00:00:30 now called the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.

00:01:00 The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry would later evolve into the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.

00:01:30 Arnold Beckman today is a great friend of the history of chemistry, whose distinguished career epitomized the interaction of academia and industry.

00:01:46 Now I'd like to ask Charlie Price to say a few words. He's chairman of the Beckman Center's Policy Council, the eventual Franklin Professor Emeritus here at the University of Pennsylvania,

00:01:57 and former ACS President-General Bill Charleston. First of all, I want to thank John Haas very much for his hosting of this gathering,

00:02:08 of a very special friend of Chuck that we have here today, and especially we're pleased to acknowledge the help that we've gotten from the chemical community in general,

00:02:21 and of course from our major co-sponsors, the American Chemical Society, which is represented here by Ernest Eliel, the chairman of the board,

00:02:32 and by Stan Proctor, who's the chairman of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

00:02:42 Stan is with us.

00:02:44 Oh, Frank.

00:02:48 And since Stan, I gather, will not be able to be with us tonight, I wonder if you have anything you'd like to relay a message to Stanley here.

00:02:57 Thank you, Chuck. I'm very pleased to be with you today on this day of celebration, and I'm glad to bring you greetings from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

00:03:09 I'd like to make two observations with regard to this celebration in this city.

00:03:15 The first of which is that 79 years ago, in 1908, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was formed in Philadelphia.

00:03:27 The second observation I'd like to make, and we discussed it during the cocktail hour, is that in 1922, Dr. Beckman, recognizing the opportunities existing in the new field of chemical engineering,

00:03:40 received his degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois.

00:03:46 So I just simply want to say thank you very much for the opportunity to be here, and I wish much success to the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry. Thank you.

00:03:57 I'm sure we are all pleased with the role that Chuck has assumed and with the extra impetus that Arnold Beckman has given to our endeavor.

00:04:10 The programs of Chuck have met with wide acceptance around the chemical community.

00:04:15 Their efforts to bring the message of the contributions of chemistry and the philosophy of chemistry, its intellectual as well as practical contributions to society

00:04:35 through all kinds of activities, Chuck News, moral histories, there's all kinds of activities that are going on, has been very well received,

00:04:48 and I believe it's a very important contribution to the broader society to understand better what chemistry has done and what chemistry can do to make this a better world.

00:05:03 So we think that message is an important one. We have a big challenge to our little endeavor here at Penn.

00:05:12 Arnold Beckman has done a marvelous job in getting this group organized.

00:05:18 With five or six years that we've been in business, we've been scattered all over the campus here in attics and basements and one thing and another.

00:05:27 With the very great help of Arnold Beckman, we're now going to be moving into a new building that's just a little less than a block in that direction.

00:05:36 You may see it's still under construction and hopefully in the spring we'll be moving in.

00:05:40 Arnold, we'll be able to see the results of your help to our endeavor in a very fine facility that will be used until we get to the point where we may build our own facility for this endeavor.

00:05:56 But certainly we are very pleased with the way things have developed.

00:06:01 We have here two of the most important founding fathers of the Center for the History of Chemistry.

00:06:10 John Haas has been one that's been with us right from the very beginning and John Ackman is another.

00:06:17 John is a distinguished alum of the University of Pennsylvania.

00:06:20 He was a long time trustee at the University of Pennsylvania.

00:06:24 He's a former chairman and CEO of the Rohrer Group.

00:06:29 He's the chairman of the Beckman Center's campaign for financial support.

00:06:37 He's the former chairman of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association.

00:06:43 I'd like to call on John Ackman to say a word.

00:06:46 John is over here.

00:06:48 At the number one table.

00:06:54 Wherever Arnold Beckman sits today is the number one table.

00:07:01 As Charlie said, I've been in the pharmaceutical industry for many years.

00:07:08 In fact, all of my work in life.

00:07:11 One of the things that one notices quite prominently over the years is the need for an improved public understanding of science and technology.

00:07:29 And in fact of the pharmaceutical industry, the part of science and technology which I was engaged in.

00:07:37 All you have to do is think for a minute about the lack of public understanding in terms of the brand name versus generic name.

00:07:46 Pharmaceutical argument, things of that sort.

00:07:49 You begin to see the kinds of problems that the entire science and technology area has.

00:07:59 Rather specifically, I think that the average person nowadays thinks of science and technology almost as equating with environmental pollution rather than with the advancement of our standard of living, for example.

00:08:19 And I think that that's one of the great problems we have as an industry.

00:08:23 And one of the reasons why I have been so enthusiastic about the Center for the History of Chemistry, which today we are renaming the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.

00:08:36 As I think you probably all know, we are mounting a capital campaign for the center for five million dollars.

00:08:53 Thanks in large measure to the vision, generosity, and the encouragement of Ronald Beckman, who is, as you know, a noted California industrialist, inventor, academic, an engineer, philanthropist, and whose name is enshrined forever in the name of Smith, Klein, and Beckman.

00:09:20 And I'm the honorary president of the non-existent Smith, Klein Alumni Society.

00:09:26 I was elected to this august position very late one night at a convention at the Greenbrier after a good many drinks over the bar.

00:09:39 The then chief executive officer of Smith, Klein decided that maybe I could handle this.

00:09:47 And then when the company changed from Smith, Klein, and French to Smith, Klein, and Beckman, you know, I was able to roll with the punches, too.

00:09:56 I left Smith, Klein, and French. Just to give you an idea of the time frame I'm talking about.

00:10:03 I left Smith, Klein, and French in New Orleans in 1952.

00:10:08 Now I'd like to introduce Dr. Arnold Beckman and say a few words.

