CHEMISTRY IN AMERICA, 1876-1976 CHEMISTS AND CHEMISTRY A series of books devoted to the examination of the history and development of chemistry from its early emergence as a separate discipline to the present day. The series will describe the personalities, processes, theoretical and technical advances which have shaped our current understanding of chemical science. ARNOLD THACKRA Y, JEFFREY L. STURCHIO, P. THOMAS CARROLL, and ROBERT BUD CHEMISTRY IN AMERICA 1876-1976 Historical Indicators D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Chemistry in America, 1876-1976. (Chemists and chemistry) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Chemistry-United States. I. Thackray, Arnold, 1939- II. Series. QD18.U6C47 1984 540'.973 84-13388 ISBN 978-90-277-2662-9 ISBN 978-94-015-1124-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-1124-7 Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17,3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 190 Old Derby Street, Hingham. MA 02043, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland All Rights Reserved © 1985 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner "Thai's Ihe gisl of ';A.'hal I ';A.'arll 10 say. ~'gn me some SlallSlics 10 base it on." Drawing by Joe Mirachi; © 1977 The New Yorker Magazine, Inc. To our wives - who count more CONTENTS PREFACE xlli ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv ILLUSTRA TION S xvii TEXT TABLES xxiii CHAPTER 1. ORIENTATIONS 1.1. American Chemistry in Cultural Context 1 1.2. Indicators of Trends in American Chemistry 2 1.3. Indicators and History 5 1.4. The Structure of This Study 7 CHAPTER 2. CHEMISTRY AS OCCUPATION AND PROFESSION 9 2.1. Chemistry as Occupation 9 2.1.1. The Differentiation of Occupations 9 2.1 .2. The Problems of Measurement 13 2.1.3. Indicators of the Occupation 15 2.2. Chemistry as Profession 22 2.2.1 . The American Chemical Society 22 2.2.2. The Professionalization of Chemistry 24 2.2 .3. Chemistry among the Professions 33 CHAPTER 3. CHEMICAL EDUCATION AS CONTEXT 39 3.1. Higher Education 40 3.1.1. Exponential Growth and Relative Decline 40 3.1.2. Decoupling: Vocation and Culture 54 3.2. Secondary Education 64 3.3. Mass Culture 76 CHAPTER 4. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AS CONTEXT 83 4.1. Diversities and Definitions 83 4.2. Chemicals and Allied Products 85 ix x CONTENTS 4.3. Oligopoly and Patents 92 4.4. Industry, Progress, and Boosterism 98 CHAPTER 5. A SECOND LOOK AT EMPLOYMENT 106 5.1. Industry 106 5.1 .1 . Chemists in Industry 107 5.1.2. Research Laboratories and Research Workers 1 11 5.2. Government 125 5.2.1. The Federal Government 125 5.2.2. Contexts of Federal Employment 129 5.2.3. State and Local Government 134 5.3. Academe 138 5.4. Other Contexts 143 CHAPTER 6. CHEMISTRY AS DISCIPLINE 147 6.1. The Chemical Discipline and the Research University 147 6.2. Papers, Prizes, and International Prestige 154 6.2.1. Citations of American Research 154 6.2.2. Nobel Prizes 160 6.3. The Entrenchment of Chemistry 163 6.4. The Differentiation of Chemistry 176 6.4.1. Chemical Journals 176 6.4.2. Specialization and ACS Strategy 181 6.4.3. Specialty Structure 182 6.5. ACS Presidents: Some Micro-Indicators 188 6.5 .1 . Age Structure 189 6.5 .2. Educational Background 191 6.5.3. Institutional Loci and Employment 194 6.5.4. Social Ties 198 6.6. Concluding Remarks 202 APPENDIXES 204 A. Chemistry and Chemists: Alternative Definitions 204 B. Chemical Industry: Alternative Definitions 222 C. Procedures Used in Analysis of Citations 228 D. A Note on the Treatment of Errors 234 E. Trend Analyses: Technical Details 236 TABLES 243 CONTENTS xi BIBLIOGRAPHY 497 An Introductory Note 497 I. Data Sources 505 A. Federal Government 505 B. Other 51 I II. Bibliography, Historiography, and Methodology 520 III. Other Books and Articles 526 INDEX 551 PREFACE This study is an outgrowth of our interest in the history of modern chemistry. The paucity of reliable, quantitative knowledge about past science was brought home forcibly to us when we undertook a research seminar in the comparative history of modern chemistry in Britain, Germany, and the United States. That seminar, which took place at the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1975, was paralleled by one devoted to the work of the "Annales School". The two seminars together catalyzed the attempt to construct historical measures of change in aspects of one science, or "chem ical indicators". The present volume displays our results. Perhaps our labors may be most usefully compared with the work of those students of medieval science who devote their best efforts to the establish ment of texts. Only when acceptable texts have been constructed from fragmentary and corrupt sources can scholars move on to the more satisfying business of making history. So too in the modern period, a necessary pre liminary to the full history of any scientific profession is the establishing of reliable quantitative information in the form of statistical series. This volume does not offer history. Instead it provides certain elements - indicators -- that may be useful to individuals interested in the history of American chemistry and chemical industry, and suggestive for policy. Statisticians may properly be distressed by the lack of technical sophistication in the pages that follow. Sociologists will deplore our cavalier use of certain terms. Historians can rightly deprecate our failure to focus on the unique, and on the individual. Scientists should note our inability to take the measure of their ideas, and purists of all kinds will unite in abhorrence of our resort to "guesstimates", approximations, and interpolations. Even so, we trust some people will find some use in some of what is reported here. Two technicalities deserve explanation here. First, our references follow a modified social science format. The symbol preceding the author's name designates which section of our bibliography contains the entry in question: lA, federal government sources of data (pp. SOSff): IB, other sources of data (pp. Sllff): n, bibliography, historiography, and methodology (pp. S20ff): or III, other books and articles (pp. S26ff). Second, when compiling time series, we did not necessarily stop at the terminal year in our title, but rather xiii