Skip to main content

Chemical

Havemeyer Hall
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Cradles of ChemistryEra: 1890-1899DateCreated: 1898Columbia UniversityNew YorkState: NYZip: 10027Country: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/havemeyerhall.htmlCreator: Chandler, Charles Frederick , McKim, Charles Follen

Havemeyer Hall was built between 1896 and 1898 under the leadership of Charles Frederick Chandler. It provided research and teaching facilities for faculty and students specializing in industrial, inorganic, organic, physical, and biological chemistry. Pioneering research done here led to the discovery of deuterium, for which Harold Clayton Urey received the Nobel Prize in 1934. Six others who did research here subsequently received the Nobel Prize, including Irving Langmuir, the first industrial chemist to be so honored, in 1932.

YearAdded:
1998
Image Credit: Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923Image Caption: Havemeyer HallEra_date_from: 1898
Gilman Hall
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Cradles of ChemistryEra: 1910-1919DateCreated: 1917Gilman HallBerkeleyState: CAZip: 94720Country: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/gilman.htmlCreator: Lewis, Gilbert , Howard, John Galen

Gilman Hall, built in 1916-1917, accommodated a growing College of Chemistry by providing expanded research and teaching facilities for faculty and students specializing in physical, inorganic and nuclear chemistry. Work performed at Gilman Hall helped advance the fields of chemical thermodynamics and molecular structure, and has resulted in multiple Nobel Prizes. The Hall is most famous for the work of Glenn T. Seaborg and his coworkers, which included the successful identification and production the element Plutonium. Seaborg received the Nobel Prize in 1951 for his accomplishments.

YearAdded:
1997
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Waqas Bhatti (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Gilman HallEra_date_from: 1917
Deciphering the Genetic Code
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Frontiers of KnowledgeEra: 1960-1969DateCreated: 1961NIH Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research CtrBethesdaState: MDZip: 20892Country: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/geneticcode.htmlCreator: Nirenberg, Marshall

In 1961, in the National Institutes of Health Headquarters (Bethesda, MD), Marshall Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei discovered the key to breaking the genetic code when they conducted an experiment using a synthetic RNA chain of multiple units of uracil to instruct a chain of amino acids to add phenylalanine. The uracil (poly-U) served as a messenger directing protein synthesis. This experiment demonstrated that messenger RNA transcribes genetic information from DNA, regulating the assembly of amino acids into complex proteins.

YearAdded:
1997
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Infocan (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Deciphering the Genetic CodeEra_date_from: 1961
Discovery of Fullerenes
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Frontiers of KnowledgeEra: 1980-1989DateCreated: 1985Rice UniversityHoustonState: TXZip: 77005Country: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/fullerenes.htmlCreator: Curl, Robert , Kroto, Harold

In early September 1985, a team of scientists discovered a previously unknown pure carbon molecule, C60, which they dubbed buckminsterfullerene. The name was chosen because the geodesic domes of Buckminster Fuller provided a clue that the molecule’s atoms might be arranged in the form of a hollow cage. The structure, a truncated icosahedron with 32 faces, 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal, has the shape of a soccer ball.

YearAdded:
2010
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Itamblyn (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Buckminsterfullerene C60 is an example of a structure in the fullerene family.Era_date_from: 1985
Chandler Chemistry Laboratory
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Cradles of ChemistryEra: 1860-1869DateCreated: 1865Chandler-Ullmann HallBethlehemState: PAZip: 18015Country: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/chandlerlaboratory.html, https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/chandlerlaboratory/chandler-laboratory-at-lehigh-university-historical-resource.pdfCreator: Chandler, William Henry , Hutton, Addison

The William H. Chandler Chemistry Laboratory was conceived and planned by William Henry Chandler (1841-1906), professor, chairman, librarian, and acting president of Lehigh University. Designed by Philadelphia architect Addison Hutton and erected between 1884 and 1885 at a cost of $200,000, the building set the standard for laboratory construction for the next half century.