00:10:16 I have mixed emotions standing here.

00:10:18 First of all, I feel like an imposter, being amongst so many chemists.

00:10:24 It's been so many years since I've lifted a chest tube.

00:10:27 I have a hard time calling myself a chemist.

00:10:31 I do have a certificate.

00:10:33 I'm not a chemist, but a chemical engineer.

00:10:36 Well, it doesn't mean to say that.

00:10:38 What it says is I've satisfied the academic requirements for a career.

00:10:48 But I have very many fond memories of Philadelphia.

00:10:52 Some of this may be in your history, some may not, Dr. Arnold.

00:10:56 When I first came out with pH meters, I had a problem.

00:11:02 We had to sell it for $195.

00:11:05 At the time, we could buy a bottle of litmus paper for about five cents.

00:11:09 I thought it would lead to a whole bunch of competitive prices, you know.

00:11:13 $195 versus a few cents for litmus paper.

00:11:16 It could have been sold.

00:11:18 What happened to the American Chemical Society?

00:11:21 We had its annual meeting in San Francisco in the late summer of 1935,

00:11:25 and I took the instrument up to show it to a few excellent chemistry professors.

00:11:30 Do you think you can sell this for $195?

00:11:33 At that time, this was 1935.

00:11:35 You're all too young.

00:11:37 You've heard of the Depression.

00:11:39 That was at least a month to two-month salary of a medical chemist at that time.

00:11:44 A chemist would go out and ask his boss to spend $195

00:11:48 for something that did nothing but measure activity.

00:11:51 It was pretty much a toss of whether or not this thing could be sold.

00:11:56 Well, the professors lay heads.

00:11:58 They said, we don't know.

00:12:00 You should go back and talk to the operator's supply house, the dealers.

00:12:03 They have a much better idea.

00:12:05 So this is back when I got on the train.

00:12:07 I met the young president, Jane, in cross-country,

00:12:10 out to Denver, Denver Park, Lake County, Chicago.

00:12:13 Some of the scientists, E.H. Sarsen, Chicago Airways,

00:12:16 on to New York and so on.

00:12:18 We're now in those days before Pittsburgh Fisher and so on.

00:12:22 And here in Philadelphia, Arthur H. Thomas Company.

00:12:25 Most of the dealers were pretty pessimistic.

00:12:27 They didn't think it would sell.

00:12:29 The price was just too high.

00:12:31 But the son of the sales manager, Arthur Thomas, Ed Patterson,

00:12:36 he was a young fellow.

00:12:38 His enthusiasm had not been blown by much period of time.

00:12:41 So he thought we might sell the money in five or six hundred

00:12:47 over a ten-year period before we set up into the market.

00:12:52 Well, fortunately, this was the Depression.

00:12:54 We thought, well, good.

00:12:56 So we went ahead, which is why we had no initial capital.

00:13:01 So we sold a meter or two and gone and bought some parts

00:13:04 for the next three or four meters.

00:13:06 And things gradually built up.

00:13:08 Well, as I say, as a market researcher,

00:13:12 that's a pretty lousy job.

00:13:15 Because instead of selling 600 and saturating the market,

00:13:18 we made several hundred dollars.

00:13:21 And over the years, we can't see any end to the market.

00:13:24 We're still coming up with new models and new direction.

00:13:27 So I'm so thankful to Ed Patterson and Philip

00:13:31 for giving me the courage enough to get started.

00:13:36 As a matter of fact, I had an experience here

00:13:40 with Dr. Sumner.

00:13:42 He was talking about, when you say things enough,

00:13:45 people begin to believe them, even though they may not be true.

00:13:49 In between the matches in the U.S.,

00:13:51 I spent a couple of years with Western Electric Engineering

00:13:54 Company.

00:13:55 That's what's now known as Bell Telephone Laboratory.

00:13:58 Not doing chemical work, but working

00:14:00 on application of probability theory

00:14:02 to the sampling inspection.

00:14:04 To make a sample a certain size, reliability

00:14:08 to the whole universe.

00:14:12 Well, I was sent down here to inspect

00:14:16 solar joints and relay projects on the Pennypacker

00:14:19 HV.

00:14:20 That's what Pennypacker had just been put in.

00:14:22 I thought, well, it's a odd name.

00:14:25 Well, in the 80s, I had nothing to do with it.

00:14:27 I think I stayed, I think it was the William Penn Hotel.

00:14:30 I'm not too sure of that.

00:14:31 It was a hotel, but anyway, a block or two

00:14:33 away from a street where they had the sideshow

00:14:37 of Barker's office, selling nursery coils

00:14:39 and this thing like that.

00:14:40 So I'm walking down there one night.

00:14:42 And here's a fellow playing the banjo,

00:14:44 an excellent banjo player.

00:14:45 And I happened to have the light.

00:14:47 That's why I stayed and listened to him.

00:14:50 Finally got a big crowd running.

00:14:52 Then the Barker came down.

00:14:54 And this snake, he gave a tremendous pitch

00:14:57 on the purchase of this snake over here.

00:14:59 Cured dandruff, endo, toenails, gout,

00:15:01 anything you might have.

00:15:03 Only a dollar a bunch.

00:15:06 Wasn't a single key.

00:15:08 This fellow must have looked pretty low

00:15:10 after all this furniture and this banjo player.

00:15:13 Not a single thing.

00:15:15 Instead, he broke out into a big smile.

00:15:17 I said, friend, you don't know how happy I've been.

00:15:20 Show me.

00:15:21 You're just a gullible pushover.

00:15:23 You don't know me.

