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Analytical chemists are usually a modest bunch whoquietly do great things, but their significance tochemical sciences and the development of theworld’s largest scientific society is undeniable andoften under-appreciated. Members of our disci-

pline have provided the leadership thathelped create the American ChemicalSociety (ACS) and make it a nationalorganization that has ties worldwideand welcomes chemical scientists fromall sectors of academe, industry, andgovernment. Analytical chemists havealso played principal roles in developingACS’s preeminent publication program.

In this article, I will describe the keypoints at which analytical chemists had aprominent role in ACS’s 125-year histo-ry. Due to space limitations, I will men-tion the names of only a small number ofleaders who represent the many individ-uals who have participated in the dia-logue between our discipline and theSociety. I will also try to cover, in paral-lel, important milestones for science,ACS, and the wider public.

AAtt tthhee bbeeggiinnnniinnggAnalytical chemistry had become a distinct subdiscipline by themiddle of the 19th century. Although the academic chemistrycenters were still in Europe, significant contributions to analyt-ical chemistry were already being made in the United States at

the time of ACS’s founding. Becker balances were manufac-tured in New York beginning in the 1860s; J. L. Smith intro-duced the fusion method for decomposition of silicates in1871, which was widely used to analyze minerals; Frank AustinGooch invented the Gooch crucible in the mid-1870s; and, in

the early 1880s, Stephen Babcock devel-oped the method for determining fat con-tent in milk and milk products. Federaland state governments and the mining in-dustries had substantial analytical chem-istry groups. A few U.S. academic cen-ters had been developed, notably underelectrochemists Wolcott Gibbs at Har-vard University and Edgar Fahs Smithat the University of Pennsylvania. Analyt-ical chemists have been prominent lead-ers of the ACS from the start—indeed,many were presidents of the Society inits early years (Table 1).

In 1887, Edward Hart, professor ofanalytical chemistry at Lafayette Collegein Pennsylvania, began publication of theJournal of Analytical Chemistry. Hartwas a cofounder of the Baker & Adam-son Chemical Co. and author of text-books such as the Handbook of Volumet-

ric Analysis. He started the journal to disseminate new analyticalmethods to industry. The contributing editors for the journal’sfirst issue included two future ACS presidents: Frank Clarke ofthe U.S. Geological Survey and Harvey Wiley of the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture. The analytical journal proved so suc-

ACS Founders Were AnalyticalChemists, Too

i

The 125-year growth

of the American

Chemical Society and

the development of

analytical chemistry

are closely intertwined.

Roland F. HirschU.S. Department of Energy

cessful that Hart was asked to become editor of the Journal ofthe American Chemical Society (JACS) in 1893. Today, thatwould be considered a high honor, but back then it was noteven certain that JACS, which had been launched in 1878,would survive. In 1892, the journal garnered a mere $44.36 insubscription income (1). During his nine-year reign as editor,Hart consolidated the Journal of Analytical Chemistry intoJACS, increasing the size and quality of the journal and raisingthe circulation substantially.

Wiley and Clarke, along with fellow analytical chemistCharles Monroe of the U.S. Torpedo Station in Newport, R.I.,played a critical role in making ACS a truly national society. Bythe late 1880s, the organization was, in the words of ArnoldThackray, currently director of the Chemical Heritage Foun -dation, “the parochial New York-centered chemical club” (2).The membership had shrunk from 192 at the end of 1876 to167 at the end of 1889, with the majority in the New York Cityarea. Monroe founded the Rhode Island ACS local section, thevery first local section, and hosted the Society’s first nationalmeeting in Newport. To create a truly national organization,Wiley and Clarke then formed a federation of 11 regional andtopical societies and invited the existing ACS to join as the NewYork local section of the new ACS!

The accurate determination of the atomic weights of the ele-ments was a major scientific contribution by analytical chemistsat this time. In fact, the first “official” table of atomic weights any-where was prepared in 1892 by Clarke, at the request of ACS.One important contributor, Theodore William Richards, profes-sor of chemistry at Harvard University, determined the atomicweights of 28 elements and received the Nobel Prize in Chem-istry for 1914. Richards was the first American to receive thechemistry prize.

