NICHOLS MEDAL AWARD Awarded to Julius A . Nieuwland, Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
In 1902 the late W. H. Kichols established a fund whereby a gold medal was to be presented annually by the New York Section of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYto the author of a paper or papers published within the past three years in any of the SOCIETY’S journals, which, in the judgment of the jury, would have an important influence in stimulating original research in chemistry. (The list of the previous recipients from 1903 to 1934 appeared on page 582 of the May, AND ENGINEERIKG 1934, issue of INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY.) The award for 1935 to Father Nieuwland in recognition of his basic work on syntheses
Harris & Ewing
J. A. NIEUWLAND
Father Nieuwland, the Man
from unsaturated hydrocarbons and in particular for his successful research in investigating the chemistry of acetylene, was made after the Nichols Medal Dinner given during the 89th Meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY a t the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York, on April 23, 1935. Eugene P. Burke, of the Arts Faculty of Notre Dame, spoke on the personal side of the medalist’s life; E. R. Bridgwater, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, described the practical applications of his work; J. M. Weiss, chairman of the Nichols Medal Jury of Award, presented the award; and Father Nieuwland delivered the Nichols Medal Address.
see him outside the laboratory-whatever still a profound mystery to me.
EUGENE P. BURKE
D
he did in there is
R. NIEUWLAND came to this country from Ghent, Belgium, as an infant and grew up a t the gate of the school where he was to do his work in chemistry later on. In college he followed the course of Arts and Letters which a t that day was a purely classical course requiring four years of Latin and four years of Greek. When I happened along, about September, 1899, he had just been graduated, but I heard from the students who knew him that he had spent a large part of his time with a magnifying glass examining bugs and buds, and that he could do a good job at drawing, as was evidenced in the covers of several school programs which he designed. He wrote an essay in his senior year on the poet John Keats and submitted it for the prize in the English essay, and the university thought well enough of it to have it printed as a university publication. When one remembers that in those days the financial barometer of most schools indicated storms ahead, this was almost an extravagant tribute to the quality of Nieuwland’s work. I do not believe that Nieuwland, when he began his graduate work at the Catholic University in Washington, had chemistry in mind as his principal study. He majored in botany, studying under Edward Green. Owing to the accident of Dr. Green’s leaving the university to take up special work at the Smithsonian Institution, Nieuwland made chemistry his major study and botany became more or less a delightful hobby which brought him out into the fields and gave him relief from the close confinement of the laboratory. On his return to Notre Dame he taught botany which he made a practical auxiliary of his chemistry; he made hundreds of botanical slides and sold them all over the country. With the proceeds from these sales he began to build up a chemical library which up to that time was sadly undernourished. The dissertation which he presented to the Catholic University as a part requirement for his doctor’s degree was pub-
0 ADDRESS a body of chemists is a unique experience for me. I am as innocent as anyone can possibly be of the smoky mysteries of chemistry. Only recently I have hit upon the discovery that the esters are not co-eds. However, I have always had a sort of awful reverence for chemists. I have never felt quite safe in their presence, suspecting that they might explode a t any moment and fall about me in a shower of stars. Yet it seems to me that anyone who has come within sniffing distance of a first rate chemical laboratory will cordially approve any honor bestowed upon the hero who spends his working days there, whether it be a medal, a crown, or a halo. Dr. Nieuwland’s confreres a t the University of Notre Dame are particularly pleased that he has been so signally honored by this SOCIETY.This recognition of the important character of his work is pleasing to us because he is probably little known by the students at the university outside the circle of the engineering and science departments. This could hardly be, perhaps, in a purely technical school, but in the College of Arts and Letters or the College of Commerce, students are not stirred by new chemical reactions unless they happen to improve the morning coffee. Dr. Nieuwland never addresses the student body; you rarely find him at university functions unless you poke about in the shadows of the auditorium; and if you should meet him returning from one of his botanical forays, in high shoes and a jaunty cap, and with a pack over his shoulders, you might suspect he was a New York banker in disguise fleeing from a Democratic Senate Committee, or a desperate professor trying to avoid filling out the latest questionnaire of the School of Education. What I have to say I have gathered from my own observation of him over some thirty-five years’ living where I could 847
848
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
VOL. 27- NO* 7