00:15:24 I can tell you anything.

00:15:26 But you don't have to take my word for it.

00:15:28 But you can leave it on the label yourself.

00:15:31 I don't know what to say.

00:15:39 Well, thank you all very much.

00:16:00 Thank you.

00:16:01 Thank you.

00:16:30 I'd like to welcome you all to this symposium.

00:16:40 Today is, of course, a very special day of celebration for us.

00:16:45 We're celebrating the transformation of the Center for History of Chemistry

00:16:49 into the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for History of Chemistry.

00:16:54 Among our distinguished roster of speakers is Arnold Beckman himself,

00:16:59 who will be telling us some things about his own experience.

00:17:04 We're especially delighted that this symposium this afternoon

00:17:08 is going to be chaired by a distinguished member of the chemical community.

00:17:13 Dr. Franklin Long is Professor Emeritus of Science and Society

00:17:18 and of Chemistry at Cornell University.

00:17:21 He's a physical chemist by training, a Berkeley PhD.

00:17:26 He did important work in the kinetics of solution reactions.

00:17:31 And, of course, more recently he's been known to us for many years

00:17:35 as a very active participant in the important dialogue about arms control.

00:17:41 He founded Cornell's program in Science, Technology, and Society.

00:17:46 And he's an enormously thoughtful observer on, participant in,

00:17:52 and commentator on the scientific scene.

00:17:55 And we're very delighted that he's with us.

00:17:58 He is a member of the Beckman Center's advisory board.

00:18:01 And, Frank, thank you.

00:18:04 It is a big day, and I'm very pleased indeed to be here.

00:18:08 It is a day of celebration to have this new program.

00:18:13 This is a very new program, this Program of History of Science.

00:18:17 It was founded only in 1982, and it's had a lot of good fortunes.

00:18:22 One of them was that it was rather promptly sponsored

00:18:26 and given a home by the University of Pennsylvania,

00:18:28 or maybe I should say a series of homes.

00:18:31 But that's been very important.

00:18:35 It was equally fortunate in attracting an exceedingly able, vigorous,

00:18:40 and effective head, who you've just heard from, Arnold Thackeray.

00:18:44 And it's true that it was recognized by chemists very broadly and quickly

00:18:50 as a very significant thing to happen,

00:18:53 to have a program that focused on the history of this science.

00:18:58 And I think historians of science have been equally pleased.

00:19:01 The program has had the strong backing of the American Chemical Society

00:19:05 and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

00:19:08 But in spite of all these pluses, and there were many,

00:19:12 it is, I think, fair to say that over these recent years

00:19:15 the program has not felt either secure or that its program was of the optimum size.

00:19:24 Well, suddenly and quite dramatically, as you gather, this has now changed.

00:19:28 This very imaginative man, Arnold Beckman, has seen this as something

00:19:35 that merited the support of himself and his wife, Mabel,

00:19:40 and has given this very handsome challenge grant to the program.

00:19:45 And needless to say, the sense of pleasure and gratitude to Arnold Beckman

00:19:52 is pretty substantial, and that's a lot of what we mean when we say celebration.

00:19:57 Well, now, it's very gratifying, given that background,

00:20:00 that he's been willing to be the first speaker at this occasion.

00:20:05 And what it's going to be is a video program,

00:20:09 excerpts from video tapes that I guess the center has actually taken,

00:20:15 which will give you some flavor of him

00:20:18 and something about his impression of his programs and activities.

00:20:24 And then there will be, from him, a few comments of the video tape.

00:20:31 This is the original Beckman pH meter, an instrument introduced 21 years ago.

00:20:37 Today, the pH meter has been dressed up and redesigned,

00:20:40 but its function is still the same, to determine acidity or alkalinity.

00:20:45 Now let's join our success story reporter, Ken Peters,

00:20:49 as he chats with founder and president of Beckman Instruments, Dr. Arnold O. Beckman.

00:20:54 Well, Dr. Beckman, after seeing all of these amazing operations,

00:20:57 I can't help but wonder how an organization like this ever got started.

00:21:01 Well, we got started very casually just 20 years ago, Ken.

00:21:05 I was teaching chemistry at Cal Tech

00:21:08 when an undergraduate friend of mine came in and told me his troubles.

00:21:12 He had to measure the acidity of lemon juice,

00:21:15 and he had difficulty with the equipment which was then available.

00:21:18 So I built an electronic amplifier for him to help him out of his troubles.

00:21:22 He came back in two or three months and wanted to know whether I wouldn't build him another.

00:21:26 I said I wouldn't build him another one because someone else was always using the first one.

00:21:30 I said that was enough to start a business.

00:21:32 So we built a commercial model, and in the fall of 1935,

00:21:36 I took the instrument across the country to talk to dealers

00:21:39 to see whether they thought it would be a saleable item.

00:21:43 Actually, the first pH meter that was shown for Dr. Glen Jewett,

00:21:49 that was not a pH meter. That was just a vacuum tube voltmeter.

00:21:52 You still had to use external resistance boxes and standard cells.

00:21:55 Now to bring in a little chemical history, let me go back to 1909.

00:22:00 That's an important year in my life.

00:22:02 That's when I ran across a chemistry text in the attic of my home

00:22:06 that got me interested in chemistry.

00:22:09 That started my career.

00:22:11 1909 also was the year that Fritz Haber found that if you had a thin-walled glass bulb

00:22:16 with a wire inside, you had a change in voltage if you changed the acidity.

00:22:21 You had a change in the external solution.

00:22:24 Also in 1909, a biochemist in the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen

00:22:30 invented the pH scale.

