stand-by status dealing with questions relating to reagents until the spring meetjng in New Orleans in 1915, when it was not reappointed. Individually and as a committee the members continued to exert pressure on manufacturers to produce reagents of higher quality. Renewed interest by leading members of the Society in the question of specifications for laboratory reagents resulted in January 1917 in the formation of a Committee on Analyzed Reagents with W. F. Hillebrand as chairman, and Charles Baskerville and W. G. Bigelow of the National Canners Amociation as associates. The committee’s report to the Council in April 1917 proposed that an effort be made to obtain an appropriation from Congress to enable the National Bureau of Standards to purchase reagents on the open market and publish results of analyses of the samples, along with the analyses on the labels. Financial support for this work did not materialize. In 1919 the Council of the Society instructed the Committee on Analyzed Reagents to consider also the problem of standardization of scientific apparatus. It soon became evident, however, that this dual responsibility placed too great a burden on the committee. In 1924 two committees were authorized: the Committee on Guaranteed Reagents, and the Committee on Standard Apparatus. A t a later date the name of the Committee on Guaranteed Reagents was changed to the Committee on Analytical Reagents. The membership of the committee consisted of W. D. Collins, U. S. Geological Survey, chairman; H. V. Farr, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works; Joseph Rosin, Powers, Weightman, Rosengarten; G. C. Spencer, Federal Food and Drug Administration; and Edward Wichers, National Bureau of Standards. Many changes in membership of the committee have occurred, but the pattern of the work of the committee from 1924 on has changed very little. Sets of recommended specifications were published in batches of about 10 a t different intervals from 1925 to 1947. In 1941 the specifications published up to that time were reproduced and issued in a single pamphlet. Since 1947 the main effort of the committee has been directed toward further refinement of previously published specifications and the development of additional ones. The AMERICANCHEiwcAL SOCIETY, and analytical chemists in particular, are greatly indebted to the present committee responsible for the preparation of the new book “Reagent Chemicals A.C.S. Specifications, 1950.” It has been our pleasure to cooperate closely with the committee. We are thoroughly aware of the excellent work performed by this group. We believe many readers of. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY will be delighted to express their personal appreciation to the members of this committee: Edward Wichers, chairman: S. E. Q. Ashley, General Electric; A. Q. Butler, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works; B. L. Clarke, Merck; W. D. Collins; F. S. Eisenhauer, J. T. Baker Chemical; R. A. Osborn, Food and Drug Administration; J. F. Ross, General Electric; and John Wolf, Baker and Adamson Division, Allied Chemical & D y e Corporatiori.
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