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March Meeting

Title of Talk: "Chemistry is Everywhere: Chapters in Buffalo History"

Speaker: Joseph F. Bieron
Professor of Chemistry, Canisius College

Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Place: Ulrich's Tavern, 674 Ellicott St., Buffalo NY 14203

Time: 5:30 pm Social/Get Together (Flying Bison Beer to be provided)
Dinner: 6:30 pm (Authentic German Buffet) Cost: $22.00 per person

Talk at 7:30 pm

Reservations: Larry Springsteen at 888-2347 by March 22, 2004

Officers and Staff:

(Outgoing) Chair's Column:

All the best to you, fellow ACS member, and to your loved ones,
We've had a great year as a Local Section. Wonderful new faces have joined the Executive Committee and our dinner meetings, and many volunteers have worked hard in outreach and our Section events: Chemistry Olympiad, Education Night, Schoellkopf Award Dinner, and National Chemistry Week. We won (yes, WON!) a ChemLuminary Award (thanks to the Student Affiliates at Canisius College) and we were a finalist for two other ChemLuminary Awards (thanks to the grad students at UB too). We honored David Nalewajek as our Schoellkopf Medal Award Winner, Mr. David Mills (Holland Central) as our Distinguished High School Science Teacher for 2003, WNY High School Chemistry Olympiad Winners along with College Outstanding Senior Science Majors, Honeywell and the Chemistry Department at UB with the 2003 Chair Award for their support of so much outreach by their employees and grad students, and gave special recognition to the Canisius College Chemistry Department at the December meeting. Our Section provided monetary support to REACT and to the UB Graduate Student Symposium. We've received new support from Honeywell for the Chemistry Olympiad and for summer research. Creative new door prizes brought smiles to members at our dinner meetings.

Our December Celebration was a great evening. Jim Daley spoke on the history of brewing in Buffalo and Ulrich's Tavern (including how it continued to operate through Prohibition), and Tim Herzog from Flying Bison Brewery shared samples and brewing info. We learned how and why some special brews were developed, and finished with one that works surprisingly well with dessert. I personally enjoy the camaraderie of chemistry friends from all over our area.

As this is my final Chair's Column, I'd like to take this opportunity to add that the interactions between our members here in Buffalo are warm and special -- intelligent people with heart, a great combination. Thanks for being such a terrific Section.

Patricia DePra Springsteen
p.springsteen@verizon.net
(716) 835-1612

New Webmaster

Thanks to David Hoth, who has volunteered to be our new webmaster. Our website will be moving to the National ACS server http://membership.acs.org/W/WNY (PLEASE NOTE: This is CASE SENSITIVE - the W and WNY must be capitalized.), but you will still be able to link to it through the current site, (http://www2.canisius.edu/~dblbond/welcome.html). If you have any items that you would like to have posted on the website, please contact David at hoth@buffalo.edu.

TOPIC:
"Chemistry is Everywhere, Chapters in Buffalo History"

Buffalo was the eighth largest city and the crossroads of the United States in 1900. We are all familiar with our early claims to fame; railroad and lake transport, lumber, livestock, steel and grain industries and early use of electricity. Chemical technologies had a major influence on many of Buffalo's industries and the connection may not be obvious.

The talk will present 4-5 examples of prominent Buffalo industries and their related chemistry. Examples will include stockyards and the tanning industry, Spencer Kellogg and linseed oil, construction materials and the Canadian shore, Larkin Company and soap making, the Schoellkopf Dye works, and lastly Buffalo as a grain center and the brewing industry.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Joseph F. Bieron is a Professor of Chemistry at Canisius College and has been an active member of the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society since 1959. He was past Chairman of the Section, past editor of the Double Bond, the 1993 recipient of the Schoellkopf Award, and is currently the Section's historian. Dr. Bieron is a student of local history and has previously presented lectures on the history of the chemical industry in Western New York and WNY Section American Chemical Society 100 Years of History. He is also director of the Canisius College Press, which publishes books on topics of local historical interest.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Happy Spring to you, WNYers! Looks like we've pretty much survived yet another world famous Buffalo winter, and none too soon either. I love springtime, it is a time of intense growth and change in nature - I am thinking of the first crocuses or snowdrops pushing up through the snow, salt, gravel, and mud, into the cold air and bright sunshine to grace us with their tough, yet delicate beauty. But I digress. In this time of growth and change, our section is experiencing a change as well. Our leadership has changed as it does each year. I'd like to thank Patti Springsteen for her hard work as the previous chair, having brought in several speakers from afar that drew larger than usual numbers to our meetings. Or was it the word of those door prizes that crammed them in?