00:22:32 As you all know, these numbers representing hydrogen ionic concentration

00:22:36 are very awkward numbers.

00:22:38 Zero, and then a decimal point, then a whole string of zeros,

00:22:41 something like that.

00:22:42 So he got the idea of using negative logarithms

00:22:45 as the concentration of the power of 10.

00:22:48 That was 1909.

00:22:50 These ideas lay dormant for 25 years, almost dormant.

00:22:54 A few biochemists used to use them, but almost no chemists.

00:22:57 So I realized that that would simplify the construction of the instrument

00:23:01 because that gave us a linear relationship between pH and the electromotive force,

00:23:09 whereas we'd have a logarithmic ratio if we used the Nernst equation.

00:23:13 So that made the construction of the instrument easy

00:23:17 and it also made the concept of acidity easy

00:23:20 because now people had just a simple scale of small positive numbers

00:23:23 from 0 to 14 instead of all these very complicated numbers.

00:23:28 Well, that was how we got started.

00:23:31 The trouble was that this instrument would have to retail for $195.

00:23:37 Now, you all have heard of the Great Depression, I'm sure,

00:23:41 but you have no comprehension of that unless you have lived through it.

00:23:46 That was a couple of months' salary for an analytical chemist in those days.

00:23:50 They asked the chemist to ask his boss to put out that much money for an instrument

00:23:54 that did nothing but measure acidity in competition with a piece of litmus paper.

00:23:59 It worked not for once upon us.

00:24:04 So Mr. Beckman and I went up to San Francisco at the end of the summer of 1935

00:24:09 and happened to be the American Chemical Society was holding its annual meeting out there.

00:24:13 I showed the instrument to some of the local chemical professionals.

00:24:17 Well, they very widely refused to commit themselves.

00:24:21 They were not experts.

00:24:23 We should talk to the apparatus dealers.

00:24:25 So we got on the train and went across the country then

00:24:28 and stopped at various places, Denver, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and so on,

00:24:34 and talked to the dealers.

00:24:36 Most of them were pretty pessimistic.

00:24:38 But fortunately here in Philadelphia,

00:24:41 the son of the sales manager of Arthur H. Thomas Company was eager.

00:24:47 He said, you know, you might sell as many as 500 or 600 of these over 10 years

00:24:52 before you saturate the market.

00:24:55 Fortunately, this was the Depression.

00:24:57 I had a fat salary.

00:24:59 I was an assistant professor at Caltech at that time with a steady month of income.

00:25:03 I think it was $250 a month, but it came in every month.

00:25:06 That was the important thing.

00:25:08 So I thought this would be a way to make a few extra dollars.

00:25:12 So I started with no more planning than that.

00:25:15 I didn't realize I was ultimately going to end up in business.

00:25:18 It shows how naive I was then.

00:25:20 I still am, so I let it go.

00:25:22 But we started making these things.

00:25:24 One thing led to another.

00:25:27 After we were selling the pH meter in a considerable quantity,

00:25:31 I realized there was a need for a photoelectric spectrophotometer.

00:25:36 Visual range spectrophotometers were widely used,

00:25:39 but they could not be used out in the ultraviolet region.

00:25:43 Many compounds, as you well know, are colorless,

00:25:46 so you can't measure them on visual range spectrophotometers.

00:25:50 I realized we had in the circuitry of the pH meter

00:25:53 an ideal circuit to work with a vacuum-type photocell.

00:25:58 That led to the development of the spectrophotometer.

00:26:01 I can recall you here with many instances of experience we had through here.

00:26:06 Dr. Seaborg here.

00:26:08 Dr. Seaborg almost worked with me at Caltech.

00:26:13 Unfortunately, according to him, I just learned today here that Caltech

00:26:16 had run out of scholarship grants at that time,

00:26:18 so he went off to work and then said,

00:26:20 My great veteran, I'm sorry.

00:26:26 I'll try to think of something to say later on after I see the other fellow,

00:26:29 but thank you.

00:26:38 I'm told that the other,

00:26:41 another part of video discussion with Arnold Beckman is available

00:26:48 and will be shown as a break before the break.

00:26:55 Well, Jack, I think it's only fair to warn you right from the start here now

00:26:57 that you're talking to a fellow who certainly admires,

00:27:00 but just doesn't begin to comprehend the complexities of this great field

00:27:03 with which you people here at Beckman are so familiar.

00:27:06 Well, Ken, I don't think it's really so complicated.

00:27:08 I think we can give you a pretty clear picture here.

00:27:10 You really do?

00:27:11 Sure, I think so.

00:27:12 Well, all right, supposing you try to convey to me

00:27:14 just what this flame photometer does.

00:27:17 Well, the flame photometer is used by doctors primarily.

00:27:20 It's used in the medical field,

00:27:22 and one example is taking blood samples down here

00:27:25 where the blood is sucked up into the flame and burned.

00:27:29 This instrument measures the amount of sodium and potassium in the blood.

00:27:33 Each element gives off a different color,

00:27:36 and then the amount is recorded on this meter here,

00:27:39 which tells the doctor exactly how much sodium and potassium in your blood,

00:27:42 which is very helpful for him in diagnosing your problems.

00:27:46 The thermocouple is really a special kind of thermometer

00:27:49 used to measure very small amounts of heat in a Beckman spectrophotometer.

00:27:53 Some of the parts which make up the thermocouple are so small

00:27:56 that a microscope must be used to assemble them.

00:27:59 Here are the parts that must be assembled inside the thermocouple tube.

00:28:04 We are now looking at Mrs. Orenson,

00:28:06 a highly skilled Beckman employee whose intricate job

00:28:09 is to assemble and solder the component parts of the thermocouple.