IInnttoo tthhee 2200tthh cceennttuurryyRichards serves as a bridging figure between the 19th and 20thcenturies. Like most 19th-century chemists, he studied in Ger-many with Wilhelm Ostwald and Walther Nernst, among others.Yet, as described by Aaron Ihde, science historian at the Universi-ty of Wisconsin at Madison, “[Richards’] laboratory became amecca for graduate students in the first quarter of the 20th centu-ry” (3). He not only led an influential research program, but alsochaired the department of chemistry at Harvard for nine criticalyears at the start of the century and was president of ACS in 1914.

Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government was turning to ana-lytical chemists for scientific assistance. “Passage of the PureFood and Drug Act in 1906 assured a greatly expanded role forchemical analysis and for Harvey Wiley’s Bureau of Chemistry inenforcing the new legislation,” says Thackray (2). For this role,Wiley became the only analytical chemist and the only ACS pres-ident to date to appear on a U.S. postage stamp, issued in 1954.(In fact, remarkably few chemists of any kind have appeared onU.S. stamps. Among those featured have been Joseph Priestleyand Percy Julian, and—perhaps for reasons other than their ac-complishments as chemists—Mary Lyon, professor of chemistryand president of Mount Holyoke College, and Notre DameUniversity’s football coach Knute Rockne.)

Overall, the early part of the 20th century was characterized bythe refinement and application of analytical methods rather thaninnovation. “During the first three decades of the century, analyt-ical chemistry was a rather unspectacular handmaiden of the otherfields of chemistry,” says Ihde (3). Wet chemical techniques pre-dominated. Improvements in gravimetric and volumetric methodsand reagents were made, and equilibrium principles were system-atically applied to the understanding and improvement of methodsfor the first time. William Hillebrand and Gustav Lundell of the

National Bureau of Standards (now the National In-stitute of Standards and Technology) did particular-ly significant work in this area.

Hillebrand also served as ACS president in 1906,the year publication of Chemical Abstracts was ap-proved. A committee chaired by Hillebrand also rec-ommended to the ACS Council in 1906 that the So-ciety seek a more active role for industrial chemists.The result was the founding of the Journal of Indus-trial and Engineering Chemistry, from which Ana-lytical Chemistry would be born. Without Hille-brand’s advocacy for the interests of technicalchemists, it is likely that a separate society would haveformed, and perhaps the current ACS would now bea much smaller, less influential organization.

Lundell wrote one of the most influential essayson our discipline, “The Chemical Analysis of Thingsas They Are”, originally published in 1933 (4). Thisessay is still relevant today. Lundell notes a trend to-ward specialization and a narrowness of viewpoint,such that “so many talks and articles on analyticalsubjects deal with ‘The Chemical Analysis of Thingsas They Are Not’” because of a tendency to studyonly “the final act of a chemical analysis, and less

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Term Name Accomplishments (1111)1876 John W. Draper Author of many analytical chemistry papers1877 J. Lawrence Smith Developed method of decomposing silicates

analyzed for alkalies1878 Samuel W. Johnson President of Association of Official Agricultur-

al Chemists (AOAC); expert witness in casesinvolving analytical chemistry

1882 John W. Mallet Author of many papers on analysis of minerals1883, 1884, 1885 James Curtis Booth Founded laboratory in Philadelphia in 1836;

known for high-quality work and instruction inchemical analysis

1886 Albert B. Prescott Author of well-known textbooks on organicand inorganic chemical analysis

1890 Henry B. Nason Author of several analytical chemistry text-books

1892 George C. Caldwell President of AOAC; author of several analyti-cal chemistry textbooks

1893, 1894 Harvey W. Wiley President of AOAC; standardized methods ofagricultural chemical analysis

1895, 1921, 1922 Edgar Fahs Smith Author of a monumental work on electro-chemical analysis

1896, 1897 Charles B. Dudley First president of American Society for TestingMaterials; standardized methods were basisof rails and rolling stock purchase

1898 Charles E. Monroe Research in explosives, analytical methods,and chemical technologies

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and less time to [study] chemical analysis itself” (4).Emission spectroscopy was the one purely instrumental analyt-

ical technique already widely used in the first decades of the 20thcentury. Ihde points out that “as early as 1920 it had reached ahigh level of usefulness” (3). The technique made it possible to de-tect trace amounts of many elements and semitrace concentrationsof most elements. As photographic plates and film became morereliable, this technique moved from qualitative to semiquantitative.

