Johannes Wislicenus

Johannes Winlicenus was born on June 24, 1835 in Kleineichsted, Saxony, the son of Gustav and Emilie Winlicenus. He was born into a devout protestant family that in the 17th century had been forced to flee their native Poland to Saxony on account of their religion. His father was a protestant minister who in 1853 published a book in which he attempted to liberate people from what he thought was a "superstitious adoration" of the Bible. The book was considered blasphemous by the authorities, and so it was destroyed and he was sentenced to two years in prison. Instead he fled with his family to Boston, Massachusetts. Johannes who was 18 at the time served as an assistant to chemist Eben Horsford at Harvard University and in 1855 he as appointed lecturer at New York's Mechanic's Institute. Returning to Europe in 1856 he went to the University of Halle where he resumed his studies and served as an assistant to Wilhelm Heintz. He had finished the requirements for his PhD by 1859 but as a condition of his graduation he was asked to renounce the teachings of his father and cease his political activities. He refused and then went to the University of Zurich where he finished his doctorate in 1860. He served as a lecturer at the University of Zurich until 1868 when he became a professor of chemistry there. In 1860 he became professor of chemistry at the Swiss Pyrotechnical Institute and he served both professorships simultaneously. In 1872 he became the chair of chemistry at the University of Wurzburg and in 1885 he became a professor of chemistry at the University of Leipzig.

Winlicenus' research was in organic chemistry. Starting in 1868 he began studying lactic acid. Lactic acid is a  carboxylic acid that is a metabolite of glucose. In his studies he found that there were two types of lactic acid which had different chemical properties. While these two chemicals have the same chemical formula (the same numbers and types of atoms) they have different structures. In the case of lactic acid (a three carbon long carboxylic acid) one form has a hydroxyl group attached to the carbon adjacent to the carbonyl carbon and the other form has a hydroxyl group attached to the terminal carbon, the carbon on the opposite end of the three carbon chain from the carbonyl. Because these two molecules have different structures they have different properties, but the formulas for both compounds are both C3H6O3. Winlicenus called these chemicals with the same formula but different structures structural isomers.

Another important experiment carried out by Winlicenus, working in collaboration with his friend Aldolf Fick a professor of physiology at the University of Zurich, showed that carbohydrates and fats were the principal source of muscular energy. The pair ascended the Faulhorn, taking with them only food from which proteins had been excluded. While they climbed the pair monitored their nitrogen metabolism and found that the the break down of proteins accounted for less than one third of the energy generated by their metabolism.

Wislicenus was elected a foreign member of the British Royal Chemical Society in 1888 and member of the Royal Society of London in 1897 which presented him with its Davy Medal in the following year.

Winlicenus died on December 5, 1902.


References:

P.F.F.; "Johannes Wislicenus. 1835-1902"; Proceedings of the Royal Society (1907) 78:iii-xii

Ramberg, Peter J.; Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement: An Early History of Stereochemistry. 1874-1914; Ashgate Publishing Ltd.; 2003

"Johannes Wislicenus, Biography", retrieved from: my.rsc.org

Johannes Wislicenus Wikipedia Entry

Sir Norman Haworth

Walter Norman Haworth was born on March 19, 1883 in Chorley, Lancashire, England the second son and fourth child of Thomas and Hannah Haworth. His father was the manager of a linoleum plant. After attending the local school until the age 14 Haworth joined his father and learned about linoleum design and manufacture. His interest in chemistry began when he studied the dyes used to color linoleum. He continued his education studying under a tutor in the neighboring town of Preston, which allowed him to pass the entrance examination for the University of Manchester. Against his family's wishes he began at the University of Manchester, studying chemistry under W.H. Perkin. He graduated with first class honors in 1906. On the basis of his work under Perkin he was awarded a 1851 Exhibition Scholarship which allowed him to study in the laboratory of Otto Wallach in Gottingen, Germany earning his doctorate in one year of study. He returned to Manchester where in the minimum time possible he was awarded his D. Sc. for his work on terpenes. Terpenes are produced by plants and their building block are units of isoprene.