00:28:13 Let's join Ken Peters as he finds out more about this stage of assembly.

00:28:19 Mrs. Orenson, do you enjoy working with these tiny parts?

00:28:22 Oh, yes, very much. In fact, I find it a real challenge.

00:28:25 Well, now I understand this is a receiver assembly that you're going to make here.

00:28:29 Could you show us the steps involved in making it?

00:28:31 Yes. We'll take the small particle of gold and place it on the plate.

00:28:35 You mean those tiny little specks we saw on that glass are the actual receivers?

00:28:39 Yes.

00:28:40 And you're going to weld wires onto them?

00:28:42 Yes, a small wire will be welded to the gold.

00:28:45 The wires are in there? We'll have to take your word for it

00:28:48 because they're so tiny that we can't see them.

00:28:50 I'll place it on the plate.

00:28:53 Then how do you manipulate them around on the plate into the right position?

00:28:56 With the one-haired brush.

00:28:58 A one-haired...

00:28:59 Yes.

00:29:00 Yes, there is one hair there.

00:29:01 Is that any special kind of hair?

00:29:03 Oh, yes, it's quite special hair.

00:29:04 In fact, we get it from the heads of our distinguished guests and visitors,

00:29:07 and we'd like to have one of yours, Mr. Peters.

00:29:09 I guess I could spare one for science.

00:29:11 And now this is a little spot welding unit in which you will actually spot weld.

00:29:16 I imagine if you sneezed here, you'd be out of business for quite a little while, wouldn't you?

00:29:19 Oh, yes. In fact, we did have a sign in here that we shouldn't breathe in this room.

00:29:24 No breathing allowed.

00:29:26 Now I have the wire in place and the electrode on it,

00:29:29 and all I have to do to weld it is to press this little button and pray.

00:29:36 There it is.

00:29:37 Now look.

00:29:38 This is...

00:29:39 Beautiful job, I'm sure.

00:29:41 How long have you been doing this type of work?

00:29:43 Well, I've been with Beckman about 12 years,

00:29:45 but I've been doing this work about five years.

00:29:48 Doesn't it make you nervous?

00:29:49 Oh, not at all.

00:29:50 In fact, the successful results are a great feeling of achievement.

00:29:55 You never feel like going home and beating your husband, then?

00:29:57 Oh, not for this.

00:29:58 Thank you very much for letting me do this.

00:30:01 All right.

00:30:02 Thank you.

00:30:09 Well, I'm a Beckman.

00:30:17 Well, you often ask yourself, why should we have a history of chemistry?

00:30:22 Many reasons for it, of course.

00:30:24 We do put things in perspective,

00:30:26 and they both come back and remember things that have happened in the past.

00:30:31 I've seen this film here, Jack Bishop.

00:30:33 Do you know who the film is about?

00:30:35 Well, you may wonder how we get our employees to Beckman Institute.

00:30:39 We got Jack Bishop.

00:30:41 He walked into my office one day when the Southwest did it.

00:30:44 He was a graduate.

00:30:45 He got an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

00:30:48 It turned out that Beckman Institute was one of the companies that was used there as a case study.

00:30:54 He said he'd done innocent what we made, and I had to go to work for it.

00:30:58 No more to do, none.

00:30:59 He was hired in a spot.

00:31:00 He became one of our very, very best managers over the years.

00:31:05 And Althea Orenson.

00:31:07 She had to leave and move to Hawaii when her husband went out there.

00:31:14 So she came in with tears in her eyes.

00:31:16 For 24 years, she had been doing nothing but painting this Blackman Bank on a thing

00:31:22 with a one-haired brush in it.

00:31:24 It's not a thing.

00:31:26 Well, as I look back, there are many rewards for being in the chemical business.

00:31:34 But before that, let me point again about perspective.

00:31:38 Back in the early 1930s, the 20s and 30s,

00:31:42 Gal Tech couldn't be in the chemical department.

00:31:46 Arthur Amos Noyes was the head of the chemical department then.

00:31:50 And he would have nothing to do with commercialization.

00:31:54 I think Bob is comfortable.

00:31:57 When I started making the pH meter at 35,

00:32:01 I would make them just a few at a time over weekends and like that.

00:32:05 Finally, by 39, the business had grown to the size that somebody had to run it full time.

00:32:12 And I had to make a very difficult decision.

00:32:14 Should I leave the position there, which I loved, of being an assistant professor at Gal Tech,

00:32:20 doing research and enjoying the teaching,

00:32:23 and engage in this crass commercialism of making a business out of this thing, or not?

00:32:30 Well, by that time, I had been enjoying some of the business aspects as well as the scientific aspects.

00:32:37 So I decided to make the change.

00:32:40 So I resigned at Gal Tech.

00:32:43 May I give you some advice?

00:32:46 You who are students here, be prepared for almost anything that you go ahead in life,

00:32:53 because you never know what's going to come up.

00:32:55 I started out to be a chemical engineer.

00:32:58 By the time I got around to my doctorate degree, I was a physical chemist.

00:33:02 I studied the quantum yields and the photochemical reactions.

00:33:07 I ended up making instruments.

00:33:10 So as you look ahead, be prepared for anything.

00:33:14 Whatever happens will exceed your wildest imaginations, I think, right now.

00:33:20 As I look back, there are many rewards, let's say, of being in the business.

00:33:26 One is that it is gratifying to see people like you making use of instruments to advance mankind.

00:33:34 And I'm happy to have a little part in making the tools that are useful to us.

00:33:49 Thank you very much, Peter.