In 1929, the Analytical Edition of Industrial and Engineer-ing Chemistry was founded. Harrison Howe, editor of the par-ent journal, established the News Edition in 1923, which laterbecame Chemical & Engineering News. The Analytical Editionstarted as a quarterly, went bimonthly in 1933, and finally month-ly in 1937. The articles in it were primarily about method devel-opment and improvements in lab equipment; basic science papersin our field continued to be published in JACS until the 1950s.

The ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry emerged in the1930s. The Division of Microchemistry was initiated in 1936and established in 1938. In 1940, it merged with the Analyti-cal Section of the Division of Physical and Inorganic Chemistryto form the Division of Analytical and Microchemistry. Sepa-rate sections of the analytical and micro groups were organizedwithin the division, and in 1949 the division was renamed as theDivision of Analytical Chemistry (DAC).

Howe died in 1942, and Walter J. Murphy became his suc-cessor at Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Chemical & En-gineering News, and the Analytical Edition. Murphy appointedLawrence Hallett as associate editor. Hallett, who later becameeditor, had a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry and substantial ex-

perience from his days at Eastman Kodak and General Anilineand Film. Another key contributor was Ralph H. Müller, whowrote a monthly feature on instrumentation for AnalyticalChemistry. Many of the articles were devoted to basic conceptsthat were often—as stated by later Editor Herb Laitinen—“wellahead of their analytical applications” (5). The Analytical Edi-tion was renamed Analytical Chemistry in 1948, and its AnnualReviews were published beginning in 1949.

AAnnaallyyttiiccaall cchheemmiissttrryy aatt mmiidd--cceennttuurryyThe renaming of the division and Analytical Chemistry sug-gests that a turning point was reached. I. M. “Piet” Kolthoff,who taught at the University of Minnesota and probably wasthe most important analytical scientist in the United States atthat time, would recall, “The situation in analytical chemistrywas very unfavorable [in this country] when I came here [in1927].… People would officially major in physical chemistryand satisfy the requirements of a minor in my field, but I wouldbe their major adviser.” Even in 1950, he said, “There was stillthat feeling that analytical chemistry was not a real science” (6).

One reason that the status of analytical chemistry changedwas the development of many classes of sophisticated instru-mentation, initiated during World War II. Although ArnoldBeckman introduced the pH meter in 1935 and the UV–visspectrophotometer in 1940, analytical chemists had to solvemany new and complex problems. The war effort and especial-ly the Manhattan Project saw the rise of MS as an inorganic an-alytical technique, soon to be followed by applications in thepetroleum industry that required further research into princi-

ACS has a fair share of presidents who

were trained as analytical chemists. For

example, left to right, A. B. Prescott, E. F.

Smith, C. B. Dudley, J. C. Booth, and

Helen Free (presidential term 1993).

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ples and techniques (7). At the same time, basic components ofinstrumentation, such as strip-chart recorders, oscilloscopes, andphotomultiplier tubes and amplifiers, became affordable.

Within ACS, the standing of analytical chemistry was improv-ing. Although N. Howell Furman of Princeton University was theonly analytical chemist to be elected president of ACS during thisperiod (1951), Analytical Chemistry had the largest circulation ofany of the Society’s disciplinary journals and a growing amount ofadvertising revenue. DAC and the journal jointly initiated an an-nual summer symposium. The first, in May 1948, covered “Nu-cleonics and Analytical Chemistry”. The 24th, on “AnalyticalChemistry: Key to Progress on National Problems”, was held at

the National Bureau of Standards in 1971. The final symposium,on “Separation Science Applied to Contemporary Biology”, tookplace in 1993 at Northeastern University in Boston.

The first ACS awards honoring contributors to the fieldwere the Award in Analytical Chemistry, established in 1947and sponsored by Fisher Scientific, and the Award in ChemicalInstrumentation, begun in 1953 and sponsored initially byBeckman Instruments and currently sponsored by the DAC. In1949, DAC began the Merck Graduate Fellowship, which wasa precursor to a program of full-year and summer fellowshipsbeginning in 1966 that was sponsored by several organizations.