In 1911 Haworth took an appointment as a demonstrator at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London and in 1912 he was appointed a lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. At St. Andrews he became interested in the chemistry of carbohydrates while working with Thomas Purdie and James Irvine. Haworth organized the laboratories at St. Andrews for the production of chemicals and drugs during the First World War. In 1920 he was called to take the chair of chemistry at the University of Durham. The following year he succeeded Philips Bedson as director. In 1925 Haworth was appointed professor and director of chemistry at the University of Birmingham where he remained until 1948. Then he became the dean of science and he served as an acting vice-principal from 1947 to 1948.

Haworth's research centered around carbohydrates and he determined the structures of many, including maltose, cellobiose, lactose, gentiobiose, melibiose, gentianose, and raffinose. He was also responsible for discovering the glucoside ring structure of normal sugars. Normal sugars that are five or six carbons long form a ring structure where the terminal hydroxyl nucleophillically attacks the aldehyde carbon forming an glycosidic bond. He developed Haworth projections which are two dimensional representations of three dimensional sugar structures. Haworth was also the first person to chemically synthesize vitamin C, the first vitamin artificially synthesized.

For his work understanding the structures of carbohydrates and the synthesis of vitamin C Haworth shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul Karrer. In 1947 Haworth was knighted. In 1977 the Royal Mail issued a postage stamp honoring Haworth for his Nobel Prize and the synthesis of Vitamin C.

He died suddenly on his 67th birthday, March 19, 1950.


References:

Anon, "Walter Norman Haworth: 1883-1950" in Advances in Carbohydrates(1951)6:1

Norman Haworth Nobel Biography

Norman Haworth Wikipedia Entry

Benjamin Sillman Jr.

Benjamin Sillman Jr. was born on December 4, 1816 in New Haven Connecticut.  His father, Benjamin Sillman Sr. was a professor of chemistry at Yale College in New Haven and his grandfather was General Gold Selleck Sillman, who served in the American Revolution, winning distinguished service defending the southeast corner of Connecticut. Visiting scientists often came to the Stillman home and Benjamin Jr. grew up in a home with the atmosphere of scientific culture.  As a child he collected minerals and became interested in chemical experiments.  He attended the schools of New Haven and in 1833 he entered Yale College, graduating in 1937.

After graduating he worked for his father as an assistant and obtained his masters degree in 1840, after which he was made a lecturer and began teaching classes in addition to research.  In 1838 with his father he became editor of the American Journal of Science and Arts a position he held until his passing.  In 1846 he was made professor of chemistry and kindred sciences at Yale.  With J.P. Norton he organized the School of Applied Chemistry in 1846, setting up a laboratory at their own expense in a house on the college grounds that had formally been the home of college presidents.  The school was enlarged a year later and became the Yale Scientific School and later the Sheffield Scientific School.  He remained teaching at Yale until his death.

Sillman's research involved applied chemistry and in 1855 he was given a sample of crude Pennsylvania rock oil by speculators to find out if it could be used for illumination.  At the time coal oil and a diminishing supply of whale oil were used in lamps for light.  Sillman fractionally distilled (a process invented by his father) the rock oil sample separating it into various samples which he tested for illumination power.  Fractional distillation is used to separate constituents of a mixture that have evaporation points that are close together and a special column filled with glass beads or metal pieces that allow vapor to condensate is used.  As the mixture is heated vapor moves up the column and the less volatile constituents of the mixture condensate on the glass or metal, allowing only the most volatile constituents to move to the top of the column.  A second condensation column is then used to collect the components. Fractional distillation on an industrial scale is done today on crude oil to make gasoline and other fuels.  Sillman's experiment produced a product that burned brighter than other fuels on the market at the same price.  He described the crude oil to the investors as "a raw material from which...they may manufacture a valuable product."  In his report he also said that the distillation products of rock oil might also be useful for lubrication.  His report led to an oil boom in Pennsylvania.

With his report Sillman's advice was sought out as a mining consultant, a field in which he was not as successful.  He served as secretary to the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists.  The United States Congress named him as an original member to the National Academy of Sciences and he was in charge of the mineralogical and geological departments of the New York World's Fair in 1853.