00:33:52 I'll make my own brief commentary by pointing out that the people who devised this program

00:34:00 very engagingly had about half the time spent on academic things, by academicians,

00:34:07 and the other half on applied things by engineers and scientists who work on these type of things.

00:34:15 And I personally found that about equally interesting.

00:34:18 And that, I think we ought to be grateful.

00:34:22 Well, let me thank the speakers.

00:34:24 Let me thank the audience.

00:34:27 And now let me turn the very final words over to our fearless leader, none other than Dr. Arnold Frank.

00:34:35 Thank you very much, Frank.

00:34:37 We very much appreciated your chairing of this symposium and the good words of all our speakers.

00:34:43 And I think we've all enjoyed this glimpse backwards and forwards,

00:34:48 because history, of course, is always about the future, among other things.

00:34:57 Thank you very much.

00:35:27 We're also pleased to welcome some other representatives of the sponsors of our organization,

00:35:44 the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

00:35:49 Mary Good is here, as we'll be hearing from her later.

00:35:52 She's a president of the American Chemical Society,

00:35:55 and we're delighted to have her with us.

00:35:57 Ernest Alliel is right here on my left.

00:36:05 He's the chairman of the board of the ACS and professor of chemistry also.

00:36:10 John Crumb is the executive director of the ACS, down to my right.

00:36:15 Rod Hader is the secretary of the ACS, and he is over here at my left.

00:36:22 We're delighted to have all of this representation from the chemical community.

00:36:26 We believe Chalk is a worthy contributor to the whole enterprise of chemistry,

00:36:33 and we're delighted to have your interest and support.

00:36:36 I would also like to introduce now Mary Good.

00:36:40 Mary is a member of the National Science Board,

00:36:43 an industrial chemist with a most impressive research career at Allied Signal and other places,

00:36:50 and a very energetic and persuasive president of the American Chemical Society.

00:36:54 Mary, we're delighted to have you and say a few words.

00:37:04 Charlie, thank you very much.

00:37:05 It really is a pleasure to be here tonight

00:37:08 and to have an opportunity to join in saluting Arnold Beckman

00:37:12 and in applauding his really quite generous gift to the Beckman Center.

00:37:17 And to have an opportunity to say how pleased the American Chemical Society is with the center and its work.

00:37:24 The idea of a center for the history of chemistry was first discussed in American Chemical Society circles in the late 1970s,

00:37:32 and there are several people here tonight who had a lot to do with the legwork that went on to get that done,

00:37:39 Bill Bailey and Ned and some other people.

00:37:42 There are histories that go with these things,

00:37:45 and sometimes it might be wise for the Beckman Center to actually put that piece of history together as well.

00:37:52 But the society has really been very pleased with its decision to sponsor an organization

00:37:58 which has quickly demonstrated its ability to play a significant role in the education of chemists

00:38:04 and the general public about the positive contributions of the chemical sciences to society.

00:38:11 Now, we were equally pleased when the American Institute of Chemical Engineers agreed to join the ACS

00:38:16 and the University of Pennsylvania in sponsoring what was known as CHOC.

00:38:21 Now, this joint sponsorship has assured the appropriate mix of emphasis on pure and applied chemistry,

00:38:27 which is the special character of the chemical sciences, and I think that's a very important issue.

00:38:35 This cooperation between the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers

00:38:40 exemplifies really in many ways the integration of theory and practice in American chemistry and American industry,

00:38:47 and it's particularly appropriate for an organization like the Beckman Center

00:38:52 where the crucial role of the chemically-based disciplines in the achievement of really an unprecedented standard of living in this country

00:38:59 can be both documented and hopefully better understood.

00:39:04 And it's particularly appropriate for us to recognize Dr. Beckman tonight

00:39:08 for his contribution to the base and the future development of our work.

00:39:13 Dr. Beckman's career has combined chemical research, engineering accomplishments,

00:39:19 entrepreneurial vision, and philanthropic initiative in a singular way.

00:39:24 We applaud Dr. Beckman's gift to what now becomes the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry

00:39:31 for it will lend continuity to our current programs and provide a secure base from which to plan and execute our future programs.

00:39:40 Now, Dr. Ernest Illio will talk to you in a few minutes about the Campaign for Chemistry

00:39:45 with details on how we plan to meet the Beckman Challenge and provide the chemical community with new resources

00:39:51 for exploiting really some outstanding opportunities, particularly in education and service at the present time.

00:39:58 But first, before we get to that, let me introduce Dr. Arnold Thackeray, who almost everybody here knows,

00:40:04 who is the director of the Beckman Center, who will make the presentation to Dr. Beckman. Arnold?

00:40:19 Thank you very much, Mary.

00:40:22 If you look in the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll find it defines a true philanthropist

00:40:30 as one who from love of his fellow men exerts himself for their well-being.

00:40:40 And I think if you consider the whole story of Beckman Instruments,

00:40:45 it is one of extraordinary exertion for the well-being of mankind in developing and shaping the revolution in instrumentation

00:40:55 in which we live at the very center of that revolution today and about which we heard so ably from our speakers this afternoon.

00:41:06 But there is, of course, a second story to Dr. Beckman, and that's the story of his more direct and immediate philanthropy,

00:41:15 of which the Beckman Center is but one part. Not an insignificant part, but one part in a much broader mosaic.

00:41:25 And that story of his philanthropy is also the story of extraordinary exertion to see that gifts are wisely applied to fostering the well-being of the research community.

00:41:40 His imaginative challenge gift to chalk might well cause us some sleepless nights.

