An 1818 Professional Dispute

Herbert T. Pratt E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Inc. Wilmington, Delaware 19898

When the ACS Committee on Professional Relations started during the mid-1960's to assist memhers who have . yrievances against their tmployers, it rewgnized a long ex- isting nerd ( 1 I . C'oniidrr the case of (hnaliel Smith Old?. u'ho in May, 1818, felt it "an imperious duty" in his own defense to publish a 20-page booklet of "facts" (2) on how he had been fired as Professor of Chemistry a t Middlebury College.' Olds, a Congregational minister and a graduate of both Williams College and Andover Seminary, had been hired in August, 1816, by Dr. Henry Davis, President of Middlehu~y.~ Although Olds had taueht mathematics and natural ~hilosoohv a t \~il l iams bet& entering the ministry? he felt /nadrqt;at: tor his new task without f~lrthrr schnolinr. Asa result. I~ed~ ta ined permission from President Davis tostudy for one session a t full salarv with Beniamin Silliman a t Yale.4 Onlv after re- signing his pasror:lte in Greenfivld. Massachusetts, ;n October, and gettlna settled nanin as astudrnr, did he learn that Mid- dlehury Cdlege wasstrapped for cash and that the Trustees had refused t o honor his leave of absence. Olds had a family to support and needed 1 he back pay. Atier a series of letters to Ihvis and verbal nmmunicsrioni to the'l'rusrers through n third party tailed roelicit n response, Olds in despenitim laid his case hefore the Franklin (:mlnry r .Vas;a~h~~settsj As.;<,- ciation of Ministers. The rninistt!ri nrreed that it \ W I ~ I I I not be unbecoming Christian conduct topublish the facts.

If Olds' dissertation is taken as authoritative, this case is a classic in personnel mismanagement. To begin with, Dr. Davis a ~ ~ a r e n t l v exceeded the limits of his authoritv in . . granting [he 1 r . a ~ of ahset~cr with pay. His actim had heen sancrimed only afrer-the-fact t ~ y less than n quorum of the

' Middlehury College, Middlebury Vermont graduated its first class in 1802 and acquired its first permanent building in 1815 (3).

"Henry Davis (1771-1852) was born at East Hampton, New York and graduated fromyale in 1796. He was tutor at Williams 1797-1798, tutor at Yale 1799-1803, Professor of Greek at Union College 1806-1809, President of Middlehury 1809-181l.and President of Hamilton College 1817-1833 ( 4 ) .

Olds was born in Tolland, Massachusetts, February 11,1777. He graduated from Williams College in 1801, was tutor there until 1805 and then Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy until 1808. After studying theology for two years under Dr. Stephen West at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, he entered Andover Seminary, graduating in 1810. He was ordained to the ministry in November, 1812 15). . . . . , - , .

Benjamin Silliman (1719-1864) became Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at Yale in 1804 and taught there for nearly half a century. He studied chemistry with James Woodhouse in Philadelphia during the winters of 1802-3,1803A and spent 1805 and 1806 in Euro~e in further oreoaration far tesehine 161.

Cover Page of Olds' "Statement of Facts". A presentation copy to Dr. Nathan Strong (1791-1837lof Hartford. Connecticut.

Trustees. Olds resigned his pastorate before the full Board acted. His congregation was about to split because of dis- aareement as to where to build a new meetine house and he was eager to move on. Olds stayed a t Yale f i r two sessions rather than one and armed that he did so because Silliman thought he would he remiss if he did not get in some studies of mineraloav. (Olds also contended that Yale had set a precedent a Lcade before in paying Silliman's salary to study chemistry for two sessions in Philadelphia.) The Trustees claimed that Olds failed to appear for work in April as re- quested and allegedlv circulated the report that Olds had an "overhearing character and disposition". Olds thought that under the agreement he was free to preach on Sundays and have Saturdays and Mondays off, whereas Dr. Davis said that he was not. None of the agreements between Davis and Olds were written down, and undoubtedly, there were misunder- standings on hoth sides.

In August, 1817, the Trustees declared the Chair of Chemistry vacant and announced the appointment of Dr. Rueben D. Mussey" of Dartmouth College as Professor. However, they failed to consult Mussey beforehand and he would not take the ioh. Olds said this manuever was onlv cosmetic-to give the appearance that the school had a pro- fessor of Chemistry when in fact it did not. Meanwhile, in March, 1817, Yale had tried to hire President Davis hut the Trustees met the crisis by raising Davis' salary. Davis stayed the rest of the year, hut Olds never got paid.

Olds was Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philoso~hv a t the University of Vermont, 1819-1821, a t ~ m h e r s t , 1822-1825, and a t the University of Georgia after that. He

752 1 Journal of Chemical Education

retired to Circleville, Ohio, in 1841 and died there on.lunr 13, 1848, as the result of a carriage accident 1.51.

Literature Cited (I1 Skolnik. Herman, and Reese, Kenneth M., "A Century of Chemistry", American

Chemical Society, Washington. 1976 p. 213. (21 Gamaliel S. Olda. "Statpmen~of Facts Relative to the Appointment of the Author ta

the Office of Professor of Chemistry in Middlebury College and lhe Terminstion of his Connexion with that College". Greenfield, IRls.

(31 Encyelopadin Amrrieono, 19,40 (1963). (4) "National Cyclopaedia of American Biwaphy". James T. WhiteCompny. N e w Ynrk,

1897. Vol. VII, p. 405. (5) "Appletons Cyclopediaof American Biography': New Yorh, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 570. (61 Mils , Wyndham D.. "American Chemists and Chemical Enginwn", American Chemical

Society. Washington, 1976, p. 437. (7) Keliy, Howard A.,and Bunage, Walter A:~Didionsryaf American MedidBiogrsphy".

