NEWS EDITION
226
Obituaries
Vol. 9, No. 14
Mr. Agnew returned just two weeks prior to his death from an extensive trip in Great Britain where he inspected t h e operations of The Mond Nickel Co., Ltd., the company's British subsidiary, and of its subsidiaries.
Edward Goodrich Acheson
Sir Charles Bedford
Edward Goodrich Acheson, internationally known as the discoverer of Carborundum, Oildag, and artificial graphite, died of pneumonia, July 6, i n New York, a t the age of 75. Acheson was born at Washington, Pa., March 9, 1856. Forced t o seek employment at t h e a g e of 16 because of financial reverses suffered by his father, Acheson became timekeeper at a blast furnace, and at t h e age of 17 was granted his first U . S. patent for the invention of a rock-boring machine. In t h e next few years he worked as dry goods clerk, railway ticket clerk, tank gager in the oil fields, and assistant in a surveying party, and, becoming interested in t h e new developments in electricity, sought employment in this industry. He became assistant draftsman for Thomas A. Edison at Menlo Park, a n d in 1881, as a reward for t h e successful preparation of a graphite filament, received a prize of $100 offered by Mr. Edison. H e was sent to the International Exposition in Paris with the Edison exhibit, which introduced the electric incandescent lamp t o Europe. At the close of t h e exposition he spent two and one-half years in Europe, aiding i n the construction of power units and lamp factories near Paris, and installing t h e first electric-lighting systems at Milan, Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Brussels. Returning to America, h e became superintendent of a lamp factory, and turned his attention t o experimental work. In 1890, he founded the Monongahela Electric Light Co. While working on the reduction of iron ore b y natural gas, h e produced the new chemical compound silicon carbide (Carborundum), which was found valuable as an abrasive, and in 1891 formed the Carborundum Co. at Monongahela, moving t o Niagara Falls four years later. Upon subjecting Carborundum t o very high temperatures, Acheson found that it decomposed, the silicon volatilizing and leaving a residue of graphitic carbon, which proved to b e of the highest purity. In 1899 Acheson-graphite became an article of commerce with t h e formation of t h e Acheson Graphite Co. T w o years later, he discovered a method of improving the plasticity of clays b y a process which w a s the forerunner of his production of colloidal graphite in 1906. The Acheson Oildag Co., founded in 1908, produced colloidal graphite, under the trade n a m e s 'Oildag" and "Aquadag." I n 1915 the Acheson Ink Co. was founded, and the same year t h e Acheson Corp. was formed t o coordinate Doctor Acheson's various interests. Doctor Acheson received many honors, among them the John Scott Medal awarded in 1894 for the production of Carborundum and in 1901 for t h e production of artificial graphite; the Gold Medal of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, 189S, for the production of artificial graphite; the Gold Medal of t h e Pan American Exposition, 1901, for artificial graphite; the Grand Prize, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904, for Carborundum and artificial graphite; Count Rumford Medal, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1908, for new industrial products of the electric furnace; the degree of doctor of science from the University of Pittsburgh, 1909; the Perkin Medal, American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, 1910, for distinguished services to applied chemistry; the Order of t h e Royal Northern Star b y the King of Sweden, 1914; and t h e Acheson Medal of the American Electrochemical Society, 1929, for a distinguished contribution in electrothermics. Doctor Acheson had founded this medal in 1928 and was unanimously voted its first recipient. At the time of his death Doctor Acheson was chairman of the board of the Acheson Graphite Corp., the Acheson Oildag Co., Acheson Corp., Goodrich Corp., E. G. Acheson, Ltd., and the Acheson Ink Co. He had been a member of the AMERICAN
Sir Charles Bedford, technical adviser on chemical affairs to the Indian Government and former professor of chemistry in the medical colleges of Calcutta and Lahore, India, died July 8 a t his home in Woking, Surrey, England, at the age of 65. He entered the Indian medical service in 1889, from which h e retired in 1911. He became an expert on alcohol and later was chairman of the alcohol denaturation and excise restrictions committees and of the Empire motor fuels committees. He was the first general manager of the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY since
1907.
Robert J. Ruth Robert J. Ruth, chief of the Pharmaceutical Division of E . R. Squibb & Sons and one of the best known representatives of pharmacy in this country, died in Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, Md., on July 4, after a short illness. H e was the originator of Pharmacy Week and his activities as national chairman of the Pharmacy Week Executive Committee since the first annual observance in 1925 had w o n for him international recognition.
Carlton Strong Carlton Strong, a prominent architect of Pittsburgh, died in that city on June 25, aged 62. During his twenty-five years of practice in Pittsburgh he devoted special attention to the effects of air pollutants upon porous building materials and upon architectural cut stone in particular, and, from 1912 to 1914, was an advisory fellow on Mellon Institute's smoke investigation. He was the author of a chapter, entitled "Stone and the Smoke Nuisance," in the institute's Smoke Investigation Bulletin 6.
A. S. T. M. Holds Annual Meeting T h e annual meeting of the American Society for Testing Materials, held June 22 to 26 in Chicago, was t h e second meeting in thirty years to be held in the Middle West and broke all previous records for attendance. About 1500 registered and attended the sessions, not including 150 exhibitors in t h e society's first Exhibit of Testing Apparatus and Machines. T h e symposium on the "Effect of Temperature on the Properties of Metals" was probably the high light of t h e meeting and was attended b y more than 500. A n innovation was that no papers were presented by the authors, but the papers in the two sessions were summarized, respectively, by L. W. Spring, of the Crane Co., and H. J. French, of the International Nickel Co. This procedure provided time for the presentation of discussion, which contributed greatly to the present knowledge on the subject. T h e symposium on the "Abrasion Testing of Rubber" drew a large group of rubber technologists. I n t h e symposium on the "Weathering Characteristics of Materials" test procedures for various materials were thoroughly discussed, and many facts brought out on masonry deterioration, and the weathering of structural clay products, stone, slate, and concrete aggregates. A joint session with the Western Society of Engineers was devoted to the "Economic Significance of Specifications for Materials." A symposium on "Malleable Iron Castings" was the main subject of t h e joint session with t h e American Foundrymen's Association which, like the others, was well attended.
John I/yons Agnew John Lyons Agnew, vice president of T h e International Nickel Co. of Canada, Ltd., died at his home in Copper Cliff, Ont., July 8. Death was due t o heart failure in a sudden attack of influenza. Mr. Agnew had just returned to his h o m e from a business trip to N e w York. He was in charge of the company's operations in botB Canada and Great Britain. Among the offices which he held in the parent and subsidiary companies were: vice president, director, and member of the Executive Committee of T h e International Nickel Co. of Canada, Ltd. ; director of The International Nickel Co., Inc. (the operating company in the United States). H e likewise served as deputy chairman and director of Ontario Refining C o . , Ltd., in which the nickel company has 4 2 per cent interest; and he was also a director of the Bank of Toronto.
Special Courses in Petroleum Refining From July 20 to August 21 another of the special courses in petroleum refining will be given a t the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the auspices of the Department of Chemical Engineering. This has proved t o be a very attractive course, especially for those advanced in petroleum technology. Indeed, it is an advanced research seminar, which last year attracted 25 men, representing 17 petroleum companies. T h e work is planned primarily t o meet the needs of technical men in the industry, particularly young men who find themselves lacking in the specialized training in fluid dynamics, flow of heat, and the mechanism of diffusional processes so important in this field.
