February, 1923
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Presentation By Charles F. Chandler It is my privilege as the senior past president of the Society of Chemical Industry residing in this country to make the actual presentation of the Perkin Medal to my very dear friend and our distinguished brother chemist, Milton C. Whitaker. He was born in Frazeysburg, Ohio, December 16, 1870. His father was R. B. Whitaker, Lieutenant, 51st Ohio Volunteers, during the Civil War. His mother was Jennie Magruder, of West Carlisle, Ohio. His two brothers, Orvil R. and Frederick, are mining engineers. The family moved in 1880 to Colorado, and Whitaker attended the Durango public schools. He graduated from the Boulder School in 1887, and from the Colorado State Preparatory School in 1890. During the next three years he worked as mechanic and millwright in the lumber mills of the Southwest, where he designed and erected two large mills for the Mancos Lumber Company. In 1893 he returned to college, at the University of Colorado. Prof. Charles S. Palmer was a t the head of the department of chemistry, and he made chemistry so interesting, even fascinating, that Whitaker could not resist the impulse to choose chemistry for his life work. So he made chemistry his major subject, studying at the same time mineralogy, geology, petrology, metallurgy, assaying, mechanical and electrical engineering. He also assisted in the chemical laboratory, and as instructor in chemistry did some teaching in this department. He received from this university the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1897, of Master of Science in 1900, and in 1913 the degree of LL.D. I n 1915 he received from the University of Pittsburgh the degree of Doctor of Chemical Engineering. He was married in 1900 to Mabel Martin of Denver, member of the class of 1898 of the University of Colorado. He has two sons, aged twenty and sixteen. I n 1898, when seeking a suitable chemist to take charge of the sophomore class in Columbia College, I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of Dr. Whitaker. I decided a t once that he was the man for the position, and had him appointed an instructor in chemistry. As we became better acquainted I was surprised to discover what a capable and reliable chemist he was, and I induced him to give me his spare hours and days as my associate in consulting and expert work in my private laboratory. In 1902, Waldron Shapley, chemist for the Welsbach Light Chemical Company at Gloucester, N. J., died, and Mr. Sidney Mason, president of the company, applied to me for a competent chemist to fill the position, which was a very important and responsible one. Very reluctantly I felt obliged to tell him that by far the best and most reliable man for the position was Dr. Whitaker. When he met him and talked the matter over with him he was so impressed by him that he engaged him at once. He was immediately installed as chemist, and in 1903 was made superintendent of all the manufacturing departments. He devoted the following seven years to directing research work, solving chemical and engineering problems, and the development of the factories at Philadelphia and Columbus. During 1908, 1909, and 1910, he was a special lecturer on works management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On my retirement from my duties at Columbia University in 1910, Dr. Whitaker was appointed professor of industrial chemistry and chemical engineering, a position which he filled to the great satisfaction of the department and of the students. He converted the basement of Havemeyer Hall into a most comprehensive chemical engineering laboratory by setting up a typical chemical plant equipment. His outfit included : singleand multiple-effect evaporators, filter presses, agitator tanks, siphon and air-effect pumps, absorption towers, centrifugals, separators, vacuum stills and dryers, multiple-series percolators,
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distilling columns, crystallizers, grinding equipment, machine shop, pipe shop, and private research laboratories. I n 1916 he became general manager of the Curtis Bay Chemical Co., and in 1917 its president. In November of that year he became president of the U. S. Industrial Chemical Co., successor to the Curtis Bay Co., and also vice president and director of the U. S. Industrial Alcohol Co., positions which he still retains. He was for a time advisor to the War Industries Board. He remained a t the head of the Chemical Engineering Department of Columbia for six years, until 1917, and when he left it he had built up an efficient and well-organized department, comparable with any similar oiganization in this country or abroad. From 1911 to 1916 he was also editor of The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, one of the official journals of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. He improved this journal very materially, put it on a paying basis, and largely increased its circulation. He was chairman of the New York Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, vice president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and president of the Chemists’ Club. U. s. PATENTS GRANTPD TO M. DATE PATENT PATEN TED No. July2 1912 1 030 954 July 2: 1912 1 31’219 September 19, 1911 1$03’569 January 6 1915 1’123’827 January 5’ 1915 1’123’828 Septembe; 15 1914 1:110:850 October 9, 19i7 1,242,624
