PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, INTRODUCTION

Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on May 30, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: August 23, 1984 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1984-0228.pr001

Professor Ihde in his office at the University of Wisconsin about 1964

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Parascandola and Whorton; Chemistry and Modern Society ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.


PREFACE A . A R O N I H D E ' S C O N T R I B U T I O N S to our understanding of the evolution of chemistry are remarkable nearly as much for their breadth as for their quantity and quality. This volume originated in a desire to honor the dean of American historians of chemistry, Aaron J. Ihde, at the time of his retirement from the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1980. From the beginning, however, the editors were determined to avoid the typical "Festschrift" volume consisting of a collection of papers on miscellaneous subjects held together only by the association of the authors as students or colleagues of the honorée. Convinced that a book of essays with a central unifying theme would be a more valuable contribution to the literature we strove to achieve that objective. More as a result of chance than editorial wisdom, we have succeeded to a greater extent than we originally dared hope. The result is this publication on "Chemistry and Modern Society". A bibliography of Idhe's contibutions (see appendix) which ranges from Boyle's definition of the element to the establishment of food standards, from Paracelsus to pesticides, reflects something more than Idhe's extra-ordinary curiosity. It expresses a rich appreciation of the inseparability of theoretical and technical progress in chemistry, and of the participation of each in intellectual and social history. That last topic, the impact of chemistry on its social environment, has long been a special interest of Professor Ihde's, and he and his students have made significant contributions to the literature on this subject. Indeed, his chief work, "The Development of Modern Chemistry," opens with the announcement that one of its purposes is to provide "an object lesson of the role of pure science in the development of technology, agriculture, and medicine." Subsequent chapters fulfill that promise, exploring chemistry's influence on western society's transformation from an agricultural to a high-technology industrial base with more thorough and up-to-date coverage than any other broad survey of chemical history. The purpose of the present volume is to modestly offer in tribute a few additional object lessons illuminating chemistry's diverse roles in modern civilization, focusing especially on the American scene.

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The theme of Professor Ihde's Dexter Award address, the formation of hybrid sciences, is extended by an analysis of the conceptual origins of geochemistry. This analysis reveals how the maturation of physical chemistry in the late nineteenth century provided access to the internal dynamics of geological processes and spawned a new specialty in which American scientists took the lead. A more pragmatic application of chem istry to geological deposits (and one having renewed relevance of late) is examined in a detailed study of the history of the production of synthetic petroleum from coal. Petroleum synthesis, of course, has been largely an exercise in chemical engineering, another hybrid discipline. A crucial stage in that profession's conceptual development is dealt with in a dis cussion of the early twentieth century utilization of the notions of unit operations and unit processes. Another area in which chemistry has had an important impact on modern society is in the field of health. Professor Ihde has been a major contributor to the history of nutritional biochemistry, and hence it is appropriate that this volume includes a paper dealing with the early his tory of vitamin research. A somewhat different merger between chem istry and the health sciences has been the pursuit of pharmaceutical in vestigation, an activity that, however thriving now, at first took fre quently halting steps. The checkered fortunes of Charles Holmes Herty are striking testimony to the difficulties of organizing sophisticated drug research in the 1920s. The mention of drug research is a reminder that the career of chem istry has been checkered during the twentieth century. The term "drug therapy" is nearly as likely to trigger the response "thalidomide" as to make one think of penicillin. As the side effects of chemical progress have become more apparent, the whole science has come to be regarded as the great benefactor as well as the great despoiler, a symbol of modern society's paradox of unprecedented prosperity shadowed by the potential for unparalleled devastation. "The Development of Modern Chemistry" concludes on just such a note, with the ominous injunction that although chemistry "can still do much for mankind," it "can also be his undoing." The double-edged action of chemistry on society is the minor theme run ning through this volume. The 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide tragedy, for ex ample, serves as a dramatic backdrop for a presentation of the vicissi tudes affecting drug regulation, while the establishment of standards for synthetic food colors demonstrates the uncertainties confounding the po licing of substances of significant economic value but indeterminate tox icity. Diet has been contaminated by chemical theory as well. Food fads such as the uric acid fetish have been legitimized in practitioners' minds

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by self-serving distortions of biochemical principles. Finally, chemistry has altered the face of war in the twentieth century, as exemplified by the production of toxic gases for use in World War I. The interface between chemistry and society refuses to be drawn in such neat lines as good and bad, however. The search for chemical warfare agents popularized the method of project research that would be used so fruitfully in peacetime investigations. The ravages of Elixir Sulfanilamide provoked the present stricter food and drug legislation. These case studies suggest some of the complexity, as well as the diversity, of chemistry's influence on modern civilization. JOHN PARASCANDOLA

University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin JAMES WHORTON

University of Washington Seattle, Washington March 18, 1983

xi Parascandola and Whorton; Chemistry and Modern Society ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not have been possible without the assistance of various institutions and individuals. The editors wish to express their appreciation to the following for providing the financial support necessary for the publication of this volume: Division of History of Chemistry, American Chemical Society; Merck and Company; Smith Kline Corporation; Dexter Chemical Corporation; and Warner-Lambert Company. Thanks are also due to more people than we can acknowledge here, but we would at least like to single out the following individuals for their special efforts on behalf of this project: Natalie Foster, Secretary-Treasurer, ACS Division of the History of Chemistry; and Suzanne Roethel and Antoinette Drexler, ACS Books Department.