00:41:48 Well, if sleepless nights are a measure of exertion and of progress, I have to report to you and to Dr. Beckman that his challenge is going very well.

00:42:02 More seriously, I want at this moment not to report to you on Dr. Beckman's extraordinary career, about which I think you all know,

00:42:15 but rather as a symbol of our common esteem for him and for Mrs. Beckman to give to him and to Mrs. Beckman on your behalf two small tokens of our affection.

00:42:30 The first of those tokens symbolizes his long association with the American Chemical Society.

00:42:38 I have here a facsimile copy of Dr. Beckman's January 1921 membership certificate in the American Chemical Society.

00:42:56 It provides, I think, a very intriguing glimpse into ACS networks and personalities over 65 years ago,

00:43:05 when the 20-year-old Arnold Beckman, a junior in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois,

00:43:12 was sponsored for ACS membership by two members of the Illinois faculty, Silas Alonzo Braley and John Bernice Brown.

00:43:24 His membership certificate was also signed by three other chemists of distinction, all of them Washington-based,

00:43:32 who served to co-nominate the young Illinois chemist for membership.

00:43:37 Those three were Willard Bigelow, Frederick Cottrell, and Charles Parsons.

00:43:45 Parsons, of course, was the secretary and presiding genius of the ACS from 1907 to 1945,

00:43:55 and it was natural that he should ask Cottrell to also sign Arnold Beckman's petition,

00:44:01 since Cottrell, as director of the Bureau of Mines, had been a colleague of Parsons right at that time.

00:44:10 Bigelow was a third prominent Washington chemist.

00:44:14 In 1913, he left the Bureau of Chemistry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to become director of research for the National Canning Association.

00:44:23 He was also, in 1921, a member of the ACS board of directors.

00:44:28 So what I think this membership certificate exemplifies is something true then as now,

00:44:37 namely Arnold Beckman's ability to tap into the great resources of talent at the center of the American Chemical Society.

00:44:45 Our second gift symbolizes Dr. Beckman's place in the history of chemical instrumentation.

00:44:58 We live today in the middle of the second revolution in instrumentation.

00:45:04 The revolution sparked by the application of electronics to the chemical sciences,

00:45:11 the revolution that is, of course, symbolized and epitomized by the pH meter.

00:45:19 But that second revolution follows on an earlier revolution,

00:45:25 a revolution associated with the names of Joseph Priestley, Anton Lavoisier, and Humphrey Davy,

00:45:33 a revolution that began with the development of the pneumatic trough and ended with the electric or voltaic battery.

00:45:44 And that earlier revolution was summarized and described in rather beautiful pictorial detail

00:45:54 in the first book in the English language ever devoted to the story of chemical instrumentation.

00:46:03 And in 1824, Friedrich Ackerm published his explanatory dictionary of the apparatus and instruments

00:46:13 employed in the various operations of philosophical and experimental chemistry.

00:46:20 It's a book that has a number of very gorgeous plates that show you the state of the art in chemical instrumentation.

00:46:31 Now, Dr. Beckman, in his turn, is, of course, our age's greatest exponent of philosophical and experimental chemistry.

00:46:43 And therefore, on your behalf, I'm delighted to present to him and to Mrs. Beckman

00:46:50 these two tokens of our esteem and affection.

00:46:55 Thank you.

00:47:15 Thank you very much, Arnold.

00:47:17 I'm sorry that Mrs. Beckman isn't here at first, but she extends her best wishes and thanks to all of you here.

00:47:23 I do appreciate all of you coming and attending this event today.

00:47:29 I was interested in your definition of a philanthropist.

00:47:35 You know, I think we better put things to strength here, Arnold.

00:47:38 I don't think I qualify as a philanthropist because, really, I'm doing this for a very, very selfish reason.

00:47:47 It turns out that despite Black Monday, I still enjoy our concert.

00:47:51 I respect that I have a few funds left over, which, combined with Social Security, will probably take care of us in our many days.

00:47:59 Actually, I might say, modestly, that I worked hard for 50 years out here, and I hate to see that surplus wasted.

00:48:11 So I'm looking around for ways in which this money can be invested.

00:48:15 And the Center for the History of Chemistry gives us an opportunity to invest money that we think will be used well for the benefit of humanity from here on out.

00:48:25 So I'm indebted to the Center, to Chuck, for this opportunity.

00:48:30 And keep in mind, this is purely a selfish act on my part and not an act of generosity.

00:48:36 I remember speaking to philanthropists.

00:48:39 Man, I said, young boy, what are you going to be when you grow up?

00:48:42 Are you going to be a fireman or a policeman or a doctor?

00:48:45 He said, no, I think I'll be a philanthropist.

00:48:48 They always seem to have plenty of money.

00:48:51 Thank you all very much for honoring Mr. Franklin Reed here tonight.

00:48:56 Thank you all very much for honoring Mr. Franklin Reed here tonight.

00:49:13 It's now my very great pleasure to introduce the gentleman on my left, Dr. Ernest Hillel,

00:49:22 the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Chemical Society,

00:49:26 who is distinguished not only for his tact and judgment in steering that $150 million a year association,

00:49:38 which happens to be the size of their budget, in his spare time.

00:49:43 That's one of his avocations.

00:49:46 But he is also a professor of chemistry and a pioneering stereochemist at the University of North Carolina.

00:49:53 I'm happy to introduce Dr. Hillel.

00:50:01 Thank you very much, Dr. Eggman, for your kind words.

00:50:04 It is a great pleasure for me to represent, together with Mary Good, the American Chemical Society, on this festive occasion.