He died on January 14, 1885.


References

Wright, Arthur W.;"Biographical Memoir of Benjamin Stillman Jr. 1816-1885"; Biographical Memoirs Vol. 7; National Academy Press; 1911

Anonymous; "Benjamin Stillman"; in Memorial Biographies of the New England Historical Genealogical Society: 1880-1889; New England Historical Genealogical Society; 1907

Benjamin Stillman Jr. Wikipedia Entry

Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff

Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff was born on November 21, 1867 in Moscow, Russia. Ipatieff spent his early years studying for a military career. At age 11, after two years of regular gymnasium, he enrolled at the Third Moscow Military Gymnasium. Although he excelled in math generally his grades were poor until he reached the sixth class at age fourteen. After graduation, at sixteen he went to the Alexander Military School in Moscow when he failed to be admitted to the Mikhail Artillery School in St. Petersberg. He worked hard to achieve grades that led his class and in 1886 he transferred to the Mikhail Artillery School. He graduated in 1887 and was commissioned a lieutenant, using a portion of the money given to him by the government and his father to set up a chemistry laboratory in his home.

He began teaching chemistry at the artillery academy and working toward a doctorate, which he obtained from St. Petersberg University in 1906. He began teaching at the university in 1906 as a lecturer and remained until 1916. During World War I he served as the director of the Commission for Preparation of Explosives and Chair of the Chemical Committee. Because he was uninterested in politics he was asked, after the revolution, to remain in charge and help convert the wartime chemical industry to a peacetime industry. In 1930, at the age of 64, taking his wife with him, he left the Soviet Union to go to a meeting in Berlin. He never returned. Initially he split his time between the United States and Berlin, but eventually settled in the United States.

Ipatieff's research interests were studying the effects of high pressures and catalysts on hydrocarbons. In 1927 he founded the High Pressure Institute, where he and his students studied the effect of inorganic molecules (catalysts) on organic compounds at high pressures and temperatures. To perform these studies Ipatieff developed a bomb shaped steel case that could withstand high pressures, called an Ipatieff bomb. Catalysts are compounds that when added to a chemical reaction lower the activation energy necessary for the reaction to happen, thus speed the reaction. Inorganic (non-carbon containing) compounds are often used as catalysts in organic (carbon containing) chemistry. One example of a catalytic reaction discovered by Ipatieff is the preparation of high-octane fuels by the catalytic conversion of paraffin. The high octane fuels that were produced were used by the British Air Force during World War II, and allowed British airplanes to go faster than German planes.

After moving to the United States Ipatieff obtained a lecturer position at Northwestern University and worked for the Universal Oil Products Company. Initially the Soviet Union tried to encourage Ipatieff to return, but he had no desire to return. Eventually he was denounced by the Soviet Union (and even by his own son, who was a chemistry teacher) and had his citizenship revoked. He was also expelled from the Russian Academy of Science. He became a U. S. citizen in 1937 and was elected the National Academy of Science in 1939. Throughout his time in the U.S. he remained active in his research, publishing almost 160 papers between 1933 and 1954, and with his name on more than 200 patents.

Ipatieff died on November 29, 1952.


References:

McDermott, Wm. F.; "Faster than Bullets"; The Rotarian (1951) Vol. 58 No. 1:29-31, 56

Schmerling, Lewis; "Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff: 1867-1952"; in Biographical Memiors Vol. 57; National Academy Press; 1975

Percy Lavon Julian

Percy Lavon Julian was born on April 11, 1899 in Montgomery, Alabama, the oldest of six children of a railway clerk and a school teacher. Learning was emphasized by his parents and his two brothers went on to become physicians and his three sisters received masters degrees. After elementary school he attended the State Normal School for Negros. Upon graduation he moved to Greencastle, Indiana, where he attended DePauw University. Because of his inadequate preparation he was admitted as a "sub-freshman" and in addition to his college classes he had to take classes at a nearby high school. He supported his education by working as a waiter and digging ditches.