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INTRODUCTION


Aaron J. Ihde—Perspectives A . A R O N J O H N I H D E W A S B O R N on a farm near Neenah, Wisconsin on December 31, 1909, and has lived in the badger state essentially all of his life. After receiving his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1931, Ihde spent the next seven years as a research chemist at a creamery in Chicago. During this period, he was married to Olive Jane Tipler, a former high school classmate and a teacher of Latin and history. The Ihdes were later to have two children, Gretchen (Serrie), now manager of and violinist in the Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota, and John, now a high school chemistry teacher and basketball coach in Wausau, Wisconsin. A desire for further education led Ihde to return to Wisconsin for graduate study in 1938. He earned his M.S. in 1939 and his Ph.D. in 1941 for work in food chemistry under Professor H . A . Schuette. After a year on the faculty at Butler University, he returned to Madison once again in 1942, this time to stay, as a member of the Wisconsin chemistry faculty. For some years Ihde's principal teaching responsibilities were in freshman chemistry, but the historical interests that were eventually to become predominant in his career soon began to surface. In 1946 he revived a History of Chemistry course that had not been taught since the retirement of Professor Lewis Kahlenberg in 1940. Two years later, Ihde's interdisciplinary leanings were given a further stimulus when he agreed to teach the Physical Universe course in the new Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS) program. The purpose of this two-year program in the College of Letters and Science was to provide a coordinated sequence of courses in humanities, social studies, and natural sciences that dealt with the development of ideas in Western culture. Ihde's course dealt with the physical sciences, and he utilized a case study approach that emphasized the historical development of key concepts in astronomy, physics, and chemistry. A year (1951-52) spent at Harvard University as a Carnegie Fellow had a significant influence on the direction of Ihde's career. His association with James Conant, Leonard Nash, and Thomas Kuhn in the teaching of Natural Science 4 at Harvard was a valuable experience that influenced

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the development of his own Physical Universe course. More importantly from our present point of view, his contact with the History of Science program at Harvard, manned by George Sarton and I. B. Cohen, moved him further in the direction of history of science. Ihde's conversion from chemist to historian was also accelerated by his being given a joint appointment in the Department of History of Science at Wisconsin in 1957. Ihde had published a number of historical papers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but his "The Development of Modern Chemistry" (1964) firmly established his credentials as an historian of chemistry. This 850page volume remains the standard reference work on the history of modern chemistry and is an indispensable tool for students, teachers, and researchers. This book alone assures him a lasting place in the field of history of chemistry. A year later, in 1965, Ihde edited in conjunction with William F. Kieffer "Selected Readings in the History of Chemistry," a collection of historical papers reprinted from the Journal of Chemical Education and published by the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society. During this same period, he also served as Chairman of the ACS Division of History of Chemistry for three years (1962-1964). All of these contributions, but especially " The Development of Modern Chemistry," led to his receiving the Dexter Award of the Division of History of Chemistry in 1968. Meanwhile Ihde was busy making Wisconsin into a center for research and graduate study in the history of chemistry. The first Ph.D. for historical research under Ihde's direcion was awarded to Robert Siegfried in 1952, a joint degree in History of Science and Chemistry. (Siegfried was to join the History of Science Department faculty at Wisconsin in 1963, further strengthening the history of chemistry area.) In the ensuing three decades, a total of twenty-two doctoral dissertations in the field of history of science have been directed by Aaron Ihde at the University of Wisconsin. The editors and several other contributors to this volume are proud to be included in that group. Ihde's undergraduate teaching interests were also expanding, as he developed new courses in Science, Technology and Society (in conjunction with Victor Hilts of the History of Science Department) and Evolution of Food and Drug Controls (in conjunction with John Parascandola and Glenn Sonnedecker of the History of Pharmacy program). This latter course reflects Ihde's long-time interest in food chemistry, which began in his graduate school days. From 1955 through 1968 he was a member of the Wisconsin Food Standards Advisory Committee, serving as chairman in the period 1964-1966. Both courses illustrate his concern with the application of scientific knowledge and its social consequences, xiv



the central theme of the present volume. Ihde's Physical Universe course also came in time to focus heavily on the impact of science on the quality of life. In 1978 the University of Wisconsin recognized Professor Ihde's contributions to education by conferring upon him a distinguished teaching award. Since his retirement in 1980, Aaron Ihde has continued to remain active as a scholar and as a teacher. He continues to participate in various courses at Wisconsin as a guest lecturer and to deliver lectures and papers at various institutions and meetings around the country. He remained as major professor to several graduate students who had not yet completed their doctoral dissertations at the time of his retirement. A book-length history of the Chemistry Department at Wisconsin, on which he has been working for the past few years, is now nearing completion. Aaron and Olive Ihde continue to live in Madison in their charming house in the University Arboretum. Those who have visited their home have fond memories of the beautiful setting and warm hospitality that they encountered there. In recent years a number of graduate students have had the good fortune to participate in History of Chemistry evening seminars held in the Ihde home, sessions in which Olive Ihde joined Aaron and his students as an active participant. Those of us involved with the preparation of this book join with all of their other friends and associates in wishing them both many more happy and productive years. JOHN PARASCANDOLA JAMES C. WHORTON

March 28, 1983

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PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, INTRODUCTION

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