D. Appleton Company, New Yarh, 1928, p. 895.

Pittacal-The First Synthetic Dyestuff

George B. Kauffman' California State University, Fresno Fresno, California 93740

The story of the discovery of the first synthetic dyestuff is an amusing one that well illustrates Pasteur's often quoted dictum that "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ u r c n g the 1830'9, a t about the same time that Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1795-1867) was carrying out his studies of coal tar and almost a quarter-century before William Henry Perkin's isolation of mauve. the first dvestuff to be oroduced com- mercially from coal tar, Karl (or Carl) Ludwig von Reichen- bach (1788-1869), the discoverer of paraffin ( I ) and creosote (2,3), was engaged in research on compounds isolated from the beechwood tar produced in the charcoal ovens of the metallurgical factories at Blansko in Moravia that he owned iointlv with Count Hueo zu Salm of Vienna. One of the minor " . hut aggravating annoyances of his daily life was the all too frequent use of the wooden fence around his house by dogs for a purpose to which male canines have been addicted since time immemorial. Believing that the disagreeable, penetrating odor of creosote would deter these dogs from answering nature's call on his property, Reichenbach in 1832 painted his fence with this substance. Although the creosote failed to drive them away. i t did react with the urine, and Reichenbach observed that a blue dyestuff had formed on the fence (4). I t was only many decades later that the suhstance was identified as the calcium lake of the triphenylcarhinol formed from the creo- sote-containing heechwood tar:

pittam1

CH OCH,

OH

Reirhenhach named the new sut~stanrepittirral (n i i rn , tar, hLXAur. twnutifol~, and hy treatinr t~rerhwod tiv with t~arium oxide (haryta) he prepared it in-a pure state as a blue solid insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether, soluble in acids and precipitated as a blue dye in fabrics mordanted with alumina (5). Although sold as a dyestuff, it met with little commercial success. ~ h ; ? pure compound consists of orange needles which yield a hlue solution with alkalis (6).

In 1833 Reichenbach described the oily component of beechwood tar that boils at a higher temperature (270°C) than creosote (203'C) (7). In 1878 Hofmann showed that this bit- ter-tasting oil, which Reichenbach called picamar (pix, pitch, amarum. bitter) consists of ovroeallol dimethvl ether (2.6- .. .. dimetho&henul) and its homohgues ((1). The blowing year he showed that the eupittonicacid conmined in Reichenbach's hlue pittaral is formed in a manner analogow to the formation 01' ~ararosaniline from aniline and tdu~dine. Hofmann we-

eupittonic acid by heating pyrogallol dimethyl etherand methylpyrogallol dimethyl ether with sodium hydroxide (9). He thus regarded the compound as hexamethoxyrosolic acid, but it is now considered to be hexamethylaurine. With am- monia it yields a hlue dyestuff (hexamethoxypararosani- line).

Although virtually forgotten today, Reichenbach was well known in his day as a chemist and as a speculative scientist (10-14). In addition to his work on compounds isolated from heechwood tar, to which he gave fanciful names (the only surviving ones being paraffin-parum, little, affinitas, af- finity-and creosote-~pgar, meat, &{u, 1 preserve), he worked on na~hthalene. anthracene. cholesterol. ~etroleum. methanol (~ojzgeist) , A d acetone. He also publi&ed articles on meteorites and the manufacture of suear. In 1839. after the king of Wi~rtrembrrg had made him a t~aron (Freiherr~, he disoosed of must of his industrial interests and retired to his castle a t Reisenberg to devote himself entirely to science.

Reichenbach lost much of his wealth in unwise investments, and his last years were spent as a recluse in his castle.

Literature Cited (1) Rcichenhach. K., Schmsigger'a J. Chom. 59,436(1830). (21 Reiehenbsch, K., Schweipgerb J. Chm., 65,295,461(1832); 66,301,345(1832); 67.

1,57.399(1833): 68.57,239,399(18331. (3) Reichenbach, K., '"0s~ KIPOBO~ in chemischer, physischer und medizinischer Bez-

iehung," Barth. Leipeig, 1833: 2nd enlarged edition, 1835. (4) Bayer, Otto, "Die Rolle des Zufalls in der organiaehen Chemie? Farbenfsbrih Bayer

AG.Levsrhuscn. 1971, p. 5. (51 Reichenbach, K.. Schrueigpsrh J. Chem., 68,1(18331. (6) Partingtun. J. R.."A History of Chemistry," Macmillan. London. St. Msdn ' s Press,

New York. 1964.Vol. 4. p. 403. (7) Reiehenhseh, K . , S c h w ~ i g g ~ r ' ~ J. Chem.. 67,57,295.351(1833):68,295(18331. (81 Hofmann, A. W., Bar.. 11,329(1878). (9) Hofmsnn.A. W..Be?., 12,1371l18791.

(10) Anonymous (aduslly Hoffer, J . l . A l m o ~ c h der Akodemir der Wisaomchojlenin Wien,

. .. . . . . , ?. . . . . (131 Kohn, M., J.CHEM.EDUC.32,189(1955). (14) F m . W. V., in (Edilac Gillispie,C.C.l"OidionaryofScientificBiography.(.Charles

Scribner'sSons, New York, 1975,Vol. 11. p. 359.

' Visiting Scholar, Office for History of Science and Technology, University of California, Berkeley. Financial support of the National Science Foundation (Grant SOC76-11267) is gratefully acknawl- edged.

Volume 54, Number 12, December 1977 1 753