Technikatörténeti szemle 19. (1992)

KÖNYVISMERTETÉS - Papers of the First „MINERALKONTOR” International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Veszprém, 12-16 August, 1991)

describe the reactions of molecules and, following Robert Robinson and Christopher K. Ingold, to show how the electrons shifted. All this was prelude to modern chemical synthesis, it is one thing to describe what might be happening, but it is a far more difficult feat to know the molecules so intimately that they can be induced to do one's bidding — to react in the one way needed to make the desired product. Woodward was a master of this skill. That intimate knowledge was made possible by the instrumental revolution and Arnold O. Beckman was a key figure in that development. Arnold Beckman Born in a small town in Illinois in 1900, the son of a blacksmith, Arnold Beckman found in the family attic Joel Dorman Steele's ..Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry" and carried out its experiments using chemicals found in the kitchen — vinegar, soda, salt — as well as some obtained in the local pharmacy. When he was ten his father built him a workshop for further experimentation, and by the time he entered high school he had chosen chemistry as his life work. He had had some industrial experience before entering the University of Illinois in 1919. At the university, with Carl „Speed" Marvel, he did some work with dialkyl mercury compounds leading to a touch of mercury poisoning which made him choose physical chemistry and finally chemical engineering as his special field. Wallace Carothres of nylon fame was in the class ahead of him and the Illinois chemistry department, with Roger Adams and others, was emphasizing that academic chemistry could and should serve the needs of industry. As a graduate student Arnold Beckman became editor of the Illinois Chemist, with Glenn Joseph as his advertising manager. Joseph played an important role later in Beckman's life. After completing his M. S. in 1923, Beckman spent a year at the California Institute of Technlogy, then went to Western Electric (later to become part of Bell Laboratories) where he learned electronics, then back to Caltech to obtain his Ph. D. in 1928, subsequently joining the chemistry faculty. Because he enjoyed designing and building instruments, he was put in charge of Caltech's instrument shop. He also taught glassblowing and industrial chemistry. The Beckman pH meter Glenn Joseph in 1934 visited Beckman from his job with the California Fruit Growers Exchange. He was looking for a better way to measure the acidity of lemon juice than the fragile glass electrodes needed for adequate sensitivity. Beckman proposed using an electronic amplifier permitting incorporation of a sturdier, less fragile glass elekctrode. The pH meter was born. Soon Joseph came back for a second pH meter, bacause his colleagues were always borrowing his. National Technical Laboratories, with Beckman as Vice President produced more Initial reception, however, was not enthusiastic — until Arthur H. Thomas Co. of Philadelphia decided to sell it. Expecting sales of 600 in a decade, they actually sold 200 in five years and Beckman resigned from Caltech to devote himself more fully to his company. The Beckman pH meter was the first general-purpose chemical instrument to use electronics, and signalled a revolution in laboratory practice.