Thank you, Patti. (Please see Patti's departure note elsewhere in this issue.) Please check out our new website (thank you Patti S. and David Hoth!): http://membership.acs.org/W/WNY (PLEASE NOTE: This is CASE SENSITIVE - the W and WNY must be capitalized.), but you will still be able to link to it through the current site, (http://www2.canisius.edu/~dblbond/welcome.html). At this time I would like to welcome our new chair, Larry Springsteen. Larry has some new ideas to help the section to grow this year even further.

In March we will meet to celebrate our section's anniversary and, by the way, also to learn about beer - one can never learn enough about beer, can one? If you have cabin fever please, by all means join us at Ulrich's Tavern to stretch your legs and trade stories about the previous winter, the coming summer, and taste test the various brews. Joe Bieron's talks are always lively and intriguing, filled with fascinating WNY area history. Other upcoming events are the annual education night, where we will honor outstanding local science students and teachers. After that will be the culmination of the season - the Schoellkopf Award dinner, where we will honor someone who has contributed immensely to the WNY area in the chemistry field. Then comes summer...

If you have a candidate in mind for the 2005 Schoellkopf award please contact Dave Nalewajek at 716-827-6303 for more information.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
--James A. Michener

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
--Karen Kaiser Clark

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.
--Robert Anthony

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
--Will Rogers

REACT

REACT is sponsored by the American Chemical Society for Pk-8 teachers. The workshops present the latest science program for elementary and middle schoolteachers. Workshops are held at Canisius College in the Horan-O'Donnell Science Building on the Main Street Campus.

The next meeting will be Saturday, March 27, from 9 to 12 in the morning. Refreshments will be served. A one-time fee of ten dollars for the six meetings will be collected. Everyone is welcome. The Buffalo Teacher Center will list REACT for district credit.

UPCOMING DATES

March 27: Park 2, Project Wild and Activity book given

Contact Mary Jean Sryek @ 894-2128
If you have any questions about this organization.

WCC OVERCOMING CHALLENGES AWARD FOR WOMEN UNDERGRADUATES

The Overcoming Challenges Award acknowledges the efforts of women undergraduates who have overcome economic, personal and/or academic hardships in pursuit of an education in the chemical sciences. The award consists of a plaque, a $250 honorarium, and $1,000 for travel expenses to the ACS Fall National Meeting where the award is presented. Award candidates must be women matriculating as an undergraduate chemical science major/minor in a two-year program or at a four-year school not granting a doctoral degree in chemical related disciplines. Nominations are due May 1, 2004, and should be sent to: Women Chemists Committee, American Chemical Society, 1155 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. For additional information, contact the WCC at wcc@acs.org. or visit http://membership.acs.org/W/WCC. You are encouraged to apply and/or nominate deserving women for the WCC Overcoming Challenges Award.

2004 ACS REGIONAL MEETINGS

The Office of Regional Meetings (ORM) has released its schedule for 2004. Please visit the ORM website to link with the individual meetings for more details at www.acs.org/meetings/regional.

Abstracts and registration are now open for the Central and Northwest/Rocky Mountain meetings, but the deadlines for both are rapidly approaching.

36th Central Regional Meeting (CRM 2004)
June 2-5, Indiana-Purdue Univ., Indianapolis, IN

59th Northwest/18th Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting (NORM/RMRM 2004)
June 6-9, Utah State Univ., Logan, UT

60th Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM 2004)
Sept. 29-Oct. 2, Fort Worth, TX

36th Great Lakes Regional Meeting (GLRM 2004)
Oct. 17-20, Hotel Père Marquette, Peoria, IL

39th Midwest Regional Meeting (MWRM 2004)
Oct. 19-22, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS

40th Western Regional Meeting (WERM 2004)
Oct. 27-30, Doubletree Hotel, Sacramento, CA

33rd Northeast Regional Meeting (NERM 2004)
Oct. 31-Nov. 3, Hyatt Regency, Rochester, NY
(http://www.chem.rochester.edu/~rocacs/nerm/)

56th Southeast (SERMACS 2004)
Nov. 10-13, Raleigh/Durham, NC

SENIOR CHEMISTS

please contact
Dr. Joseph F. Bieron @ 716 888-2357

EINSTEIN'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2004
3:00 - 5:00pm
At: The Center for Inquiry
3965 Rensch Road
Amherst, NY 14226
A nominal fee will be charged at the door. The Center for Inquiry is an educational nonprofit organization. www.centerforinquiry.net

EINSTEIN AND RELIGION
Is he a Jew? a deist? a humanist? a "Jewish saint"? The old professor himself (portrayed by Dr. Ron Palmer) will be on hand to explain the development of his religious thought. From his youthful Jewishness to his scientific awakening and reading of Kant and Spinoza, Albert Einstein approached his personal philosophy as relentlessly as he approached his physics. Einstein was also a major player in the delicate - and dangerous - dance of politics, science, and religion of the early 20th Century. Come for a lively afternoon discussion and dinner with the speaker to follow.

