Organizers: Herbert T. Pratt
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts / Jonathan A. Hill
A true account -- which made the front page of the New York Times -- of my involvement in helping the U.S. Customs Agents in capturing a book thief who had stolen many important books from University College London. These books were all scientific in nature and included some classics of chemistry. I was obliged to be wired and wear a bullet proof vest.
Chemistry relating to early patent law / Charles E. Miller
The United States patent system, founded in 1787 with the adoption of the Constitution by the original thirteen states, at one served the "promote the progress of the ... Useful Arts by securing the limited Times to ... Inventors the exclusive Right to their ... discoveries." This innovation in government served as a powerful incentive for the fledgling American chemical industry to introduce practical innovations in chemical technology. Several early U.S. patents serve as examples.
Scripophily in the chemical and molecular sciences / Dominick B. Attanasio
Scripophily is the hobby of collecting antique stock and bond certificates, popularized when two German catalogs featuring bonds issued in pre-Revolutionary China and Russia, were published in 1976. Following a contest organized by The London Times in 1978, the name "scripophily" was chosen to identify this emerging collecting field. Still in full growth today, the hobby is estimated to include around 100,000 active scripophilists worldwide. If "a picture is worth a thousand words," one can only be impressed by the historical relevance of the engraved vignettes featured o old stocks and bonds. In turn, these historic "snapshots" provide an array of visual information that has seldom been photographed. Scripophily has also generated resurgence in the prestigious field of autographs, which offers a variety of renowned signatures seldom seen in other arenas. It offers the unique opportunity to develop a museum quality collection that suits ones own historical aspirations. The possibilities are endless and time is on your side.
Milestones of early spectroscopy / Ronald K. Smeltzer
The beginnings of spectroscopy, beyond a few early observations that did not inspire further investigations, is generally taken as the publication of Fraunhoferis first paper in 1817. Out of this beginning, which originated as a problem in practical optics, came the chemical investigations of Bunsen and Kirchhoff, the work of Angstrom, and the acceptance of spectroscopy in the broader scientific community. Later in the century the spectroscope was turned to the stars and a new field, astrophysics, was spawned. In 1896 a spectroscopic discovery by Zeeman was a key event a the beginning of a new age of modern physics, and later theoretical explanations for spectroscopic observations were important for the acceptance of quantum theory. Publication, beginning with Fraunhoferis, in their original state an selected illustrations from them will be descsribed in reviewing these milestone events in early spectroscopy.
Four classic histories of industrial chemistry: 1898-1948 / Herbert T. Pratt
This paper briefly compares the first works in industrial chemistry by Frank Hall Thorp (1898), Alene Rogers (1912), Emil Raymond Riegel (1928), and R. Norris Shreve (1945), their differences and commonalities.