Julian graduated from DePauw in 1920 as valedictorian of his class and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, following the advice of his teachers, he took a position as a chemistry teacher at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He taught at Fisk for two years and in 1922 he won an Austin Fellowship that allowed him to go to Harvard University where in 1823 he received a M.A. Unable to continue at Harvard due to the color of his skin, joined the faculty at West Virginia State College. In 1928 he became the head of the chemistry department at Howard University in Washington D. C.

In 1929 Julian received a Rockefeller foundation grant that allowed him to travel to Vienna where he worked in the laboratory of Ernst Spath at the University of Vienna. In Vienna, Julian was able to finish his Ph.D. in 1931, working on natural products chemistry and completing a thesis on the alkaloids of the Corydalis cava. After finishing his Ph.D. Julian returned to Howard University, where he taught for two more years. In 1933 he returned to DePauw University as a research fellow. At DePauw, working with Joseph Pikl, a colleague of his from Vienna, Julian completed the total synthesis of physostigmine, a reversible inhibitor of cholinesterase. It is used to treat myasthenia gravis, glaucoma and Alzheimer's disease.

Frustrated because he was unable to obtain a faculty position at DePauw, Julian went into industry, where in 1936 he got a job as the director of research for soya products at Glidden in Chicago, Illinois. He worked at Glidden for 18 years developing products from soya beans which resulted in numerous patents including a paper coating and a fire retardant foam widely used during World War II. His research made possible the production of large quantities of steroid hormones such as progesterone and hydrocortisone at low cost. Around 1950 the Julian family moved from Chicago to Oak Park, Illinois. The first African-American family in the white neighborhood, their house was twice bombed. These attacks galvanized the community and a community group was formed to support the Julians

In 1953 he left Glidden and established Julian Laboratories, which specialized in producing synthetic cortisone. Using wild yams from Mexico, which he found were a better source of steroids than soya, Julian established Labratorios Julian de Mexico in Mexico city which cultivated the yams and shipped them to Oak Park, Illinois for refinement. In 1961 he sold the Oak Park plant to Smith, Kline and French for 2.3 million dollars.

Among the honors that Julian received was the Springham Medal from the NAACP and election to the National Academy of Science in 1973, as the second African-American to receive that honor.

Julian died on April 19, 1975.

References:

Witkop, Bernhard, "Percy Lavon Julian" in Biographical Memoirs, Vol. 52, National Academy Press, 1980

"Percy Julian" at blackinventor.com

Percy Lavon Julian, Wikipedia entry

Marcellin Berthelot

Marcellin Berthelot was born in Paris, France on October 27, 1827. He is regarded as one of the greatest chemists of all time and was responsible for the Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry and for disproving the theory of vitalisim by synthesizing many organic compounds from inorganic substances.

The fundamental conception that underlay all of Berthelot's work was that all chemical phenomena depend on the action of physical forces which can be determined and measured. When he began his career it was assumed that all organic chemistry depended upon vital forces to produce organic compounds. Berthelot opposed this idea and in order to disprove it he synthesized many organic molecules (including hydrocarbons, and natural fats and sugars) from inorganic starting materials, thus proving that the synthesis of these molecules did not depend of vital forces and that organic chemicals obeyed the same principals as inorganic compounds.

His other major contribution is the Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry. Berthelot and Dutch chemist Julius Thomsen both independently came up with slightly different formulations for this principle which states that all chemical changes are accompanied by the production of heat and the processes which occur will be the ones in which the most heat is produced. This postulate led to the thermal theory of affinity which postulated that the true measure of chemical affinity was the amount of heat that was produced by a particular reaction. This was later disproved by Herman von Helmholtz, who discovered that the true affinity was not the amount of heat produced by a reaction, but the maximum amount of work or free energy produced when the reaction was carried out reversibly.

For his work in disproving the theory of vitalism and pioneering work in the field of thermochemistry Marcellin Berthelot is the Dead Scientist of the Week for the Week of October 25-31, 2009.

References:

Marcellin Berthelot Wikipedia Entry

Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry Wikipedia Entry

Marcellin Berthelot NNDB Entry