AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES
Frank Orville Clements AMONG those who attended the nineteenth meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY,
held
at
the
Ohio State University in August, 1899, was Charles B . Dudley, a Councilor of the SOCIETY and chief chemist of the Pennsylvania Railroad. During that meeting a young member of the SOCIETY in Columbus screwed up his courage and asked Dr. Dudley for a job as chemist in his laboratory at Altoona., Dr. Dudley's discouraging response was that never had he hired anyone from a school west of the Ohio River. A few weeks later, however, the applicant got a letter asking him to come to Altoona a s assistant chemist. And thus began the 40-year career in industry of Frank Orville Clements. After a hard struggle t o make his way, he had that year received from Ohio State University the degree of master of science. He had previously attended Otterbein College ( A . B . , 1896; M.A., 1898; D.Sc., 1930). At Ohio State he had been an assistant in freshman chemistry, and had had as one of his students a young fellow from an Ohio farm who was t o play a large part in determining his future, Charles F. Kettering. After three busy years with Dr. Dudley in Altoona. Mr. Clements in 1903 moved west to Omaha as principal assistant chemist in the laboratory of the Union Pacific Railroad. There, under the direction of N . F. Harriman, he struggled with the difficult water problems of the West, had a hand in standardizing products ana equipment for the extensive Harriman system of railroads, and even served as photographer on occasion. In 1905 the National Cash Register Co. in Dayton. Ohio, decided to establish a chemical laboratory, and Charles F. Kettering, who b y this time had become an important member of the development department of that company, suggested that his former teacher in chemistry, Frank O. Clements, be considered for the place. Mr. Clements thus moved to D a y t o n and began a work that was t o be very successful. He was there directly responsible t o John H. Patterson, president of the company, and an industrial autocrat, who, with all his progressiveness, was so critical and irascible as t o be greatly feared b y the members of his staff. It was six months after the laboratory had been established before Mr. Patterson paid his first visit to the new department. When a t last h e did, his new chemist locked the door and pulled down the windows. "What are y o u doing that for?" demanded Mr. Patterson. "Well, I have been here six months now, and I don't want y o u t o leave this laboratory until you see something of what has been done thus far, and until you tell us what you want done further." This audacity pleased Mr. Patterson so much that t h e new chemist at once took an unusually high place in his esteem.
B y this means he built up the good will needed for cooperation, and thus was able t o make contributions t o many processes. In 1916, Charles F. Kettering, who meanwhile had originated and become a successful manufacturer of automobile starting and lighting equipment and of farm lighting sets, decided to found a laboratory in which t o do the kind of pioneering research that he had found impossible in a laboratory attached t o a manufacturing plant. H e invited Frank O. Clements t o become the organizer and director of the new institution, and the invitation was accepted. The first man employed to staff the new research laboratory was Thomas Midgley, Jr. Prior to this, Mr. Clements had picked Midgley from the 1911 class at Cornell for his first job at the National Cash Register Co. The second man employed was Harry C. Mougey who, when Dr. Clements retired in 1939, succeeded him as technical director of the General Motors Research Laboratories. These men are thus two illustrations of one of the outstanding merits of Dr. Clements —his ability to pick men of unusual capabilities. Stated in his own words, "The recruiting of capable men has always been our most important task." The new laboratory, called the Research Division of the Dayton Metal Products Co., was, because of the war conditions a place which he maintained throughout prevailing at the time, located in an old the 12 years of his service there. mansion a t 127 North Ludlow St., in With the laboratory as a base, Mr. Dayton. I t was during the three years Clements and his helpers set about solving the laboratory remained there that outsome of the materials problems of the standing contributions t o military aircraft business. In the punch-press department a large percentage of the work was being were made, that the productive study of automobile fuels and combustion was lost as scrap. The steel used there was begun, and that the search for a n anticlassified by guess into seven grades: dead knock agent was undertaken in earnest. soft, soft, quarter hard, half hard, threequarter hard, hard, and very hard. After I t was there also that, with the help of due investigation, the number of steels was his teacher of freshman chemistry, Charles