NEWS EDITIO HARRISON Ε. HOWE, Editor
Published by the American Chemical Society VOLUME 18
MARCH 10, 1940
NUMBER 5
Education and Research in Cincinnati
O
N THE grain-covered ground of Kan sas is situated the geographical center of our country; drifting yearly westward through Indiana goes the Nation's population center; and now it is known that the educational center and the scientific center lie close together in Ohio somewhere between Cincinnati and Columbus. So says a report based upon the distribution of college students and scientific society members and prepared by Cecil B. Read, University of Wichita mathematician, with the help of a staff of Ν. Υ. A. students. Though the acres are no thicker in Kansas nor the people taller in Indiana, Cincinnati is in a true sense a center of education.
Cincinnati is young as measured by the time scale east of the Alleghenies, but the roots of its culture run back for more than 100 years. Within 30 miles lies Miami University, the only college west of the mountains when it was founded in 1809. In Cincinnati itself the Colleges of Law and Medicine were "firsts" of the growing West and indeed the College of Law was the third in the whole country. The city's two large universities—University of Cin cinnati and Xavier University—when traced back through changes of names, locations, and pretensions, prove to be centenarians. In the educational picture of the city, the University of Cincinnati, a truly
municipal institution, is preeminent. It is situated in Clifton, one of the city's finer residential districts. Lying within a few minutes of the center of the city, it borders the small but lovely park, Burnet Woods. The following statistics, supplied by Raymond P. Walters, the leading statistician of colleges and universities, are reliable. Its 11,000 students make it one of the very largest of municipal universi ties and it ranks high on the list of all uni versities of the country. Through the years it has gathered under its ample wing a variety of colleges that runs the gamut of intellectual activity. The evening college» with 5000 students, is a tremendous part of the university.
Panorama of the University of Cincinnati from the air 181
182
CHEMICAL AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING NEWS
Entrance to I n s t i t u t i o n D i v i T h o m a c
Students of all ages and occupations come from scattered points within a radius of 50 miles. Resides a wide selection of regu lar subjects, lecture series presenting sneakers of the highest degree of promi nence and achievement are offered. (This is one of the few institutions in the country that grant a bachelor's degree in chemistry for work completed entirely at night.) The Engineering College is the birth place of the cooperative idea, whereby a student pursues his education by working alternately in industry and the classroom. Its father was Dean Herman Schneider, whose untimely death thier past year has
been deeply mourned. The system has been successful, despite the increasing hazards of youthful unemployment. It has been widely copied and adapted by other colleges. An extension of the co operative idea into the graduate field has been made in connection with the Basic Science Research Laboratory, another of Dean Schneider's mental reations. A master's degree is granted to students who are trained for industrial research, not eo specially as intensively, along chemical, physical, and mathematical lines to sup plement their undergraduate training. In other words, the whole man, from a tech nical point of view, is the goal. These
VOL. 18. NO. 5
students spend half time in industry, the other half at the university on fellowships granted by widely scattered industrial institutions. The university has been growing physi cally as well as intellectually. One of the latest additions is a splendid new Student Building which, besides dining and store facilities, contains a great number of rooms for meeting purposes. The Chemistry Department has its ample place in the sun. Two faculties, one for arts and one for engineering, are necessitated by the unusual schedule for the cooperative system in engineering. A new half-million-dollar wing built with the aid of federal funds makes the Chem istry Building the largest on the campus. The Chemistry Library contains one of the largest and best collections of journals and reference bonks in this part of the country. There is interesting material here in the history and personalities of chemistry assembled largely through the efforts of Ralph E. Oesper. There are 200 books on alchemy, early textbooks, pub lished It iters, and autographed pictures of 300 contemporary European chemists hung about the walls of the building. The Main Library of the university also has interesting collected material. There is a Stephen Foster Collection, consisting of photostats of interesting memorabilia, photographs, and music. A rare book collection of wide variety in age and title contains considerable material concerning especially Shakespeare, the American Indians, 17th Century Elizabethan and Restoration Drama, and early Spanish and native Mexico. Cincinnati is a center of Catholic and Hebrew education. Xavier University, beautifully situated with its charming buildings on Victory Parkway, is a Catho lic institution providing undergraduate training for a student body of well over 1000 members. Two small Catholic
Dormitory of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinion· advanced by contributor· to its publication·. Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Publication Office. 20th 6 Northampton Su.. Easton. 'Penna. Editorial Office. Room 706, Mill· Building. Washington. D. C ; Telephone. National 0848; Cable. Jiechem (Washington). Advertising Department. 332 West 42nd 8t.. New York. Ν. Υ.; Telephone. Brysn 9-4430. Entered as second-class matter at the Poet Office at Easton. Penna.. under the act of March 3, 1879. a· 24 time· a year on the 10th and 25th. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Bection 1103. Act of October 3. 1917. authorised July 13. 1918. Annus* subscription rate, $2.00. Foreign postage to countries not in the Pan American Union. 10.60; Canadian postage. $0.20. Single copies, 90.15. Special rates to members. No c'sims can be allowed for copie· of journal· lost in the mails unless such daims are received within 60 days of the date of issue, and no claim· will be allowed for issues lost as a result of insufficient noticr of change of address. (Tan day·' advance notice required.) "Missing from file·" cannot be accepted a· the reason for honoring a claim. Charles L. Parson. .Business Manager. Milk Building. Washington. D. C.. U. 8. A.