c. WXITAKER
AND
ASSOCIATES
SUBJECT Protective container for mantles Protective container for mantles Storage of acetylene1 Water-soluble coffee extract1 Coffee extract‘ Process of distillation Removing nickel from hydrogenized fat or oil treating resinous June 15, 1915 Process of 1,142,922 woods2 January 6, 1920 Manufacture of gas* 1 327 001 August 3 1920 Apparatus for manufacture of gas8 1’348’766 February’7, 1922 Liquid fuel mixture 1’405’809 December 13, 1921 Process of obtaining potassium 1:400:192 compounds May 3, 1921 Process of obtaining alcohol and 1,376,662 potassium compounds November 8, 1921 Catalyzer apparatus 1 396 389 July4 1922 Ethylene from alcohol‘ 1’421’640 Apparatus for producing ethylene4 Januaiy 3, 1922 1‘402’329 July 4 1922 Liquid fuel 1‘421‘879 Internal-combustion-enginefuel June io, 1922 1’420’006 Fuel. for internal-combustion enJuly 18, 1922 1:423:058 gine Fuel. for internal-combustion enJune 20,1922 1,420,007 gine Container for volatile liquids December 13, 1921 1,400,193 DESIGN Design for fuel container June 28, 1921 58331 1 Whitaker and Metzger. 1 Whitaker and Bates. 8 Whitaker and Rittman. 4 Whitaker and Backhaus. ARTICLES BY M. c. WHITAKER, et al. “Olivinite and Picrotitanite from Magnolia District,” Proc. Colorado
sd. SOC., iasa. “The Rare Earths, Their Production and Application,” 9. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1 (1909), 235. (Whitaker and Miner.) “Improved Working Conditions in the Welsbach Company’s Works,” Progressive Age, August 15, 1910, p. 710. “Incandescent Gas Mantles.” Lecture delivered at Johns Hopkins University, October and November, 1SlO. “Incandescent Gas Lighting,” Trans. I l l . Eng. SO&, 6 (1911), 429. “Chemical Engineering and the New Laboratories at Columbia University,” J . Ind. Eng. Chem., 6 (1913) 304. (Whitaker and Murphy.) “Encouragement of American Development,” Chem. Eng., 18 (1913), 223. “Chemical Utilization of Southern Pine Waste,” J . I n d . Eng. Chem., 6 (1914), 289. (Whitaker and Bates.) “Thermal Reactions in Carbureting Water Gas,” Ibid., 6 (1914), 383, 472. (Whitaker and Rittman.) “Some Professional Obligations.” Presidential Address before American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Chem. Met. Eng., 14 (1914), 437. “Time Factor in Making Oil Gas,” J . Ind. Eng. Chem., 7 (1915), 484. (Whitaker and Alexander.) “Albert Plaut Obituary,” Ibid., 7 (1915), 716. “Bibliography of the Chemistry of Gas Manufacture,” Bur. Mines, Tech. Paper 120 (1915). (Whitaker and Rittman.) “High Explosives,” Columbia News, 7 (1916) 681. “Decomposition of Hydrocarbons and the Influence of Hydrogen in Carbureted Water-Gas Manufacturing,” J . I n d . Eng. Chem., 8 (1916) 593, 601, 684, 695. (Whitaker and Leslie.)
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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
“Industrial Alcohol’s Promising Future,” Journal of Commerce, FFbuary 5, 1917. Address on Alcohol before t h e Franklin Institute, November 21, 1917. “Our Nitrogen Demand and Supply i n t h e Event of War,” J . I n d . Eng. Chem., 9 (1917), 204. “The Effect of Temperature and Duration of Reaction in the Formation of Light Oils in Coal Carbonization a t Atmospheric Pressure,” I b i d . , 9 (1917), 261. (Whitaker a n d Crowell.) “Comparative Study of the Thermal Decomposition of Coal and of Some of t h e Products of Its Carbonization,” Ibid., 10 (1918), 431. (Whitaker a n d Suydam.) “Manufacturing Consumers Make Pleas for Change in Alcohol Regulations,” Oil, Paint Drug ReP., 98 (1920), 29. “Personalities.” Award of Perkin Medal t o Dr. C. F. Chandler. J . Ind. Eng. Chem., 12 (l920), 183. “Protest against Nenr Volstead Bill Manufactures. Denounce Pending Measure as Menace t o Drug and Chemicalhdustries. Enforcement Officials Lack Knowledge of Legitimate Uses of Nonbeverage Alcohol,” T h e Pharmaceutical Era, 64 (1921), 233. “Industrial Alcohol and I t s Relation to Prohibition Enforcement from the Manufacturers’ Standpoint,” J . I n d . Eng. Chem., 13 (1921), 647. “Charles F. Chandler, Dean of American Chemists,” Ibid., 14 (1922), 977.