GGrroowwtthh ooff tthhee ddiisscciipplliinnee Despite technological advances and increasing recognition, analyt-ical chemistry faced serious problems by the mid-1960s. Manyprestigious universities were phasing out their analytical chemistryprograms. The quick acceptance of new instruments developed inthe 1950s, such as atomic absorption spectrometers and gas chro-matographs, made many previously demanding analyses routine.The commercialization of powerful, reliable, and relatively easy-to-operate instruments such as NMR and mass spectrometers wasalso undermining the standing of analytical chemistry. By the1960s, much of the analytical work was no longer being done byanalytical chemists. “Analytical chemistry seemed to have burnedout,” recalled well-known electrochemist Larry Faulkner in his2001 Pittsburgh Conference talk. “It seemed to be producing nei-ther new scientific concepts nor new tools that the rest of sciencefound valuable. Advances in what we now recognize as analyticalchemistry were being made, but mostly by others outside the field.”

What changed? Faulkner offers a key clue: Analytical chem-istry became essential to progress in issues that were central tosociety. Environmental remediation became a high priority inthe 1970s, requiring far more information than ever before.Analytical chemists became forefront contributors to the practiceof medicine and to research in the life sciences. Industry also be-came more focused on quality and began pushing the limits ofpurity of materials, such as for semiconductor production.

A new generation of analytical scientists changed the face of ac-ademic analytical chemistry. I would give much credit to HowardMalmstadt at the University of Illinois. He educated many indi-viduals who became leaders at American and Canadian universitiesin the 1960s and 1970s, and his approach to teaching analyticalinstrumentation was widely adopted. Among many others whoshould be mentioned are Charlie Reilley at the University of NorthCarolina, Chapel Hill; Buck Rogers, who taught at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology, Purdue University, and the Univer-sity of Georgia; and Cal Giddings at the University of Utah. Al-though these three are no longer with us, their significant influencecontinues through their research, textbooks, and students.

At the same time, many companies made significant commit-ments to supporting analytical instrumentation and its develop-ment. Research laboratories specializing in analytical chemistrywere established, notably in the chemical and pharmaceutical in-dustries. As new instruments were developed, a substantial in-strumentation industry emerged.

In addition, the national laboratories of the Atomic Energy

A predecessor to the formal ACS, the

Chemists’ Club was located in New York

City during the late 1880s. (inset) Chemists

could study at the Club’s library.

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Analytical labs have evolved over

the years. (Top to bottom) Pictured

here, women were studying chem-

istry at Wells College in Aurora,

N.Y., male chemists were testing

compounds in an industrial lab,

ca. 1880, while today’s high-tech

academic and industrial settings

are more frequently coeducational.

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Commission (AEC), created during World War II, broadenedtheir missions; and some, such as Oak Ridge and Ames, becameleaders in analytical research. The U.S. and Canadian govern-ments eventually would support analytical chemistry throughmany agencies, such as the Canadian National Research Coun-cil and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Our fieldwas fortunate to have the foresight of leaders such as FredFindeis at NSF; Gerry Goldstein at AEC (later the Departmentof Energy); and Bill Raub and Caroline Holloway at the Nation-al Institutes of Health, who strengthened the ties between theanalytical research community and researchers in the life sciences.

Analytical scientists also began to work in teams, collaborat-ing with researchers across the discipline and in other fields.Put another way, analytical chemists in academe or industrytoday are more likely to partner with the scientists or engineerssolving a problem, instead of just providing a service. The lateTomas Hirschfeld of Block Engineering and the Lawrence Liv-ermore National Laboratory exemplified the modern analyticalscientist, applying his wide-ranging knowledge of spectroscopyand instrumentation to problems in the environmental and lifesciences in close collaboration with scientists in those fields (8).

As a result of all these forces strengthening our discipline, an-alytical chemistry has become more prominent within ACS. Divi-sion membership now exceeds 10,000, second only to the Divi-sion of Organic Chemistry, and is growing rapidly. AnalyticalChemistry continues to reach a large audience, and its articles havea high-impact factor, as noted recently by Editor Royce Murray(9). The journal also retains close ties with DAC, reserving an ex-officio place on its Editorial Advisory Board for the division chair.