MARCH 10,1940
NEWS EDITION
183
K.ist campus buildings ot Xavier University
women's colleges, Clifton College and Mt. St. Joseph, are located within the city. Hebrew Union College is a theological school which is the outstanding institution in the country in education for the rabbin ate. The college has on exhibition the finest collection of Jewish art and cere monial material in this country. There are 8000 items mostly of German-Jewish culture dating back as far as the 16th cen tury. The only two comparable collec tions in the world have been confiscated by the German Government. Cincinnati is a city of great musical tradition. Accordingly, its two music schools, the Conservatory of Music and the CoMege of Music, both of collegiate standing and founded about 1870, rank high in the whole country. The Art Academy in a city which has produced Hiram Powers and Frank Duveneck and once sheltered John James Audubon maintains a training equal to this tradition. It is housed in the impos ing Art Mu>eum Ιοί til ν situated in Eden Park. The Ohio Mechanics Institute, which dates from 1828, is of post high school rank and in all the years since its founding ha* provided excellent training in the mechani cal arts. It is located in the large build ing at Walnut and Central Parkway which includes the Museum of Natural History and the Emery Audit* rium. Not far from Cincinnati are other col leges of high caliber. The State of Ohio it almost seems has a fine little college at ev#»ry crossroad. Thirty miles away at Oxford are Miami University and Western College ior Women. Miami, the oldest college west of the Alleghenies, has been called "the Mother of Fraternities", hav ing produced the famous Miami Triad as well as other national societies. Perhaps it is something of this social spirit that has led to the splendid School of Social
Sciences now existing at the university. Western College is most beautifully located in a wooded area newly purchased by the neighboring Miami University. There should be little revolutionary in this pur chase for Miami itself is coeducational. Farther away can be found the Univer sity of Dayton, then famous little Antioch at Yellow Springs. There one is not far from the State's other educational colossus, Ohio State University at Columbus Research
house one of the largest refracting tele scopes in the world and the largest then in America—diameter 12 inches. Since that day research has not lagged in this city. It seems well to limit a discussion of Cincinnati's present research activities to chemical research and even academic chemical research, for of industrial re search only too much or too little could be said. At the University of Cincinnati a large part of the research is organised under the Institute of Scientific Research which comprises three units:
It was 97 years ago that John Quincy Adams, doubtless our most versatile of Presidents, came to Cincinnati on a mis sion close to his heart. On the hill now known as Mt. Adams he laid the corner stone for an observatory which was to
This has been mentioned as a brainchild of Dr. Schneider. It is a place for fundamen tal research in the border regions between mathematics, physics, physical chemistry, and biochemistry.
BASIC SCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY.
New Student Union Building at the University of Cincinnati
184
CHEMICAL AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING NEWS
T A N N U » ' RKSEABCH LABOBATOBT. This
is the national center of research for the leather and tanning industries and is sup ported by funds of the Tanners9 Council of America. Only recently discoveries have been made that are calculated to make for greater than 50 per cent savings in the processing of leather. LITHOGRAPHIC KKSBABCH LABORATORY.
In the same way this* is the national center of research for the lithographic industries and is supported by the Lithographic Tech nical Foundation. Uuder supervision of the College of Medicine is the Kettering Laboratory established for study of industrial toxi cology. It is supported by the General Motors Corp., the Ethyl Gasoline Corp.» and E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. To its great credit is the solution of the problem of employee handling of tetraethyllead. The Chemistry Department of the uni versity has its quota of diversified research. As integral parts or closely affiliated with the College of Medicine of the univer sity there are half a doien biochemical re search units in the city. At least four of the larger hospitals are extremely active in this line—Christ Hospital, General Hospital, Jewish Hospital, and Children's Hospital. Available space cannot do justice to the scope and importance of this work. As well publicized highlights of this local research might be mentioned the work of L. H. Schmidt, of Christ Hospital, on the effect of sulfapyridine on various strains of pneumococci and the work of Thomas Spies, of the Department of Medi cine, on nicotinic acid and vitamin Β deficiency. Among the country's contributors to art and wit and wisdom the College of Medicine possesses the personalities of Martin Fischer, whose studies in the chem istry of art and whose classroom lectures and 'Tischerisms" are stimulating contribu tions to our culture, and Gustav Eckstein, whose collection of canaries has excited the interest of WooUcott and Toscanini. The Archbishop of this diocese estab lished the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cin cinnati in 1935. i t s purpose is to study problems somewhat along the lines of the basic science research laboratory with an additional interest in the philosophical aspects of science. It has developed that the main accent has been on biophysical and biochemical research. A limited number of students are accepted for re search training. However far our visiting chemists who come to Cincinnati to attend the spring meeting
of
the
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY April S to 12, may individually travel, if they are as representative a group as we hope, then in a vectorial sense the average visitor is nearly in Cincinnati already; and when he is here in actuality he will find a place where chemistry is at
VOL. 18, NO. 5
Modern Pioneers
T
HE National Association of Manufac turers as a part of its celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the American patent system honored a group of living American inventors "who have contributed new jobs, new industries, and higher standards of living through their inventions and discoveries on the frontiers of industry". Awards in the form of scrolls were presented at dinners held throughout the United States, cul minating in a banquet on February 27 in New York, at which silver plaques were presented to men chosen from the entire country for national honors. Of the 18 individuals and the group headed by the late Wallace H. Carothers, respon sible for nylon, eight are members of the AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY,
as
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY.