CONFERRING THE MEDAL DR. MILTONC. WHITAKER, M y dear Friend: It gives me the greatest pleasure, as the representative of the Society of Chemical Industry and the affiliated chemical and electrochemical societies of America, to place in your hands this beautiful Perkin Medal, as a token of the appreciation arid affection of your fellow chemists.
Acceptance By Milton C. Whitaker
I
I have always believed that the Perkin Medal is the greatest honor that can he conferred upon a chemist by his fellow workers. I am accordingly deeply appreciative of the distinction which your committee has bestowed upon me, and doubly grateful to receive the beautiful symbol of the honor from you, sir, a Perkin Medalist yourself and by unanimous consent the beloved dean of our profession. It has been my good fortune to be an organization man rather than an individual worker. Achievements which have resulted in the award of the Perkin Medal to me are necessarily, therefore, achievements of the men with whom I have worked. It would be a pleasure to catalog the names and individual accomplishments of these men, but the list would be so long and involved that it is probably better at this time to generalize. Accordingly, the medal is accepted by me, in a representative capacity, as a distinguished honor conferred by the American chemical profession on these men with whom I have been associated in the thirty years devoted to study and practice in the field of applied chemistry.
ORGANIZATION FOR CHEMICAL PRODUCTION Organization for this or that purpose is a venerated topic for speech makers-especially efficiency experts and others with more or less amateur standing. Organization for chemical development and production has been spared much of this limelight, probably because of the new elements introduced and the greater difficulty in understanding the problem or even the language of chemical industry. Nevertheless, the fact must be recognized that no program of chemical production can be carried through without an adequate organization, any more than mechanical production can be accomplished without operators, or railroads run without men. While research chemists and physicists are laying the foundations for products, processes, and plants, it is incumbent upon somebody to develop, study, and perfect, concurrently, a suitable
Vol. 15,No. 2
organization to carry their research results through the various stages of development and finally to profitable production. Furthermore, organized effort is obviously more rapid, efficient, and thorough than single-handed work, and this applies to every step from research to sales. Accordingly, it seems appropriate, in spite of the overworked character of the subject of organization, to outline some of the methods which my associates and I apply to chemical development in order to arrive at the results which your committee has accepted as collectively justifying the great honor of the P e r k b Medal. Arthur Little once said, “There is great danger in an organization chart-someone might mistake it for an organzzatiolz.” After this apt, if somewhat blunt, awakening, we wouldnot venture even to submit an organization chart. For the purposes of developing and coordinating the work of organization, the problems requiring individual treatment and timing may be arranged under the following general heads: (1) objective, (2) direction and policy, (3) research and engineering, (4) construction, (5) operation, (6) office and accounting, (7) sales and promotion, and (8) general seasoning. Time will not permit a detailed analysis of the methods of development for each of these organization headings, but the system which we have followed may be illustrated by selected examples. OBJECTIVE The objective of an organization requires the most careful analysis. This applies to all organizations, whether old or new. What is it supposed to do and where is it headed for? Obviously, the scope and extent of an organization should be adjusted to the facts developed by such an analysis. Over-organization seems to be the most general fault. We saw many cases during the war where there was so much organization that no one was left to do the work. We still frequently find organizations “all dressed up and no place to go.” This condition of organization seems to be largely due to the fact that almost everybody in a company, from chemists and engineers to office boys, has some pet theories in regard to organization that he would like to try, and will try if permitted. It is difficult for some of us to understand why men with highly specialized technical talent, which puts them in a class by themselves, surrounded by most fascinating problems and with worthwhile achievements easily within their reach, have a hankering to do “executive work,” which in so many cases means to sit at a desk and function as a “traffic cop” for correspondence. DIRECTION AND POLICY The direction and policy of an organization for chemical production is obviously, on account of its basic position, the most important element of the whole program. An organization without proper and carefully defined policy is like a ship without a rudder. It may gyrate around without going anywhere in particular, or it may, in close quarters, do a great deal of damage, both to itself and to its neighbors. Furthermore, a policy should be carefully worked out in the beginning, and it must “stay put.” Missteps in the formulation or execution of policy may be of little consequence at the time, but may at some future date loom up like a rock in the channel. I n any project of development, therefore, direction and policy deserve and must receive, far in advance, the most profound and intelligent consideration. RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING Research and engineering are the logical preliminaries to the development of any new program of chemical production, and, we believe, are equally necessary to improvement in the efficiency of established operations. Volumes have been written on the subject of organization for research. We claim no originality
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