lished under the title “Some Reactions of Acetylene.” This system. I know he won’t, however, for it was he who first subject has been practically the object of his study ever gave me the definition of a gentleman as a man who can play since. To me and to most of the students a t that time, who the saxophone and doesn’t. This fine appreciation of many in the College of Arts and Letters were pursuing with more things beyond his special field has made hi3 fellom7 professors or less enthusiasm the delights of classical and modern literaappreciate his delightful companionship and be glad of his ture, these “reactions” were merely words. lt was my good presence a t any and all their gatherings, He has had an ear or bad fortune, however, to witness one of hhose reactions and an eye for every occasion, and he rarely talks shop when which inspired me with a lasting respect, for this powerful outside his laboratory unless perhaps he walks with one of gas. his students or a fellow chemist. This may be a virtue of all chemists to observe the scriptural inj unction of a~otcasting Through the advice of Dr. Nieuwland there \vas installed pearls before Berkshires lest they turn and trample them. in the seminary where I lived, a system of illumination by But the chemist, Iilie murder, will out, acetylene gas. The mechanism which generated the gas was housed in a small structure back of the main building. One NE day when Dr. Nieumland’s very Democratic stomach day tlie gas flow was sluggish or jittery and tlie tinner vith a went Republican and taxed his patience and his strength, helpmate was sent down to investigate. They drained all he was sent to the local hospital, h frightened nurse came the gas out of the pipes, and then in order t o find the trouble in with a small glass of something to make rebellious s‘tomachs they lighted a match. Reactions of acetylene in the presbehave. Dr. Nieuwland took it gingerly, fanned it under his ence of the small flame of a match! T caught sight of the innose, and said, “You knov IC can’t take bromides; now, go vestigators as they were rocketed due north--and I must say back and write on your little chart ‘patient refuses to take they anticipated the auto industry by a quarter of a century medicine.’ ” What a calamity It would be if we all could even a t least, in their exhibition of floating power, knee action, and suspect what our physicians feed us. perfect stream line. If I might give a free idea to some prac1 have pictured Br. Nieuwland as going about bee-wise tical engineer, I should like to see him construct an internal one blossom to another, but through all his activity his from combustion engine for aeroplanes which would 6 ‘ c ~ m b u s t 9 ~ work in chemistry was dominant, He leaves it for a while acetylene. Then we might roll out of bed in Los Angeles, for a botanical excursion, a stay a t the beach, or a visit to old share in Chicago, and eat our wheat cakes and sirup in Kew friends-only to come back refreshed and ready for more York. labors in the laboratory where he frequently eats his meals, and not a few times catches a few hours of‘ sleep, stretched NE outstanding quality of Dr. Nieuwland and his work upon a laboratory table with an old coat or an apron for a is that it is thoroughly genuine and honest. He could pillowv. This constant, intense work has become more a joy noC fake or sham in anything, and he has no patience with than a labor and has brought the results this SOCIETY thinks or tolerance for the bluffer. This is undoubtedly the result deserving o€ special recognition, results which have made his of the scientific attitude. Men of science are usually men of own school and all its faculty decidedly proud of their own fact. I have seen him nettled by the trick photography of Br. K’ieumland. the moving pictures when the audience seemed to take as authentic what he knew to be a bit of camera deceit. I have seen that spirit of sheer honesty all through his dealings; he is frank to say “I don’t know” about many things concerning which his guess might hit closer the truth than many men’s; but he won’t guess. And if he thinks you are guessing, he is not slow to peer a t you over his half-moon spectacles and tell you the whole thing sounds &e prodigious nonsense. .And yet DP.Nieuwland is fond of fiction. One of the fine things about his life is that his rather inE. R, BRIDGWATEIP tense study of science has never cut off his interest in “cabbages and kings.” It is told in the autobiography of Darwin that he had been 80 absorbed in the study of scientific facts that he had lost all appreciation of music and poetry and the HE primary raw material. for our chemical things that appeal to the imagination and stir the feelings. industry i s f ~ n d a m e n t ascientific ~ knowlDr. Nieuwland has never lost his early interest in literaedge. Our physical raw materials-coal, ture, drama, and music. He reads voraciously and with desalt, sulfur, vegetable oils, wood pulp, etc., were available in light. I have seen him with an armful of detective thrillers almost unlimited quantity long before the birth of the chemihurrying across the campus to a quiet corner in the Science oa%industries that utilize them. We no doubt have in our Building where he could light his pipe (the most ill-smelling hands today the essential physical raw materials for new in? the county) and forget for an afternoon retorts and test chemisal industries that are as yet only dimly conceived. tubes. He enjoys the movies and bobs up religiously on Their development must be preceded, as has the development Saturday night a t the university theater to laugh as heartily of every important new branch of our chemical industry, by as any freshman a t the antics of Pop-Eye the Sailor or the an advance in our fundamental scientific knowledge. growling exploits of the Big Bad Wolf. He never misses the From whence is this knowledge to come? A very small circus when it comes to South Bend. Perhaps it is his interpart of it will come no doubt from the workers in pure science est in zoology that brings him there with a couple of youngin the laboratories of the very few industrial corporations who sters tagging a t his heels; but for a scientist he seems to me support basic scientific research; but the major part of the to get a great deal of pleasure in feeding the elephants and new fundamental chemical knowledge upon which the further following the floating grace of the man on the flying trapeae. development of our chemical industry depcnds must come in. With his love of literature Dr. Nieuwland combines a fine the future, as it has in the past, from our universities, The appreciation of music. In the days that are gone he was many contributions that university research in pure science ever ready t o join with a congenial crowd and strum out has made to the development of our chemical industry are lunes on his guitar; and if he were still willing t o do it I could well known. We are particularly concerned here with the arrange for a public recital over our university broadcasting achievements of one of our outstanding chemists, Julius
rad