F . Kettering perfected the philosophy of reduced to three, but three which must pioneering research and the enduring enmeet certain definite chemical and ducthusiasm for it which have since produced tility tests. The large loss in scrap parts so much in the way of material results and was thus corrected, with a saving of many which have made him one of the most thousands of dollars each year. effective among present-day apostles of Cash registers were being lubricated industrial research. with an oil costing $ 1 0 a gallon, on the In 1920 this laboratory with all its staff theory that none but the most costly was was taken over by General Motors Corp. good enough. Mr. Clements put a brass and became the nucleus of its central thimbleful of that oil on the manager's research laboratory, now located in desk t o show him b y the green color deDetroit. Dr. Clements continued as veloped overnight that it was acid enough technical director of this larger and more t o corrode the brass parts of cash registers. important institution until his retirement Thus he got authority t o buy a better oil in September, 1939. And, through his atfor 90 cents a gallon. tention to personnel and to the proper Diplomacy was one of the qualities organization of research endeavors, he most needed by the industrial chemist in contributed in a large way to the success those days. T h e rule-of-thumb men in charge of technical operations were sus- of the projects pursued—to improvements in fuels, t o the solution of metallurgical picious of such newfangled ideas as problems, to advances in automobile applying chemistry t o their jobs. They engines, t o the development of Diesel were suspicious, too, of the chemist himengines for railcar, marine, and automoself as a spy seeking something on the men. tive service, and t o all the many other But the new chemist at the National Cash endeavors. Register Co. was a diplomat. H e made During his 40 years in industry Dr. sure that all the credit for improvements Clements thus worked for four large realized through his efforts went to the companies: the Pennsylvania Railroad, supervisor of the department concerned. 777
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
778
the Union Pacific Railroad, the National Cash Register Co.. and General Motors Corp. At a time when business men have so often been accused of bad ethics, it may be interesting to mention his experience as one who bad a part in many of the important endeavors of those companies. Never once in all those 40 years, said Dr. Clements, was he ever asked to do anything of which his conscience disapproved. Particularly important among the services of Dr. Clements have been his contributions to education and to the advancement of professional societies in his field. Through college, Y. M. C. A., and technical society, he has been very active in helping to foster the education and advancement of young people. To this cause he has contributed liberally of his time and his means. Among his most prizedpossessions are the many, many letters he has received from men and women who have been guided by his counsel and assisted through his generosity. Dr. Clements has longbeen a trustee of Otterbein College, and in his retirement he has settled there to found a nonprofit industry through which young people may help themselves through college. Dr. Clements has been an active member
of
the
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
ter of Alpha Epsilon Delta, national honorary premedical fraternity. His subject was "Silicosis". Herbert L. Davis, who taught in Lawrence College and served as research associate in the Institute of Paper Chefeiistry in Appleton, Wis., has joined the research staff of Johnson and Johnson in New Brunswick, N. J.
Frederick S. Bacon, formerly with Gustavus J. Esselen, Inc., has established headquarters at 192 Pleasant St., Watertown, Mass., where he has equipped a laboratory for general consultation, with emphasis on plastics, adhesives, organic research, ana sales development.
SO-
CIETY for more than 40 years. He has long been active also in several other technical societies, including the American Electrochemical Society, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the American Society for Testing Materials. He is an honorary member of the latter society— which was founded with Dr. Dudley as its first president while Mr. Clements was with him in Altoona—and was its president in 1931-32. Dr. Clements is an ardent baseball fan and former player, as well as an expertfishermanand sailor. This story gives in sketchy fashion the career of an unusually useful man who went into industrial chemistry just before the opening of the present century when few were doing so, and when the place for the chemist in industry was small indeed. It is not too much to say that it was partly because such capable chemists as Frank Orville Clements did go into industry back there that the opportunities for the chemist, and for other technical men as well, have expanded so largely since 1900.
