y-products of Research OON
after the end of World War I the writer entered Uni-
S versity College in London to engage in research on the
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y-pyrones under the direction of J. N. Collie. KO one could have been more considerate than Collie in taking care of the physical needs of a new student, and he was particularly helpful in making available samples from his small remaining stock of pyrones. However, when his help was sought in selection of a specific problem and formulation of a working program, he absolutely refused to discuss these matters before the start of experimental work. “It is useless to discuss the problem in advance,” he said. “I have found that no problem ever turns out to be what it starts out to be. The first thing to do is to get to work in the laboratory, and we will discuss the problem after you have some experimental results.” Although the example of refusing to discuss the problem before the beginning of experimental work will commend itself to few teachers of chemistry, a lesson of constructive value can be gleaned from Collie’s position. Examples of his real meaning can be found in the experience of most chemists and nearly all research workers. His own experience had afforded a perfect exdmple. I n the late 1890’s he was involved in a study of the hydrolysis of y-pyrones in acid solutions. Out of one of the solutions there appeared one day the delight of all true chemists-a fine crop of crystals. The precipitate was no product of hydrolysis, and few chemists will remember today what hydrolytic products, if any, Collie and his associates obtained from the pyrones. The crystalline precipitate, far more important, was a pure surprise, well remembered. The precipitate was an addition compound of dimethyl-ypyrone and hydrochloric acid, the classic example of an oxonium salt. Publication of this wholly unexpected result by Collie and Tickle in 1899 attracted the attention of chemists everywhere and profoundly affected subsequent thinking about the chemical behavior of oxygen. Thus a result unrelated to the purpose of his experiment determined the place
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“Albert S. Richardson began his professional career as a school teacher in 1907, retiring two years later to seek an education. This he obtained mainly at Princeton, from which he eventually received a doctor’s degree in chemistry, after majoring as an findergraduate in mathematics. He also did graduate work at Columbia and worked for a few months at University College in London. He taught a few years at Princeton, spent one year with Du Pont, and was with Procter & Gamble for nearly 34 years, during 25 of which he was in charge of the Research Department of the Chemical Division. He retired at the end of 1954 and discovered shortly thereafter-too late to decline to be a guest columnist this monthhis complete lack of talent as an author.” These are our columnist’s words. After you have read the column we believe you will disagree profoundly with his last sentence. June 1955
of J. N. Collie in chemical history and had a marked effect upon the remainder of his professional life. An unexpected experimental result had an even greater impact on the life of Paul Sabat>ier,determining his place in the history of chemistry and changing his whole field of work. Before Sabatier’s visit to this country in 1926, many of us here had long been interested in his work on hydrogenation with use of metal catalysts, without suspecting that there was anything unusual about the development of his interest in that field. During that visit the matter was explained in Cincinnati in a paper entitled “How I Have Been Led to the Direct Hydrogenation Method by Metallic Catalysts.” By translation of French into English, this title probably lost in elegance and gained in meaning; the metallic catalyst really did lead Sabatier to the hydrogenation method. (Notwithstanding the implications of this column three months ago, inanimate things are not always perverse.) As a physical chemist, Sabatier was interested in the known reaction of carbon monoxide with finely divided nickel and wondered if other unsaturated gaseous substances would react in the same way, to form gaseous analogs of nickel carbonyl. Results in his laboratory with nitric oxide and nitrous oxide, also results reported by Moissan and Moureu with acetylene, failed to give the expected gaseous addition compound, but Sabatier and his student Senderens proceeded in 1897 to study the reaction of nickel with ethylene. Again they failed to obtain a compound similar to nickel carbonyl, but analysis of the gaseous reaction product gave an exciting result. It contained a little hydrogen and was mainly ethane. Also, there was a copious deposit of carbon on the nickel. From this evidence it was deduced that the finely divided nickel had catalyzed two successive reactions, first the decomposition of ethylene into carbon and hydrogen, and then the addition of hydrogen to ethylene to form ethane. The process of hydrogenation with nickel cataylst was born in this accidental manner, and a t the same time physical chemist Sabatier was reborn an organic chemist. The recited experiences of Collie and Tickel and of Sabatier and Senderens are not adequately characterized by merely calling them unexpected or surprising. I n each case there was obtained a useful result which was essentially unrelated to the original objective of the experimental fork. With admit ted oversimplification, we may divide the useful results of experimental work into two classes-the attained objectives and the by-products. The test of the by-product of research is not in the element of surprise, but in its lack of any foreseen relationship to the specific purposes for which the experimental work was planned. All types of research, pure and otherwise, yield by-products, which vary in nature over a wide range from items of theo-
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The Professional M a n retical interest to strictly practical schemes. I n academic institutions the by-products tend naturally to have an academic flavor. There are plenty of exceptions, including patents which issue to professors and even to graduate students out of work aimed originally a t increasing the world’s basic knowledge. Sabatier’s by-product discovery was of practical as well as theoretical interest, and earned him an unexpected dividend nearly 30 years later in the form of expenses of his trip to America and a $10,000 honorarium. I n industry it seems boastful t o classify much of our research as basic, but a t least a considerable amount of our chemical work is aimed a t broad understanding of products or processes and not a t specific practical objectives. Broad knowledge and sound scientific thinking are the conscious objectives. They are also the most prolific source of byproducts. Sudden answers to practical questions and new ideas for practical applications have a way of flashing into the mind of the man who is doing background research in an industrial atmosphere. I recall the case of a man who casually proposed one day the winning solution of a problem which he as assistant together with an outside specialist had been unable to solve several years earlier. The first year’s profit from this one unexpected result more than paid for the background research project. The by-products of applied research can take the form of basic information, but they naturally are more likely to be items of practical interest in the field of the research worker or in some related field. Such by-products emerge in a number of common patterns. In the testing of product A for one proposed use, for example, the investigator may stumble upon a quite different use. Likewise in the search for a method for preparing product B, one may incidentally discover an improved method for making compound c. Alertness and good fortune may lead to attainment of the specific objective and a whole series of by-products besides. I recall the case of a white product which ‘was undergoing a mysterious blue discoloration. The trouble shooters failed to find a remedy and the problem was referred to the Research Department. The final solution was a happy one. A change in antioxidant practice both avoided the blue color and effected two minor improvements in the product-all at a’ substantial saving in manufacturing cost. It would be interesting to know for what fraction of the total profits in research the by-products are responsible. I failed to make a thorough study of this question, notwithstanding Collie’s warning. I give my rough impressions only in the hope of stimulating interest in the question. From a closely supervised chemical research program centered wholly on practical objectives, the by-products are likely to account for a minor but substantial fraction of the total values, perhaps a fourth or a fifth. A little relaxation of supervision should increase this fraction and might, under different circumstances, increase or decrease total accomplishment. Shifting some of the effort to background research should increase total profit and the fraction due to by-products. In a well balanced program in which background research constitutes, for example, 25% of the effort, I would expect by-products to account eventually for somewhat less than half the total profit. What do you think? Correspondence concerning this column will be forwarded if addressed t o the author, % Editor, INDUSTRIAL AND ENQINEERINQ CHEMISTRY, 1155--16th
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