HENRY M. LEICESTER College of Physicians and Surgeons, San Francisco, California
IN
1876 Mendeleev visited the United States. As was his custom, he later published a long account of his trip. Although this first-hand account contains much of interest, it has been neglected by many of his biographers. Two recent Russian biographies discuss t,he visit. That of Sletov and Sletova (1) gives only a hrief and popular account. A much more detailed story is given by Pisarzhevskir (8) but it is told in such a way as to belittle the United States to the utmost and to exalt the doctrines of Communism. The only account in English, that of Posin (S),is an exercise in pure imagination and bears no relation whatever to Mendeleev's actual visit. The trip was made chiefly to insgect the oil regions of western Pennsylva~a. During most of his active career, Mendeleev was deeply interested in the prodriction and distribution of petroleum products. This interest sprang from several aspects of his manysided personalitv. As a theoretical scientist. he was roucerned with the origin of such a complex substance as petroleum. As a technologist, he wished to improve the methods of refining and distributing kerosene. His deep patriotism led him all his life to seek to increase the economic wealth of Russia by developing her chemical industries. All these interests combined to inspire in him a strong desire to see the full development of the Russian oil industry which then centered a t Baku on the Caspian Sea. Oil had been known to occur in many parts of the earth from earliest times, but full realization of its potentialities and active attempts to utilize them began only in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first commercially drilled oil well, the Drake well, was brought in in northwestern Pennsylvania on August 27, 1859 (4). An oil rush, in many respects comparable to the California gold rush of 1849, promptly began. Wells were drilled over the whole landscape and transportation systems were developed. At first these were merely crude carts, then railroads, and eventually pipe lines. Wild fluctuations in the price of oil followed as new wells were brought in and new refining methods developed. By 1863 American oil products were being distributed over the whole world, including Russia (5). In this year the Russians began serious development of their own resources. Between 1863 and 1873, twenty-three refineries were built a t Baku, but severe government restrictions prevented large scale expansion. Drilling was forbidden until 1866, and the first drilled
' Presented before the Division of the History of Chemistry :&tthe 130th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Atlantic City, September, 1956. VOLUME 34, NO. 7, JULY, 1957
well did not come in until 1871 (6). The refineries produced only a yellow kerosene, in contrast to the clear American product, and government restrictions continued until 1873 (7). After this date the history of the Russian industry reads much like that of the American. Periods of wild overproduction and price decline were followed by periods of scarcity. Trausportation problems were much the same in both countries. Eventually monopolies took over, the Standard Oil Company in the United States and the Nobel interests from Sweden in Russia. Even as late as 1876, however, a heavy government tax on Russian oil and relatively greater production costs prevented serious competition, and American oil sold freely in Russia (8). CONSULTANT TO RUSSIAN OIL INDUSTRY
Mendeleev was called in as a consultant to some of the Russian oil producers in the 1860's. He was already well established in Russian scientific circles, and his suggestions for improved methods of refining were soon found valuable. He made inspection trips to the Caucasus and quickly became a recognized authority on the oil industry. In 1876 the Russian government became concerned with the poor showing of its petroleum industry. A thorough investigation was demanded, and Mendeleev, as the outstanding technical expert, was naturally called upon. He was rhosen by the Minister of Finance and the Russian Technical Society to visit America, inspect the oil regions there, and report on the state of the American oil industry and the cause of the recent fall in price of .4merican kerosene which had seriously injured the Russian competitors. Mendeleev, an enthusiastic traveler, was the more willing to go because 1876 mas the year of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. His interest in international expositions had been aroused by the Paris exposition of 1867, on which he had written a lengthy report for his government. Whenever Mendeleev engaged in any important activity it was his custom to record the results in a detailed book. His visit to America therefore resulted in a long published record (9). It is a curious mixture of economic analysis, scientific report, and travel diary. From this book it is possible to obtain a very personal view of Mendeleev both as a man and as a scientist. All the quotations which follow are taken from this book. In many respects 1876 was not the best time to visit America. Although it was the Centennial year and many distinguished foreigners were visiting the Exposition, economic and political conditions were not 331
favorable. I n 1873 the failure of Jay Cooke had caused a panic which was followed by five years of severe depression. In fact, the low oil prices which Mendeleev was to investigate resulted partly from this depression (10). This was also the closing year of the Grant administration, during which political morality reached almost its lowest ebb. The stormy period of Reconstruction had intensified the bitter feeling between North and South. Business ethics were as low as political. The great trusts were beginning to form, the railroads were fighting each other viciously, and every form of hidden rebate or outright bribery was used to gain an advantage over competitors. Nevertheless, America was still the land of hope to millions of Europeans, and it was with a sense of expectation that Mendeleev approached its shores. Since he did not speak English well, Mendeleev was accompanied by his young student, Valerii Aleksandrovich Hemilian, later professor of chemistry at Warsaw and Kharkov (If), who acted as his interpreter. They sailed from France on the S. S. Labrador on June 10 and reached New York eleven days later after a very foggy voyage. Mendeleev recorded in detail the weather, the ship speed, the deck sports, and the conversations with fellow passengers during the trip. He a a s particularly interested in a "California doctor" who believed that all ills in the world came from tobacco, which the Indians had given the whites in revenge for the loss of their territories. This doctor was Hippolyte-Ad6on Depierris who had just published a violent book on the subject (19), in which he confused nicotine with curare. Mendeleev, an almost constant smoker, took great delight in pointing out this error and in suggesting that if the wooden Indian outside the cigar store was a reminder of the Indian's revenge, there should be a sign on the bar next door showing the white man giving the Indian a glass of whiskey. With the arrival in New York, disillusion began. The city mas not what he had expected. I was surprised by the plainness of the streeta of the famous city. They were narrow, paved with cobbles, and especially bad, worse than the streets of St. Petemburg or Moscow. The atores and shops reminded me not of St. Petersburg, but of a provincial town of Russia.