Their
names follow:
National Awards Leo Hendrick Baekeland William David Coolidge Frederick Gardner Cottrell George Oliver Cunne, Jr. John Van Nostrand Dorr Charles Franklin Kettering Irving Langmuir Harry Steenbock inventors of Nylon Willard E. Catlin Donald D. CofTman George D. Graves Winifield W. Heckert Benjamin W. Howk Wilbur A. Lasier Wesley R. Peterson Frank K. Signaigo Edgar W. Spanagel
Area Awards Charles 8. Ash John C. Baker Harry H. Barber Carl Lewis Beal Frederick M. Becket Robert M. Boehm F. G. Breyer Leslie G. S. Brooker Wallace L. Caldwell John N. Carothers N. K.Chaney William Hale Charch H. J. Creighton W.A. Darrah H. W. Daudt G. H. B. Davis Camille Dreyfus Gustav Egloff
Carl F Prutton R. R. Ridgway T.H.Rogers Carlisle K. Roos W. L 8emon Samuel E. 8heppard R.L. Sibley Games Slayter W. 8. Smith L, A. Stengel E. C. Sullivan William C. Taylor Frederick H. Untiedt Ernest H.Voiwiler Vanderveer Voorbees C. R.%agner H. G. Walker H. H. Wennine Willie ft. Whitney Ira Williams Robert R. Williams Robert E. Wilson
are
nearly all of the nylon group. The selection of the modern pioneers following nominations of a much larger number emphasises the importance of the patent system in building American in dustry and serves to show the utility of the patent system, not only in encouraging invention and discovery, but in affording protection and assistance to the small manufacturer. The nation-wide program honored 500 men and of these 176 are members of the AMERICAN
N. Vladimir Ipatieff Martin Hill Ittner M.&Kharasch Lester Kirschbraun H.B.Kline W. S. Landis EarlT.McBce Elmer V. McCoUum Jerome Martin C. E. K. Mees C. W. Merrill Thomas Midgley. Jr. Carl Shelley Miner J. C. Morrell Harry C. Mougey William B. Newkirk John F. Oiin Walter A. Patrick Karl Ernest Pëiler Carl Pfanstiehl Marvin Pipkin Charles H. Prangs
CarletonKUis J. V. Emmons G. J. Esselen A. L. Feud Colin Garfield Fink Harry Linn Fisher W. C. Geer G. H. Gibson H. W. Greider Lars O. Grondahl H. O. Halvorson Ralph Emmons Hall William Harshaw Henry Bohn Hass C. O. Henke Russell Pearce Heuer K. C. D. Hickman J. R. Ingram
Group and Joint Awards Herbert O. Albrvcbt Eva! i Anderson Thomas A. Boyd Hamilton Bradshaw G. H. Brown Merlin M. Brubaker W. S. Calcott Albert Smith Carter Hans T. Clarke Α. Μ Collins F. B. Downing Ε. Μ. Flaherty Harold W. Greenup M. V. Hitt Horace H. Hopkins John W. Iliff Sebastian Karrer Bengt Kjellgren Alfred T. Larson
Allen E. Lawrence H. W. Lèverons William W. Lowers Donald J. Loder F. A. McDermott Carl J. Malm Edwin R. Maurer Edgar Hugo Nollau Gordon D. Patterson Earle C. Pitman R. C. Roark Paul Robinson W. A. Schmidt H. V. Welch John F. White Harry M. Williams Williac* S. Wilson R. G V.'oodbridge
Honorable Mention Harlan Avery Bond James Eliot Booge Euclid W. Bousquet P. J. Carlisle Oliver Wilfred Cass A. J. Deyrup F. J. Dobrovolny R. B. Elliott C. G. Geary Ivan Gubelmann E. A. Harding C. R. Harris Donald Aubrey Holt James Karr Hunt Ralph A. Jacobson J. A. Jenemann Henry Jordan John L. Keats William E. Kirst Burritt Samuel Lacy C. H. Lemke
A. A. Levine Herbert August Lube Ralph Norbert Lulek A. D. Macallum John W. McCoy Taine D. McDougal Frank W. Parker Arthur N. Parrett Donald A. Ran :~ J. S. Reichert S. S. Rossander Pad L. Salsberg N. D. Scott Joseph Harrel Shipp Alfred Siegel Otto Stallmann Guy B. Taylor Chaplin Tyler J. F. Walker C. J. Wernlund C. A. Woodbury
