Willis R. Whitney
Willis Rodney Whitney (August 22, 1868 – January 9, 1958) was an American chemist and founder of the research laboratory of the General Electric Company.Upon hearing the news, he returned from an American Chemical Society conference in California and went to comfort his mother, who was slowly going blind.[1] As he retired, Whitney spent more time on his hobbies: bicycling, his various experiments, collecting arrowheads, and learning such as studying neurology and welding for fun.For advice he went to General Francis Amasa Walker, then president of M.I.T., who offered that Whitney should avoid electrical engineering, then a relatively new field at M.I.T., and stick to chemistry or biology.He would give students a problem that was not in their textbook and told them to solve it by researching, devising a method, carrying it out, and by presenting a report.After two more years of teaching analytical chemistry, Whitney decided to go to the University of Leipzig to obtain his doctorate and study under Wilhelm Ostwald.Whitney was intrigued by the competing theories of corrosion during his recent consulting assignment at a Boston hospital where rust plagued the water pipes.He reasoned that corrosion must occur in an oxidation-reduction reaction, similar to how Nernst explained the physical chemistry of a battery.Basically, Whitney found that the proper electrical contact between the cathode and anodic region as well as the presence of hydrogen ions were enough to make corrosion occur.In merging with the American Aristotype company, Eastman needed help to lower costs by making the production of photographic paper less wasteful.Specifically, Eastman saw the need to recover the alcohol and ether vapor that was going to waste in the photographic paper production process.Although the exact details of the solvent recovery process remained as secret, the procedure appeared to have involved collecting the evolved vapors and distilling them back into their constituents after passing them through a certain chemical gel.One of the first problems Whitney solved at the General Electric Laboratory was that of making a furnace that produced porcelain rods with scientific precision.After finding success with his electric furnace design, Whitney moved on to tackling the problem of improving the incandescent lamp.[3] Pressure from competition with other companies like Westinghouse made the laboratory's major goal to improve the incandescent lamp for the time.He used the electric furnaces from his porcelain experiment to subject the current carbon filaments to carefully controlled yet hotter temperatures.Whitney may have gotten his inspiration for his filaments from the time he visited the Paris laboratory of Henry Moissan, an electrochemist who subjected graphite to enough heat and pressure to believe he made diamonds.[1] Whitney ran experiments on cockroaches and mice, artificially increasing their internal temperatures with a high-frequency apparatus to get some more information.Whitney recalled Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg's trials with purposely giving patients with brain disorders malarial injections to induce a fever in the hopes of curing them.Whitney formally wrote a paper regarding the theory of how this device treated bursitis by raising levels of lactic acid near muscles and transporting calcium bone deposits.[1] Ezekiel Weintraub worked on various projects alongside Coolidge, Whitney, and Langmuir but was especially drawn to wireless telegraphy.[3] Other projects included developing better electrodes, lightning arresters, insulating materials, carbon motors, generator brushes, soapstone plates, electric blanket, etc.[1] In these meetings, his researchers were required to update each other on any progress or discoveries, disclose any issues, offer advice, or simply discuss something they learned somewhere.Whitney made it a point to check in with every one in the research lab every day to offer advice, encouragement, generally inquire, critique, or just say hello.Whitney was appointed chairman of the chemistry and physics divisions and was soon put in charge of research of all nitrate production at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River.While Whitney was in charge of the research, Irving Langmuir, who was also recruited, led the Nahant station, and Coolidge experimented with rubber tubing there.Eventually Coolidge developed his C-tube, a rubber tube with a piece of metal attached, that could detect submarines up to two miles away."Whitney wrote several articles, gave speeches at science conferences, and argued in favor of increasing interest in research.[3] Upon meeting with Marie Curie at the Carnegie mansion, Whitney put his efforts behind setting up funding for interested future scientists.Once, he entered the discourse regarding the freezing of hot and cold water after reading an article in the journal Science, titled "Roger Bacon Was Mistaken.
Jamestown, New YorkSchenectady, New YorkMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyGeneral Electric CompanyWillard Gibbs AwardPerkin MedalIEEE Edison MedalPublic Welfare MedalJohn Fritz MedalIRI Medalchemistryinorganic chemistryelectrochemistrychemistUniversity of LeipzigWillard Gibbs medalFranklin medalEdison medalMark TwainMadame CurieThomas EdisonRobert MillikanArthur ComptonJ.J. ThomsonCambridge UniversityFrancis Amasa WalkerPierre du PontGeorge HaleArthur A. NoyesGerard SwopeWilliam (Bill) D. CoolidgeAlfred P. SloanPaul LitchfieldIrénée du PontWilhelm OstwaldCharles FriedelSorbonneNernstArrheniusGeorge EastmanEastman KodakEdwin W. RiceElihu ThomsonCharles SteinmetzWerner von BoltonWilliam D. CoolidgeIrving LangmuirColumbia Presbyterian Medical CenterdiathermyJosephus DanielsNaval Consulting BoardThomas A. EdisonMuscle ShoalsAlbert HullWorcester Polytechnic InstituteserendipityHorace WalpoleThe Three Princes of SerendipMarie CurieCarnegie mansionGreat DepressionScienceRoger BaconLake ChautauquaAmerican Chemical SocietyAmerican Electrochemical SocietyU.S. Naval Consulting BoardNational Academy of SciencesNational Bureau of StandardsAmerican Institute of Electrical EngineersAmerican Institute of Mining and Metallurgical EngineersAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Physical SocietyAmerican Philosophical SocietyLegion of HonorFranklin InstituteBritish Institute of MetalsNational Research CouncilAlbany Medical CollegeUnion CollegeJournal of Industrial and Engineering ChemistryUniversity of PittsburghSyracuse UniversityUniversity of RochesterUniversity of MichiganNational Institute of Social SciencesLehigh UniversityIndustrial Research InstituteRollins CollegeNational Society of Corrosion EngineersNACE InternationalEncyclopedia AmericanaFrank B. JewettCharles F. ScottFrank ConradBancroft GherardiArthur Edwin KennellyLewis B. StillwellAlex DowGano DunnDugald C. JacksonPhilip TorchioGeorge Ashley CampbellJohn B. WhiteheadEdwin H. ArmstrongVannevar BushErnst AlexandersonPhilip SpornLee de ForestJoseph SlepianMorris E. LeedsKarl B. McEachronOtto B. BlackwellJohn FritzLord KelvinGeorge WestinghouseAlexander Graham BellThomas Alva EdisonCharles Talbot PorterAlfred NobleWilliam Henry WhiteRobert Woolston HuntJohn Edson SweetJames DouglasHenry Marion HoweJ. Waldo Smith