This Month in Chemical History

Harold Goldwhite
California State University, Los Angeles
hgoldwh@calstatela.edu
Prepared for SCALACS, the Journal of the Southern California, Orange County, and San Gorgonio Sections of the American Chemical Society.

My last two columns were devoted to an analysis of the contents of an early twentieth century inorganic chemistry textbook that I recently acquired at a local flea market. At the same time I also purchased a physics text of the same period, and it is instructive to look at its contents in our pursuit of the science curriculum of the period. The book is "A First Course in Physics" by Robert Andrews Millikan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Physics in the University of Chicago, and Henry Gordon Gale, Ph.D., Instructor in Physics in the University of Chicago. It was published by Ginn and Company in 1906 and is generously illustrated.

The senior author, Robert Millikan, is, of course, one of the giants of twentieth century science. His definitive work on the charge on the electron earned him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1923. By that time he had moved from Chicago to Pasadena and had become the President of the California Institute of Technology. Henry Gordon Gale also had a distinguished career in physics. He remained at Chicago, becoming a Full Professor in 1916. He served as Department Chair and Division Dean. His work was principally in astrophysics and he published many articles and books in that subject.

It is fitting for a column on science history to note that the frontispiece in the Millikan and Gale text is a portrait of Galileo. Indeed the whole text is imbued with a sense of the history of physics. It was published along with a companion laboratory manual (I haven't been fortunate enough to find a copy of that yet) and was intended for use in "the elementary work in physics in the University of Chicago, particularly in the University High School of the School of Education and the affiliated secondary schools." The contents of the approximately 500 pages are wide ranging, covering virtually all fields of beginning physics. There are some wonderful trivia along the way. For example in an opening section on measurement we learn that "the mean length of the male foot in the United States, according to measurements made upon 16,000 men in the United States army, is 10.05 inches."

An interesting feature of this text is the very large number of descriptions of the application of principles of physics to everyday phenomena and useful appliances. For example the chapter on gas pressure discusses ballooning, mentioning the exploits of the daring English astronauts Glasier and Coxwell who, in 1862, ascended to a height of some 7 miles where the barometric pressure is about 0.25 atm. and the air temperature about -60 degrees F. It also describes the siphon, the air pump, the force pump, the lift pump, the Cartesian Diver, the diving bell, and the gas meter. The section on heat engines discusses in some detail the steam engine, the steam turbine, and the large, stationary gas engine. The automobile engine (still something of a novelty) gets only a brief mention. But we do learn that the largest steam ship so far, the 30,000 ton Cunard liner Carmania, is driven by three steam turbines with a total of 1,250,000 blades. Refrigeration at this period seems to be limited to the manufacture of ice and the cooling of cold-storage rooms and factories. The only refrigerant gas mentioned is ammonia; beware of leaks.

In contrast to the chemistry text I discussed recently, where complete ionization is only one possible explanation of electrolyte behavior, Millikan and Gale state forthrightly, in a chapter including the chemical effects of the electric current, their acceptance of this view: "In accordance with the theory now in vogue among physicists and chemists, when hydrochloric acid is mixed with water to form a dilute solution, the HCl molecules split up into two electrically charged parts, called ions, the hydrogen ion carrying a positive charge and the chlorine ion an equal negative charge. The phenomenon is known as dissociation."

Gale's interest in astrophysics is apparent in the section on Doppler's principle applied to light waves: "....some stars are moving through space toward the solar system with a velocity of 150 mi. per second while others are moving away with almost equal velocities." And perhaps Millikan's enthusiasms are indicated in sections on cathode ray particles, new theories of the constitution of matter, and radioactivity. I will close with a quotation from the final paragraph of this text. "The most vitally interesting question which the physics of the future has to face is, is it possible for man to gain control of this tremendous store of subatomic energy and to use it for his own ends?" Thirty-nine years later one answer was given to this question at Hiroshima.

ISSUE COPY DEADLINE: FIRST OF MONTH PRIOR TO PUBLICATION

The Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors. Views expressed in the editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society. All materials to appear in the next issue of the Double Bond must be received by the Editor, in care of the Chemistry Department, Canisius College, 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, New York 14208, by the FIRST day of the month. Notice for change of address should be sent to the editor.

The Double Bond is published monthly from September through June by the WNY Section of the ACS. USPS# 893 86000. Subscriptions: $3/yr. Member subscriptions are included in the annual dues. Advertising rates upon request. Permission to reprint is granted all ACS publications. Office of printer and publication: Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208. Postmaster: Send change of address to: P.O. Box 187, Grand Island, NY 14072. Periodical class postage rates at Grand Island, NY 14072-0187.

WEB PAGE: membership.acs.org/W/WNY

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Contact

Canisius College Press
Phone: 716-888-3254
FAX: 716-888-3112
E-Mail bieron@canisius.edu
Website: www.canisius.edu/historyproject

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