Herbert L. Davis
Fredericks. Bacon
George F. Bertrand has become sales engineer of the Sheffler-Gross Co., Philadelphia. Penna. C. J. Brockman has been appointed chairman of the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors in Georgia, and has also been promoted to professor of chemistry at the University of Georgia. T. A. BOYD Leo W. Briggs has joined the staff of the Western Precipitation Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., where he is interested in new process development and the utiliNew Products zation of industrial wastes. He was formerly the general superintendent of S. INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS, INC., 60 the Gas Department of the Com. East 42nd St., New York, N. Y., panhia Energia Rio Grandense at Porto has added the following new products to Alegre, Brazil, a subsidiary company its list: of the Electric Bond and Share Co. of a,a - Dimethyl - a' - carbdbutoxydihydroNew York. y-pyrone [(CH,),C=CH.CO.CH=COliver E. Buckley, executive vice president (OH).COOC«H«]. Insecticide, insectifuge. of the Bell Telephone Laboratories. Light screen, and solvent for rotenone and New York, N. Y., has been elected derris root extractives. Used in formulachairman of the Engineering Foundation of insect repellent lotions and in contion, succeeding the late George E. centrates for the manufacture of liquid Beggs of Princeton University. F. F. contact insecticides. Colcord, vice president of the U. S. Butyl bemalacetone oxalate [(CeH6)CH Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., =CH.CO.CH=C(OH).COOC4H,]. Light was chosen vice chairman, and Kenneth screen. Used as an ingredient of "sun-tan" A Condit of the National Industrial lotions. Prevents light transmission up Conference Board and £. M. T. Ryder to 4500 A. of the Third Avenue Railway System Curbay B-G. Fermentation by-product of New York City were made members rich in riboflavin (vitamin G) and pantoof the Research Procedure Committee. thenic acid (filtrate factor). Used in Walter I. Schlichter of Columbia Unipoultry feeds, and sold in dried form versity became a member of the execupacked in moistureproof paper bags. tive committee. Derex. Insecticide concentrate. A solution of derris extractives in a,a-dimethyl- Donald £. Cummings, of the University of a'-carbobutoxydihydro-T-pyrone. Used Colorado School of Medicine, was the in liquid contact insecticides for household guest speaker at the November 25 meetand agricultural purposes. ing of the University of Colorado chap-
U
VOL. 17. NO. 24
John R. Eoff is now serving as vice president of the Jordan Wine Co., Jordan, Ontario, and of T. G. Bright & Co., Ltd., Niagara Falls, Canada. In addition to executive duties, he is supervisor of production for these two largest Canadian wineries. Ralph M. Hoffman, for eight years vice president and sales manager of the Pacific Division, has been appointed assistant to the president of the Link-Belt Co., Chicago, 111. David T. James, junior engineer of The R. & H. Chemicals Department, E. I. du Epnt de Nemours & Co.. Inc., Niagara Falls, N. Y., received the 1939 Undergraduate Student Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers on December 6. The award, $25 in cash, was won by an essay on "Bells. Concerning Their Tones", contributed while a student member of the society at Michigan State College. Eugene M. Lannes and S. Lewis Santomieri have joined the staff of Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio, as ceramic engineers. Mr. Lannes was formerly associated with the Porcelain Products, Inc., Carey, Ohio, and Mr. Santomieri was in charge of research for Victor Insulators, Inc., Victor, N. Y. George W. Low, Jr., has resigned from his position as instructor in chemistry at Amherst College, Amherst, Mass., to accept a position with the American Viscose Corp. He is located at the Front Royal. Va., plant, where he is assistant to the chief chemist. Evald L. Skau, for the past two years International Cancer Research Foundation Fellow at Yale University, has been appointed senior chemist in the Oil, Fat, and Protein Division of the Southern Regional Research Laboratory, New Orleans, La. William F. Talbot, who joined the staff of Arthur D. Little, Inc., in June for the purpose of carrying out studies for the General Printing Ink Corp., New York, N. Y., has been made research director of the General Printing Ink Corp.
