A century of science in America

by Unknown

J. Lawrence Smith was born in 1818 and died in 1883. He was a graduate of the University of Virginia and of the Medical College of Charleston and later spent three years studying in Paris. Shortly after the completion of his studies he went to Turkey as an advisor to the government of that country in connection with the growing of cotton there. During this time he investigated the emery mines of Asia Minor, and wrote a memoir upon them which was later published by the French Academy. He served as professor of chemistry in the University of Virginia and later held the same chair in the University of Illinois. He published a long series of papers on the chemical composition of minerals and meteorites, as well as on pure chemical subjects. Among the more notable of his contributions are the “Memoir on Emery” (1850), a series of papers on the “Reëxamination of American Minerals” (1853) written with the collaboration of George J. Brush, and his “Memoir on Meteorites” (1855).

George J. Brush entered on his scientific career at the moment when science and scientific methods of research were just beginning to be appreciated in this country, and he soon became one of the leading pioneers in the movement. While his half century of active service was largely occupied by administrative duties in connection with the Sheffield Scientific School, his interest in mineralogy never flagged. His papers on mineralogical subjects number about thirty, all of which were published in the Journal. These began in 1849, even before his graduation from college, and continued until his last paper (in collaboration with S. L. Penfield) appeared in 1883. Three of the early papers were written with J. Lawrence Smith as noted above. These papers first set in this country the standard for thorough and accurate scientific mineral investigation. Later in life he was active in the development of the remarkable mineral locality at Branchville, Conn., and, with the collaboration of E. S. Dana, published in the Journal (1878–90) five important articles on its minerals. This locality, with the exception of the zinc deposits at Franklin Furnace, N. J., was the most remarkable yet discovered in this country. Nearly forty different mineral species were found there, of which nine (mostly phosphates) were new to science. There has certainly been no other series of descriptive papers on a mineralogical locality of equal importance published in this country.

In addition to publishing original papers, Brush did considerable editorial work in connection with the fourth (1854) and fifth (1868) editions of the System of Mineralogy and the Appendices to them. His Manual of Determinative Mineralogy, with a series of determinative tables adapted from similar ones by von Kobell, was first published in 1874. It was revised in 1878 and later rewritten by S. L. Penfield. This book did much to make possible the rapid and accurate determination of mineral species. Throughout his life, Brush was an enthusiastic collector of minerals, building up the notable collection that now bears his name. Perhaps, however, his most important contribution to the development of mineralogy in America lay rather in his influence upon his many students. With his enthusiasm for accurate and painstaking investigation he was an inspiration to all who came in contact with him and his own field and science in general owes much to that influence.

Among the early mineralogists in this country, who were concerned in the chemical analyses of minerals, none accomplished more or better work than Frederick A. Genth. He was born in Germany in 1820 and lived in that country until 1848, when he came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. He had studied in various German universities and worked under some of the most famous chemists of that time. His papers in mineralogy number more than seventy-five, in the great majority of which chemical analyses are given. He published fifty-four successive articles, the greater part of which appeared in the Journal, which were entitled Contributions to Mineralogy. In these he gave descriptions of more than two hundred different minerals, most of which were accompanied by analyses. He described more than a dozen new and well-established mineral species. He was especially interested in the rarer elements and many of his analyses were of minerals containing them. Especially interesting was his work with the tellurides, the species coloradoite, melonite and calaverite being first described by him. A long and important investigation was recorded on Corundum, “Its Alterations and Associate Minerals,” published in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society in 1873 (13, 361). Dr. Genth died in 1893.

The period from 1860 until 1875 was not very productive in mineralogical investigations. The first ten volumes of the Third Series of the Journal, covering the years 1871–1876, contained mineralogical articles by only some fifteen different authors. But from that time on, the amount of work done and the number of investigators grew rapidly. With this increase in activity came also a decided change in the character of the work. The period between 1871 and 1895 can be characterized as one in which all the various aspects of mineral investigation received more nearly equal prominence. While the chemical composition of minerals still held rightly its prominent place, the investigation of the crystallographic and optical characters and the relationships existing between all three were of much more frequent occurrence. Edward S. Dana commenced his scientific work by publishing in 1872 an article on the crystals of datolite which was probably the first American article concerned wholly with the description of the crystallography of a mineral. Samuel L. Penfield began his important investigations in 1877 and the first articles by Frank W. Clarke appeared during this period. The first edition of the Text Book of Mineralogy by Edward S. Dana with its important chapters on Crystallography and Optical Mineralogy was published in 1877 and his revision of the System of Mineralogy (sixth edition) appeared in 1892.

Unquestionably the foremost figure in American mineralogy during this period was that of Samuel L. Penfield. He embodied in an unusual degree the characters making for success in this science, for few investigators in mineralogy have shown, as he did, equal facility in all branches of descriptive mineralogy. He was a skilled chemist and possessed in a high degree that ingenuity in manipulation so necessary to a great analyst. He was also an accurate and resourceful crystallographer and optical mineralogist. His contributions to the science of mineralogy can be partially judged by the following brief summary of his work. He published over eighty mineralogical papers, practically all of which were printed in the Journal. These included the descriptions of fourteen new mineral species, the establishment of the chemical composition of more than twenty others, and the crystallization of about a dozen more. By a series of brilliant investigations he established the isomorphism between fluorine and the hydroxyl radical. He first enunciated the theory that the crystalline form of a mineral was due to the mass effect of the acid present rather than that of the bases. He contributed also a number of articles on the stereographic projection and its use in crystallographic investigations, devising a series of protractors and scales to make possible the rapid and accurate use of this projection in solving problems in crystallography.

Penfield was born in 1856, was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1877 and immediately became an assistant in the chemical laboratory of that institution. At this time he, together with his colleague Horace L. Wells, made the analyses of the minerals from the newly discovered Branchville locality. He spent the years 1880 and 1881 in studying chemistry in Germany, returning to Yale as an instructor in mineralogy in the fall of 1881. Except for another semester in Europe at Heidelberg he continued as instructor and professor of mineralogy in the Sheffield Scientific School until his early death in 1906.

It is difficult to choose for mention the names of other investigators in Mineralogy during this period. Toward its end a great many writers contributed to the pages of the Journal, more than fifty different names being counted for the volumes 41 to 50 of the Third Series. Many of these are still living and still active in scientific research. Mention should be made of Frank W. Clarke, who contributed many important articles concerning the chemical constitution of the silicates. His work on the mica and zeolite groups is especially noteworthy. The work of W. H. Hillebrand, particularly in regard to his analytical investigations of the minerals containing the rarer elements, was of great importance. The name of W. E. Hidden should be remembered, because, with his keen and discriminating eye and active search for new mineral localities, he was able to make many additions to the science.

In glancing over the indices to the Journal the close interrelation of mineralogy to the other sciences is strikingly shown by the fact that so many scientists whose particular fields are along other lines have published occasional mineralogical papers. Frequently a young man has commenced with mineralogical investigations and then later been drawn definitely into one of these allied subjects. Men, who have won their reputation in chemistry, physics, and all the various divisions of geology, even that of palaeontology, have all contributed articles distinctly mineralogical in character. For this reason the number of American writers who have published what may be called casual papers on mineralogy is very great in comparison to the number of those who continue such publications over a series of years.