50 YEARS
Some concluding remarks I. M. Kolthoff Department of Chemistry University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minn. 55455
I guess that the main reason why the chairman honored me with an invitation to make a few concluding remarks is that I have lived both in Holland and in this country in the period when analytical chemistry was changing slowly from a technique to a scientific discipline. In that period several of us, such as Hobe Willard and Howell Furman, objected to the fact that the only journal in the country dealing specifically with analytical chemistry was INDUSTRIAL AND E N GINEERING CHEMISTRY, ANALYTICAL E D I T I O N , thus making analytical
chemistry an appendix of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. This situation accounts at least in part for the fact, mentioned by Dr. Laitinen and illustrated in a table by Dr. Stenger, that several of us published most of our papers in J ACS or J. Phys. Chem. Most present authors of papers in ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y would have done the same as evident from the answers that Josephine Petruzzi [ANAL. CHEM., 49,1217A (1977)] received to "Reasons for Publishing in A N A L Y T I CAL C H E M I S T R Y . " Fifty-four percent of 210 authors answered, "Most Likely Medium to Reach an Interested Audience," an answer with which I fully agree. A major change-in the policy of the ANALYTICAL E D I T I O N was attained
when Larry Hallett was made an associate editor and later the sole editor of the JOURNAL, the name of which was changed in 1949 to ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y . It was under Larry's editorship that the JOURNAL opened its columns to papers of a more theoretical nature. Recognition of the fact that analytical chemistry was not solely empirical in nature was slow to come. A main reason was that many analytical chemists did not recognize the great importance of the application of physical chemistry principles in the perfection of classical procedures and the developments of new procedures. As recently as 1950, analytical chemistry was represented in the IUPAC by only one commission, dealing with reactions and reagents in qualitative inorganic analysis. No wonder analytical chemistry was looked down upon by fellow chemists in the other disciplines. We no longer lived in the 19th century when analytical chemistry was generally considered a prestigious discipline and when analytical chemists were appreciated as leaders in the development of chemistry as a science. As an illustration of this statement, I refer only to
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Wolcott Gibbs (no relation of the world-famous Willard Gibbs) who lived from 1822 to 1908 and (I quote from Szabadvary, page 312) " . . . who was the first great personality in American chemistry." Wolcott Gibbs is rightfully considered the father of electrogravimetry. In 1863 he was one of the 50 founders of the National Academy of Sciences and held many functions in the Academy. At the ripe age of 73 in 1895, he was elected its president and served as such for five years. The reason for the decline of the prestige of analytical chemistry was clearly stated by Wilhelm Ostwald in 1894 in the preface to his book, "The Scientific Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry." It took more than half a century to regain this prestige. With Dr. Laitinen and other speakers at this symposium in honor of Dr. Larry Hallett, I share gratitude and indebtedness to Larry for recognizing the broad scope of analytical chemistry and for making the columns of our JOURNAL available to papers of a more theoretical character. That this policy is more than shared by the present editor and his staff is quite evident from a concise description under the heading "Manuscript Requirements" on page 189 of the January issue, 1978, the golden anniversary year of the JOURNAL. I think that most readers will be pleased, as I am, with the second sentence under "Scope": "Articles are either entirely theoretical with regard to analysis or are reports of laboratory experiments that support, argue, refute, or extend established theory." It is clear from Herb Laitinen's talk that Larry Hallett greatly contributed to making ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y a prestigious JOURNAL. It certainly is no exaggeration to add that under his, and even more so under the present leadership, our JOURNAL enjoys worldwide recognition as the leading one in the field. The high standards of our JOURNAL have greatly contributed to worldwide recognition of analytical chemistry as a scientific discipline. Since this is ANALYTICAL C H E M I S TRY'S golden anniversary symposium in honor of Larry Hallett, it is appropriate to enumerate what distinguishes ours from other analytical journals, mainly published by private publishers. I believe our JOURNAL excels in many respects: • The price makes it possible for every analytical chemist here and abroad to subscribe. • It covers the entire field of ana-
0003-2700/78/A350-1314$01.00/0 © 1978 American Chemical Society
lytical chemistry, both theoretical and practical, including all the new instrumental and physical developments. • It beats all other journals in the speed of publication of a manuscript. • The size of each issue is much larger than that of any other analytical journal. • Its A-section provides general articles on up-to-date developments in instrumentation and instrumental methods, applications in biology, pollution analysis, etc., in addition to book reviews, news, and, last but not least, interesting editorials. •
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
has
developed into a J O U R N A L that is of interest to fellow chemists in the other disciplines of chemistry. Among its subscribers and other readers, it numbers many who would not consider themselves primarily as analytical chemists. • The biennial REVIEWS alone are worth the subscription price of the JOURNAL. I doubt whether anyone has the energy, time, and interest to read all the review papers in each issue. However, most of us will spend much time in reading the reviews of special interest to us. We learn of many literature references with which we had not been acquainted. In congratulating Dr. Hallett and the present editor and his staff and other coworkers on the golden anniversary of our J O U R N A L , I express the wish and confidence that its future will continue to reflect the broad scientific and social importance of analytical chemistry.
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