Though he was amazed a t the "world famous elevated railroad," he fonnd Broadway a most unimpressive street. He mas told that much of the dinginess was due to the depression, which his American informants ascribed to the high taxes, the recent mu, and the great investments in railroads which ran through unprofitable territories and which lost money as a result of vicious competition. On June 23 Mendeleev and Hemilian went to Washington, traveling in a Pullman car of which "it is enough to sav that men and women sleep in the same car." In Washington he was favorably impressed by the care v.ith ~vhichstatistics of the oil industry were kept and unfavorably impressed by the "politicians" of whom he heard many stories of graft and bribery. He felt that this special class of men who ran the government were not good for the country. The recent Civil War and the intense bitterness of party rivalry lcd him to believe that since "a change in the
internal order had already cost the United States a bloody war," then, although a successful change ''is possible without blows, yet it is not possible in America where further serious change from the present order to a better one is scarcely thinkable without a bloody collision." PHILADELPHIA CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION
Mendeleev next went t o Philadelphia to see the Centennial Exposition. Again he was disappointed, for he fonnd it inferior to the great European expositions he had visited. Yet i t was in Philadelphia that he had his best opportunity to make contact with the most active American science. He hlmself was a well-known chemist, though the Periodic Law had not yet been fully established and his years of greatest fame were still to come. Philadelphia in that summer was host to many notables in all fields, including the sciences. The daily papers listed the famous visitors to the Exposition, the chemical and scientific societies entertained many foreign scientists, yet nowhere is there mention of Mendeleev, either in the Philadelphia newspapers or in the news notes of the American scientific journals. It seems that he avoided contact with most of his fellow chemists. He did meet two leading chemists of the day for he mentions Eben Norton Horsford and "the Boston professor, chemist, and geologist, Sterry Hunt, my honored friend and colleague in science." Hunt had written several hooks on the geology and mineralogy of the oil regions and he gave copies to Mendeleev. These the latter used in the section of his book dealing with the geology of the Pennsylvania oil regions. He does not appear to have made contact with organized science through these chemists, however. Mendeleev also exhibited an apparatus of his own a t the Exposition. It was officially described as follows: 241. PROF. DMITRI MENDELEIEP,St. Petersburg, Russia. Report. Differential Barometer. The instrument exhibited is one of great ingenuity and usefulness, giving, by differonoe of tltmospheric pressure, the difference of elevation with great precision, to s difference of about three hundr~drtnd twenty feet, when the equilibrium is reestablihed in the simplest mmner, and a new departure is taken. An important addition to orographical surveying (13).
This barometer was later used by Mendeleev in a number of careful meteorological studies. INSPECTION OF AMERICAN OIL INDUSTRY
It might have been expected that Mendeleev would have become avare in Philadelphia that there was an American science, even though not as far advanced as in Europe. Instead he expressed only disappointment a t finding no scientific studies of petroleum, either chemical or geological, and, further, no interest in such studies. Apparently his only contacts were with the practical engineers and refinery superintendents, and so he saw only the side of the industry which sought immediate practical results. He therefore concluded, In America they take pains to extract oil in the greatest poasible amount, not caring about the past or the future, or how to handle matters best and most rationally.
A clear illustration of his relatively limited contact with American industry and science is given by the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL E D U C A ~ O N
scientific exhibit which Mendeleev most admired a t the Exposition. The Aladdin Refining Company exhibited a yellow, powdery solid which it called " petrozcene." This had been obtained from high boiling residues of petroleum distillation by their works manager and chemist, Dr. Tweddle, for whom Mendeleev expressed great admiration. Tweddle subsequently published a description of petrozcene (14) from which it is clear that it was merely a complex residue and not a pure chemical substance. This fact was confirmed by Hernilian who took some home with him and after a study of its reactions concluded that it could not be considered a homogeneous substance (16). Yet a t the same Expoaition, Henry Morton, the president of Stevens Institute of Technology, exhibited specimens of several pure hydrocarbons which he had obtained from petroleum some years before (16). Apparently Mendeleev did not see this exhibit. While in Philadelphia, Mendeleev made a careful inspection of the large Atlantic Refinery. Whatever his opinion of American scientists, he admired American mechanics. I got the general impression a t the exposition and in the r e fineries that Americans have a, special attachment for meohanioal processes, using them everywhere, sometimes even where there would he an advanbage without them.
On the Fourth of July Mendeleev traveled to Pittsburgh, noting on the way the number of deserted farms whose owners had moved to more fertile lands in the west. The explosions of firecrackers far into t,he night in Pittsburgh gave him another view of American customs, also unfavorable. Now began the most serious part of his visit. He spent several weeks in careful inspection of the oil regions, the wells, and the pipe lines. He noted the difference between American and Russian petroleum, the economic and technical aspects of the American industry, and he took special note of all practices which he believed could be applied a t Baku. His contacts again were almost entirely with managers and engineers, and again he deplored the lack of scientific study in the petroleum industry. Finally, after a three-day visit to Niagara Falls, which impressed him deeply, he returned to New York by the Erie Canal. He was evidently tired from his travels and from the extreme heat of the summer, as well as the fact that
