Bolton, Elmer

Surprisingly, the idea that Collins new compound might form the basis for a synthetic rubber took several weeks to evolve. And it was not Carothers, but Stine s successor, Elmer K. Bolton, who first realized that the molecular structure of Collins mass was similar to that of isoprene, the main constituent of natural rubber. Bolton had studied in Germany and was familiar with its World War I efforts to develop an ersatz rubber for tires. 

Even more than the Depression, personnel changes at Du Pont radically altered Carothers ability to do basic research. The visionary Charles Stine had been promoted, and his successor was Elmer K. Bolton, the chemist who had recognized the importance of Neoprene. Bolton, a former postdoctoral student of Richard Willstatter in Germany, had helped establish Du Pont s successful synthetic dyestuff division and had participated in the decision to manufacture Midgley s tetraethyl lead. Bolton believed fervently in applied research and had opposed Stine s original proposal for a basic research program at Du Pont. Bolton quickly ended Purity Hall s special status. 

Elmer Reiser Bolton. McGraw-Hill Modern Men of Science. New York ... 

Carothers had favored nylon-5,10 which is prepared from a five-carbon diamine and a 10-carbon diacid rather than nylon-6,6. However Elmer Bolton, his practical, profit-minded boss pointed out that the starting materials for nylon 5,10 would be expensive on a large scale. For example, the diacid, seba-cic acid, came from castor oil, which is obtained in limited quantities from the castor bean. There would not be enough castor oil to provide sufficient seba-cic add for the amount of nylon that he envisioned. Instead, Bolton reasoned that only one petrochemical, benzene (QHg), could provide both of the starting materials for nylon-6,6. This turned out to be a very shrewd decision. And so this became the world s first truly synthetic commercial fiber ... 

Details polychloroprene was Invented by DuPont scientists on April 17,1930 after Dr. Elmer K. Bolton of DuPont laboratories attended a lecture by Fr. Julius Arthur NIeuwland, a professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Fr. Nieuwland s research was focused on acetylene chemistry and during the course of his work he produced divinyl acetylene, a jelly that firms Into an elastic compound similar to rubber when passed over sulfur dichlorlde. After DuPont purchased the patent rights from the university, V fellace Carothers of DuPont took over commercial development of Nieuwland s discovery in collaboration with NIeuwland himself. DuPont focused on monovinyl acetylene and reacted the substance with hydrogen chloride gas, manu cturing chloroprene. ... 

Developments at DuPont opened new avenues in research for Carothers. He was hired in 1928 to direct a new laboratory of organic chemistry at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Elmer K. Bolton (1886-1968), Chemical Director of DuPont, was impressed by the breadth and depth of his knowledge. Carothers wasted no time in pursuing the field of experimental synthetic polymer chemistry. His first paper on polymerization appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) in 1929 [2]. It was already a masterpiece of clear thinking and encyclopedic presentation. Whereas... 

After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1912, Adams spent two years in Europe on a Parker Traveling Scholarship in the laboratories of Emil Fisher and Otto Diels in Berlin and with Richard Willstatter at Berlin-Dahlem. He returned to Harvard for a few important years. He became friends with Elmer Keiser Bolton (1886-1968) (later of DuPont), Farrington Daniels (1889-1972) (later of Wisconsin), Frank C. Whitmore (1887-1947) (later of Penn State), James B. Sumner (1887-1955, Nobel 1946) (later of Cornell) and James Bryant Conant (1893-1978) (later President of Harvard). 

Classified Subject File, entry 114 (Correspondence), box 749. Yerkes was more diplomatic than Wigglesworth and generally fostered a more congenial relationship with American officials, but he still sent periodic memos to them complaining that U.S. interests would suffer if the diplomats continued to exclude technical experts from the American dyes industry. Along with Yerkes, Du Pont sent Elmer Bolton and Eric Kunz to Paris. Yerkes to Baruch, April 1, 1919, copied in Yerkes to Du Pont, April 4, 1919 Yerkes to Du Pont, c. April 14, 1919 Yerkes to Charles H. MacDowell, April 22, 1919 A. M. Patterson to Clarence M. Woolley, April 21, 1919, FPG,box5. 

Elmer K. Bolton testimony, USA v. The Chemical Foundation, Inc., 6 4070 Volwiler testimony, ibid., 5 3263 and Alfred H. White and Bolton testimonies, ibid., 6 3970, 4077. 

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