00:50:12 We are tonight attending the christening of one of our children, as Mary Good explained,

00:50:16 the children with three parents, the American Chemical Society,

00:50:20 the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the University of Pennsylvania.

00:50:24 And it is a pleasure for us, and I think a benefit for us in the ACS,

00:50:29 to be associated with the AICHE and the University of Pennsylvania in this endeavor.

00:50:34 The name of the child is to be the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.

00:50:39 We are immensely grateful to Dr. Arnold Beckman for making this event possible

00:50:44 through his most generous gift to the Center,

00:50:46 a gift which we at the American Chemical Society are pledged to match and expect to match very soon.

00:50:53 Tonight is also the eve of National Chemistry Day,

00:50:56 as some of you have recognized from the buttons which we are wearing,

00:50:59 which will be celebrated tomorrow, November 6th.

00:51:03 And we might ask ourselves what the christening of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center

00:51:07 for the History of Chemistry and National Chemistry they have in common.

00:51:11 And I think there is something very important that they have in common,

00:51:14 namely both as one of the important aims,

00:51:17 that to send a message about chemistry to a wide public audience.

00:51:21 The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center sends a message about what chemistry

00:51:26 and chemical technology have done for us in the past,

00:51:29 and National Chemistry Day about what chemistry does for us now and in the future.

00:51:34 And I would perhaps even qualify that to say,

00:51:37 because as Arnold Thackeray said earlier,

00:51:40 history really, although it deals with the past,

00:51:43 extends to the present and the future, so there is certainly overlap.

00:51:47 I think this is a very important message,

00:51:49 for too many of our citizens are ignorant not only of the facts of modern science,

00:51:54 but as well of the culture and spirit of science and the vital role it plays in society.

00:52:00 We all here know today that the role of American chemistry and American chemical industry,

00:52:05 the role of American chemistry and American chemical industry in the development of our nation,

00:52:10 and that it is too little noted and often criticized.

00:52:13 This is very regrettable because American chemistry and the chemical industry

00:52:18 represent one of the great success stories in American history.

00:52:22 I said at the beginning that the American Chemical Society

00:52:25 has taken up the challenge to match the magnificent Beckman gift.

00:52:29 We plan to do so in the context of our own fund drive, the Campaign for Chemistry.

00:52:34 Let me, therefore, in the second half of my remarks,

00:52:37 say a few words about the Campaign for Chemistry

00:52:40 and how it relates to the objectives I have staked out in the first part.

00:52:44 The magnitude of our campaign is substantial in the 30 to 50 million dollar range.

00:52:49 It is not a small campaign.

00:52:51 To achieve this goal, we need, of course, the full cooperation of the American chemical industry,

00:52:56 as well as the help of all of our members,

00:52:58 and especially that of a few highly supportive individuals

00:53:01 who, like Dr. Beckman, are in a position to make major gifts.

00:53:05 Our campaign is headed by a campaign committee chaired at the present time

00:53:09 by Dr. Richard Hackett, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the DuPont Company.

00:53:14 I had the pleasure of visiting with him this morning, with Dr. Beckman,

00:53:19 and we jointly discussed the progress of the campaign.

00:53:23 The committee has a rotating chairmanship,

00:53:25 and Dr. Hackett's successor will be Dr. Luis Fernandez,

00:53:28 President and Chief Executive Officer of Celgene Corporation.

00:53:31 That probably will only happen maybe next summer or next fall.

00:53:36 Dr. Fernandez is also the former chairman of the Monsanto Company.

00:53:41 Others involved in the leadership of the campaign at this moment

00:53:44 are Dr. Arnold Beckman himself, who has kindly agreed to help us in our endeavors,

00:53:48 on top of what he has already done for the Center.

00:53:51 Mr. Paul Orifice, the Chairman of the Board of Dow Chemical.

00:53:55 Mr. Edward Donnelly, former Chairman of Air Products.

00:53:58 And Dr. Milton Harris, who is in charge of our membership drive,

00:54:01 and to whom you have been introduced earlier.

00:54:03 I have already said that the support for the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center

00:54:06 for the History of Chemistry is one of the four pillars of our campaign.

00:54:11 I think you have learned that the $2 million gift from Dr. Beckman

00:54:16 is to be matched by $2 million from our campaign, and that is certainly underway.

00:54:21 In fact, we want to contribute more than the $2 million.

00:54:24 I think we would like to contribute $3 million to fulfill all the aims

00:54:28 which the Center for the History of Chemistry has.

00:54:31 So let me close in saying again how grateful we are for the Beckman gift,

00:54:35 and that it is our intent not only to match it, but as I already mentioned,

00:54:38 to provide additional endowment for the Center as part of the Campaign for Chemistry.

00:54:42 I hope and trust that we may count on the support of all of you in that campaign.

00:54:46 Thank you very much.

00:54:56 I'm delighted that you were all able to join us on this very special occasion,

00:55:03 celebration of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.

00:55:08 Thanks to the vision and strong encouragement of Dr. and Mrs. Beckman,

00:55:14 the Center is entering a new phase of growth and is facing new challenges.

00:55:21 Arnold Thackeray mentioned earlier the sleepless nights to which we were challenged.

00:55:32 With the Beckman Challenge grant and the help of our many sponsors and friends,

00:55:37 the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry will meet this challenge

00:55:42 and will move on to bigger and better contributions pointing to the past

00:55:48 to serve the future needs of the chemical community and of our nation.

00:55:54 Thank you for joining us on this joyous and momentous occasion,

00:56:00 and thank you, Dr. Beckman, for helping to make it possible.

00:56:05 Good night. Goodbye.

00:56:30 Good night.

00:57:00 END