JOURNAL OF
CHEMICAL EDUCATION
VIII. RESEARCH WORK I N A GOVERNMENT LABORATORY E. 0.WHITTIER
Mr. Earle 0.Whittier is senior research chemist in the Bureau of Dairy Industry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. His academic training was taken at the University of Maine where he received the B.S., M.S., and Chemical Engineering degrees. He spent six years in teuching at the University of Maine and at Simmons College. Mr. Whittier was research chemist with E . I. du Font de Nemours and Cmnpany for three years before going to his present position in 1921. Mr. Whittier is the author of a number of papers dealing with ihe work of his department. These have appeared principally in the Journal of Dairy Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. This is intended to be a picture of typical activities of a research chemist in a laboratory organized for work on utilization of dairy by-products. Methods of work in food research laboratories in general do not vary a great deal, but the tools of research and the details of technic may vary considerably. Research problems, even those arising from a single industry, are not monotonously similar. The determination of fundamental physical constants of sub-
stances and the pioneer development of a chemical reaction into an industrial process are widely different in detail, yet these and intermediate problems are all found among the projects of an organization under such an apparently very limited title as a dairy research laboratory. Furthermore, many research problems require the services of persons trained in several branches of science. Consequently, a food chemist may find h i i self cooperating with manufacturing experts, bacteriologists, physiologists, and those trained in branches of chemistry other than his own. The chief of this laboratory believes that, if he selects a man with adequate training and experience and with a personality harmonious with research, assigns him a problem, furnishes him with adequate assistants and apparatus, provides him with access to the essential literature and with the opportunity to discuss his problem with associates working on similar problems, in a reasonable time results of interest to science and of value to industry will appear. This has proved to be a justified belief, and such an environment is probably to be found in most successful research laboratories. The work of a project leader is largely planning what is to be done and how it is to be done, making sure that the facts already known are a t hand, evaluating the
results obtained, and preparing reports and accounts of the work for publication. A man in charge of a research problem usually has assistants-persons adequately trained, but lacking experience sufficient for them to be permitted to carry out research by themselves. They gradually advance to a more independent status. Their work is mostly in the laboratory, weighing, precipitating, filtering, distilling, dissolving, making readings with instruments, calculating and recording data-monotonous sometimes, but always with the possibility of an exciting result just ahead, with the assurance of a problem of a differentsort soon, and with more responsibility not far away. In any chemical research laboratory will be found the balances, burets, beakers, flasks, condensers, and burners familiar to one who has had a laboratory course in chemistry. In this milk research laboratory will be found, also, such items as potentiometer assemblies for measuring hydrogen-ion concentration, small centrifuges and filter presses, sterilizers, small vats of wood or metal, a miniature milk evaporator, colorirneters, dough mixers, a baker's oven, and a miniature paper-coating machine. Current scientific journals are circulated among the desks of the research men and books and bound volumes of periodicals are delivered on special request. Accounts of projects in progress or completed are given a t frequent lahoratory staff luncheons. Papers on completed researches are prepared, read a t meetings of scientific societies, and later are published in the scientific or technical journals. An outline of the work done on a research project recently completed will give a picture of typical activities in these laboratories. This work was in progress for nearly three years. The problem was, first, to determine what tests, of those that may be applied to commercial casein, give definite information as to the properties desirable for its use in the coating of paper, and, second, to determine what are the essential features of a manufacturing procedure that will consistently produce casein having these properties. The problem was first planned in a general way. About fifty samples of commercial casein were to be obtained and submitted to several of the most favored commercial tests and analyses. Then, about twenty samples were to be selected, representing the principal differences in composition and physical properties. These were to he analyzed for all the significant constituents and tested by all the tests known to be used industrially. Each of the twenty samples was to be used in coating paper, the same method of preparing and applying the coating to be used in each case. The coated papers were to be tested, judged, and compared with one another and the coating results correlated with the analyses and tests. After this, casein would be made with all reasonable variations in method and the resulting products rated by these significant tests. Coatings would be made with the samples that showed conspicuous differencesby the laboratory tests. From
these experiments, a recommended procedure for manufacture of casein for paper-coating would be formulated. After the plan had been mapped by the project leader, with suggestions from his assistants, the samples were obtained and the long task of making the analyses and tests was undertaken by the assistants. In the meantime, the project leader was searching the literature and corresponding with the manufacturers and users of casein in order to find out as much as possible of what was known, believed, thought, or assumed regarding relationships between tests and coating quality. New methods of testing were tried, and, unless showing no differences among the samples, were added to the list. Arrangements were made with a paper laboratory in another government department to prepare, test, and apply the coatings, and with the Government Printing Office to make test printings of the coated papers. When this work was completed and the results were compared it was found that only a very few tests showed correlation with coating quality. Our results were given in a paper before a technical association of paper manufacturers and published in a technical journal. Several brief problems of relationships among tests had appeared and these were worked out independently by the assistants by means of more analyses, strength tests, and polariscope determinations, and were published by them. From this research an accurate idea had been obtained of the basis of the chief complaint of the casein users and of how to test the casein for its liability to cause the defect involved. Some caseins had the property of causing the coatings to hold foam, which resulted in uncoated spots on the paper. This tendency could be evaluated by measuring the air incorporated into a casein solution under standardized conditions. On this basis a corollary problem was undertaken. Caseins were made in a small vat with all the reasonable variations that could be devised. Acid was added to the skim milk slowly; i t was added rapidly; the milk was stirred rapidly during addition of acid; it was stirred slowly during addition of acid; the acid was added without previous dilution; the acid was added a t different degrees of dilution; the milk was kept a t a high temperature during the precipitation with acid; it was kept a t medium and a t low temperatures. These trials, and many others, yielded a long series of samples which were tested for tendency to cause foam. When this was finished, it was possible to advise the manufacturer how to avoid the foaming defect in his casein, and, as an unexpected by-product, it was possible to advise the user how to minimize the foaming of a casein solution. [Mr. Whittier describes the personal characteristics and technical training of research workers in dairy chemistry as follows.] The . personal characteristics desirable in research such as that described in the accompanying article are those which seem, to me a t least, desirable for any research man. He must, first of all, be wholly honest and free from prejudice in relation to others and to himself:
that is, for example, he should never allow a preconceived notion as to the results of an experiment (frequently highly desirable in the early stages of a research problem) to influence his interpretation of data obtained. He should try to he the first to uncover his own mistakes and, under all circumstances, prompt to acknowledge them. He should be a natural and persistent questioner as to the causes and implications of things and events, and unwilling to accept conclusions of others without logical and sufficient proof. A small measure of stubborness, a fair measure of humor, and large measures of patience and cooperativeness complete the list of the essentials.
The technical training desirable for research workers in chemistry of milk and its products consists of courses to give ability to read scientific French and German, practice in written expression, mathematics through calculus, college physics, history of science, a t least from one to one and one-half years of organic chemistry as a minimum, one year of physical chemistry, inorganic and organic analytical methods, biochemistry, theory and practice of chemical engineering equipment. Qualitative analysis and courses ordinarily given in dairy departments are purposely omitted. Cultural subjects are highly desirable. Some industrial experience is helpful and experience in teaching is invaluable.