Three analytical chemists have recently played an especially im-portant role within ACS. Helen Free of Miles Laboratories (nowBayer Corp.) is a noted clinical chemist. As a Board of Directorsmember and former ACS president, she has, in my opinion, madeinteraction on a personal level between the Society’s members and

the general public a high priority. This type of interaction may bethe most important new direction adopted by ACS in the pasttwo decades. Allen Bard of the University of Texas at Austin, aleading electrochemist, recently retired as editor of JACS after 20years. John Crum, formerly on the staff of Analytical Chemistry,is currently the Society’s executive director. (And I should notethat electroanalytical chemist Richard Nicholson serves as execu-tive officer of the American Association for the Advancement ofScience, the second-largest scientific society.)

MMoorree ttoo ddooThe future of our science looks great. Analytical chemistry pro-vided capillary electrophoresis, the essential enabling tool forthe most publicized science story of recent years, for sequencingof the human genome (10). Analytical chemistry also is the criti-cal element in proteomics, the next step in tracing the meaning ofgene sequences and imaging the chemistry in living cells. (In fact,the founding editor of ACS’s new Journal of Proteomic Researchis Bill Hancock, a well-known bioanalytical chemist at Thermo -Finnigan and a former associate editor of Analytical Chemistry.) Ibelieve the application of analytical chemistry to these fields willcontinue to revise basic concepts in biology.

Analytical chemistry is also a key to major initiatives outsidethe life sciences. New techniques will be needed to characterizenanomaterials, which will make new kinds of instrumentation pos-sible. Major challenges remain in environmental cleanup—justcharacterizing contamination will require greatly improved ana-lytical technologies. And, when hazardous materials cannot bedestroyed, long-term stewardship of disposal and storage siteswill also require innovations in analytical chemistry.

Roland F. Hirsch is program manager for analytical chemistry, structuralmolecular biology, and genome instrumentation in the Medical SciencesDivision of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and

Environmental Research. Address correspondence about this arti-cle to roland. hirsch@science.doe.gov.

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ca, 1876–1976 ; D. Reidel Publishing Co.: Dordrecht, Holland, 1985.(3) Ihde, A. J. The Development of Modern Chemistry; Harper & Row: New

York, 1964.(4) Analytical Chemistry: Key to Progress on National Problems;Meinke, W. W.,

Taylor, J. K., Eds.; National Bureau of Standards: Washington, DC, 1969.(5) Laitinen, H. A. Anal. Chem. 1978, 50, 1250 A.(6) Kolthoff, I. M. Transcript of an interview conducted by George D.

Tselos, March 15, 1984. Oral History Transcript #27. Chemical Her-itage Foundation: Philadelphia, PA, 1984; p 11.

(7) Settle, F. Anal. Chem. 2002, 74, 36 A–43 A.(8) Hirschfeld, T. Anal. Chem. 1976, 48, 17 A–30 A.(9) Murray, R. Anal. Chem. 2001, 73, 293 A.(10) Zubritsky, E. Anal. Chem. 2002, 74, 23 A–26 A.(11) Browne, C. A.; Weeks, M. E. A History of the American Chemical Society:

Seventy-Five Eventful Years; American Chemical Society: Washington,DC, 1952.

SSuuggggeesstteedd rreeaaddiinngg A History of Analytical Chemistry; Laitinen, H. A., Ewing, G. W., Eds.; Division of

Analytical Chemistry, American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1977.Analytical Chemistry, 50 Years: The Journal and the Science; Laitinen, H. A., Ed.;

American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1979 (reprint of articles inthe November and December 1978 issues of Analytical Chemistry ).

Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 2.; Borman, S., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1982.

Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry, 1982–1986; Borman, S., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1986.

Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry, 1988–1992; Voress, L., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1992.

Grasselli, J. G. The Analytical Approach; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1983.

Milestones in Analytical Chemistry; Warner, M., Voress, L., Lee, G. K., Wach, F., Noble, D., Eds.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1994.

Senzel, A. J. Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1972.

Szabadváry, F. History of Analytical Chemistry; Pergamon Press: Oxford, England, 1966.

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