YearAdded:
1994
Image Credit: Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923Image Caption: Chandler Chemistry LaboratoryEra_date_from: 1865
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Frontiers of KnowledgeEra: 1750-1799DateCreated: 1789Académie des Sciences de l’Institut de ParisZip: 75006Country: FranceWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/lavoisier.htmlCreator: Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier studied at the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France (then "Collège Mazarin") from 1754 to 1761. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1768, where he presented his important studies on oxygen in chemistry. These began with a "pli cacheté" of Nov. 2, 1772, and, after he experimentally proved the chemical composition of water by the quantitative method, culminated in his abandoning of the phlogistic theory in 1785.

YearAdded:
1999
Image Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Exp.)Image Caption: An early line engraving of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, made sometime in the early 19th century by Louis Jean Desire Delaistre, after an original piece by Julien Leopold Boilly.Era_date_from: 1789
Leo Baekeland and Bakelite
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: Polymer ChemistryEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1907YonkersState: NYCountry: USAWebsite: http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_ARTICLEMAIN&node_id=924&content_id=WPCP_007586&use_sec=true&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=d6432ada-458d-4c1a-aa4e-e703e3868638Creator: Baekeland, Leo

Around 1907, Belgian-born chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland took two ordinary chemicals, phenol and formaldehyde, mixed them in a sealed autoclave, and subjected them to heat and pressure.

The sticky, amber-colored resin he produced in his Yonkers laboratory was the first plastic ever to be created entirely from chemicals, and the first material to be made entirely by man.

Image Caption: Development of BakeliteEra_date_from: 1907
The Beckman pH Meter
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: New ProductsEra: 1930-1949DateCreated: 1936Beckman InstitutePasadenaCountry: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/beckman.html, https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/beckman/beckman-ph-meter-commemorative-booklet.pdfCreator: Beckman, Arnold

When Arnold Beckman, a professor of analytical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was asked to devise a way to measure acidity in citrus fruit, the resulting “acidometer” revolutionized chemical instrumentation. The innovative features of the pH meter, including its use of integrated electronic technology and all-in-one design, were the basis for subsequent modern instrumentation developed by Beckman and his company.

 

The plaque commemorating the development reads:

YearAdded:
2004
Image Credit: Courtesy Science History InstituteImage Caption: Chemist George Garcelon using a portable Beckman pH meter in laboratory, 1951. Interior of Research Laboratory, Althouse Chemical Plant, 500 Pear Street, Reading, PennsylvaniaEra_date_from: 1936
Rumford Baking Powder
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: New ProductsEra: 1860-1869DateCreated: 1869Rumford Chemical WorksRumfordState: RICountry: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakingpowder.html, https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakingpowder/jcr:content/articleContent/columnsbootstrap/column1/image.scale.large.jpg/1380308929369.jpgCreator: Horsford, Eben

Bread is considered a basic foodstuff; eaten down through the ages, it continues to be a staple of the modern diet. The development of baking powder made baking easier, quicker and more reliable for bakers in the mid-19th century. Eben Horsford’s unique formula was an important innovation and made the making of biscuits, cookies and other quick baking products simpler than before.

 

The commemorative plaques read:

YearAdded:
2006
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/Lou Sander (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: In 2006 Rumford Baking Powder was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of its significance for making baking easier, quicker, and more reliable. Ingredients are monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, and cornstarch.
First Successful Commercialization of Radiation Chemistry
Society: ACSMain Category: ChemicalSub Category: New ProductsEra: 1950-1959DateCreated: 1957TE Connectivity Ltd.FremontState: CACountry: USAWebsite: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/radiationchemistry.html, https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/radiationchemistry/commercialization-of-radiation-chemistry-historical-resource.pdfCreator: Cook, Paul

Founded in 1957, Raychem Corporation was the first company to successfully apply the new science of radiation chemistry to commercial use. This accomplishment led to the creation of tough new materials and high-performance products such as irradiated polyethylene insulated wire and heat-shrinkable tubing through the crosslinking of polymeric materials.

YearAdded:
1997
Image Caption: First Successful Commercialization of Radiation Chemistry
Subscribe to Chemical

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.