Description:
Paul J. Flory was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1974 largely for his work in area of the physical chemistry of macromolecules. He was immensely important in the field of polymer chemistry, yet in his own lifetime he found interest in this area of research waning. Several of his theories, which have been accepted and acclaimed since the 1950s, came under fire from a new generation of researchers in the last years of his life. In short, Paul Flory became a victim of his own success--though he never viewed himself that way. A fierce polemicist, Flory used his formidable skill at mathematics and his razor-sharp wit to dismiss his would-be detractors, usually--though not always--triumphing over them. Paul J. Flory was born in Sterling, Illinois, in 1910. He was a clergyman’s son. He attended Manchester College, an institution for which he retained an abiding affection. He did his graduate work at Ohio State University, earning his PhD in 1934.
Flory went to work as a newly minted Ph.D. for the DuPont Company. He was assigned to the Central Research Department where he worked for Dr. Wallace H. Carothers. This early experience with practical research instilled in Flory a lifelong appreciation for the value of industrial application. Though Flory would gain fame as a theoretician, his work with the Air Force Office of Strategic Research and his later support for the Industrial Affiliates program at Stanford University demonstrated his belief in the need for theory and practice to work hand-in-hand.
Following the death of Carothers in 1937, Flory made his first foray into the academic world as a member of the University of Cincinnati’s Basic Science Research Laboratory. In 1940 he returned to the ranks of industrial chemists as an employee of the Standard Oil Development Company. There he worked on the all-important problem of inventing a synthetic rubber. In 1943 he moved over to the Research Laboratory of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. After the war, Flory taught at Cornell University from 1948 until 1957 when he became executive director of the Mellon Institute. In 1961, he joined the chemistry faculty at Stanford University where he would remain until his retirement.
Among the highpoints of Flory’s years at Stanford University were his receipt of the National Medal of Science (1974), the Priestley Award (1974), the J. Willard Gibbs Medal (1973), the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry (1969), and the Charles Goodyear Medal (1968). He also traveled extensively, including working tours to the USSR and the People’s Republic of China.
The Paul J. Flory Papers afford the scholar a unique glimpse into the working life of an American chemist who was equally at home in the academic and the industrial sectors. The papers have been maintained in original order. Professor Flory carefully maintained his records over the years, so it is possible to trace his career as an industrial chemist, as a working academic, as a semiretired lecturer and as a worker in the field of human rights. The first-time visitor to the Flory Papers is referred to File(s) 76 / 7 and 76 / 8. Here will be found a variety of documents--speeches, working papers, letters, notes and transcripts of interviews--that offer a thumbnail sketch of Paul Flory’s interests and accomplishments. The letters are, for the most part, pro-forma affairs. The working papers vary from corrected copies of published articles to purely theoretical musings. The papers on which some of Prof. Flory’s earlier working notes are set down are now quite fragile. Photostats have been supplied for most of these yellowing pages.The main body of the Paul J. Flory Papers consists of “Working Papers for Publication” and these have been preserved in original order. The Addendum items were collected after Flory’s death, and in the absence of any discernable plan of arrangement, have been re-arranged along standard subject/chronological lines. Among topics that Flory deals with in the Addendum are China, the USSR, the problems of dissident scientists and the future of polymer chemistry in the United States. In the Addendum to the Paul J. Flory Papers will also be found interesting documents touching upon the operations of the National Science Foundation and the Science Advisory Committee, a committee formed by IBM to study lines of products in development. Be advised that some of the SAC material is confidential in nature and is therefore restricted. Other organizations with which Flory was actively involved include the American Chemical Society, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the Air Force Office of Strategic Research.
This is an extraordinarily rich collection and includes Flory’s working notes and theoretical musings, and drafts and manuscripts for most of his major writings including his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, both of his published textbooks (Principles of Polymer Chemistry and Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules) and several chapters to a never-completed book on rubber elasticity.