Thirty Years of Macromolecules WILLEM QUARLES SveavSgen 120, Stockholm, Sweden
ONEof the last great organic chemists of the old school, Professor Hermann Staudimger, director of the Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry a t Freihurg in Breisgau, Germany, celebrates his 70th birthday on March 23rd. This date is remarkable, as it will be exactly 30 years since he started his research on high molecular compounds, which was to become his lifework. With his unfailing energy, eminent pedagogic qualities, and his sharp pen he succeeded in winning an international group of scientists for his bold ideas, and it is certainly to a great extent due to Staudinger's perseverance and enthusiasm that the chemistry of "high polymers" developed a t such an astonishing rate and within a few decades became a world-wide industry. After having studied a t the Universities of Halle, Miinchen, a n d Darmstadt, Staudimger took his DOC: tor's degree in 1907 under Thiele a t Strasbourg and in the same year became professor a t Karlsmhe. One of his first objects of research was the preparation of compounds with trivalent carbon atoms. He treated diphenylchloroacetyl chloride with zinc and to his surprise obtained a hitherto unknown compound, diphenyl ketene, which through its great reactivity hecame the starting point of a wide field of research. In 1912 Staudinger published his first book on these investigations called "Die Ketene," which is still considered a standard work. During his experiments with ketenes he noted that organic chlorine compounds and alkali metals form remarkably unstable systems, which are even more sensitive than fulminate of mercury but do not explode on heating. Staudinger's students remember, not always with pleasure, the master's love of detonations. Whenever possible the lectures were accompanied by bangs from some unsaturated hydrocarbon. I n the same year Staudinger moved to Ziirich as Professor of Organic Chemistry, where he soon attracted an international crowd of students including some from the United States. They all came under the spell of this tall German who, with his curt nervous gestures and whispering voice, penetrated into the mysteries of the carbon atom and kmdled a love for the strange organic world. His &st task as a teacher was the compilation of an adequate manual for the ordinary analysis of organic mixturw and compounds, which as yet did not exist. This work would give the student a far better insight
into the mechanism of organic reactions than the syntheses of simple compounds as practiced hitherto. The little hook seemed to supply a want, as it was soon translated into English, French, Spanish, and even Japanese. When looking for objects of scientific research Staudinger kept in close contact with the chemical industry, which especially during the first world war had to deal with a number of pressing problems. Together with Ruzicka he investigated the constitution of the insecticide Pyrethrine and tried to find a substitute for pepper. During this research he especially investigated the relation between taste and chemical constitution and found that the taste of pepper originated from an aralkylacidamide of piperidine: A
CeHs(CH2)d-
c
