Smith, Edgar Fahs

Mendeleev In his library, 1904. Courtesy of the Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania Library. 

American Chemists at the Century s Turn. S.M. Babcock, Harvey Wiley, Ira Remsen, T.W. Richards, and Edgar Fahs Smith. Chapter 58 in ibid., pp. 805-30. 

Harry Clary Jones of Johns Hopkins University wrote his colleague, Edgar Fahs Smith, at the University of Pennsylvania from Germany in the summer of 1904 ... 

Courtesy Dr. Claude K. "Deischer Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection... 

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the kind assistance of Miss Eva Armstrong of the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Library, the library of the American Philosophical Society, Dr. E. Moles and Sefior A. de Galvez-Caiiero of Madrid, and Dr. F. B. Dains. 

Courtesy Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection... 

Some of the most eminent chemists in the United States, including several who later became presidents of the American Chemical Society, studied under Wohler (84). Dr. Edgar Fahs Smith, America s great chemical historian, once gave the following picture of the aged Wohler ... 

When W. F. Hillebrand discovered the presence of nitrogen in uraninite he considered it well worthy of further study but because of urgent official duties was unable to investigate it thoroughly. In one of his letters to Sir William Ramsay he wrote It doubtless has appeared incomprehensible to you in view of the bright argon and other lines noticed by you in the gas from cleveite that they should have escaped my observation. They did not. As Edgar Fahs Smith once stated, The modesty and nobility of Hillebrand shine forth in his beautiful letters to Ramsay (64). 

When Edgar Fahs Smith was investigating monazite sand under the direction of F. A. Genth (1820—1893), the latter always appropriated the zirconium sulfate that was extracted, and would say as he carried it away, Zirconium is not simple there is another element concealed in it, and when I have leisure I shall endeavor to isolate it (18). It was in zirconium ores that large quantities of element 72 were first revealed (19,20,21). 

Woodcut print of chemical lecture from 1653. Small furnace sits on table and various glassware used for distillation rests on shelves above stove in background. Image from Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania Library. 

Source Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania. 

L. M. Robinson, The electrochemical school of Edgar Fahs Smith, 1878-1913 , Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1986 Univ. Microfilms order no. 87-03261. 

Electrolytic deposition was used as a qualitative analytical technique in the early years of current electricity, but it was not until 1864 that quantitative electrochemical analysis commenced with the development of electrogravimetry by Wolcott Gibbs.76,77 Electrolytic techniques of analysis were greatly refined by Edgar Fahs Smith at the University of Pennsylvania, who introduced the rotating anode and double-cup mercury cathode. Smith s book on electrochemical analysis ran to six editions.78... 

May 23,1854, York, Pennsylvania, USA - May 3,1928, Philadelphia, USA) American chemist who obtained a Ph.D. from University of Gottingen, Germany, where he worked under the direction of Friedrich Wohler. Smith contributed to -> electrogravimetry by developing numerous new determinations, and he is credited for popularizing electrochemical methods of analysis [i]. Fie is also well remembered for his publications on the history of chemistry [ii]. The American Chemical Society takes care of the The Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection in the History of Chemistry . 

Woehler s kindly disposition endeared him to another young American student, Edgar Fahs Smith of the University of... 

FIGURE 3 Dmitrii Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907). Photo and permission from Edgar Fahs Smith Collection. 

A. A. Blanchard Science 94, 311 (1941) Metal carbonyls 7 Edgar Fahs Smith memorial lecture... 

Courtesy Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Library of History of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Figure 8. From left to reight Justus von Liebig August Kekule (original painting from 1892) William Henry Perkin with a skein dyed mauve (original painting from 1892) Marcelin Berthelot (all images Edgar Fahs Smith Collection).

Figure 9. (a) Portrait of John Dalton engraving by William Henry Worthington after a 1814 painting by Joseph Allen, (b) Caricature of Dalton by James Stephenson (1808-1886), probably from 1882 (both Edgar Fahs Smith Collection). 

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