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Interview no.: 0014A
Date of interview: 23 April 1985
Location: University of Pennsylvania
No. of pages: 48
Interviewer:
Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Arnold Thackray
Minutes: 180
Access level: Free Access. Users may view, quote from, cite, or reproduce the oral history with the permission of CHF. Users citing interviews for purposes of publication are obliged under the terms of the CHF Oral History Program to notify CHF of publication and credit CHF using the following format: [Name of interviewee], interview by [name of interviewer] at [interview location], [interview date] (Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History Transcript # [interview number]).
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This interview, the first of several with Arnold Beckman conducted by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, begins with a discussion of Beckman's teenage experience as an industrial chemist at a local gas works in Bloomington, Illinois, and the Keystone Iron and Steel Works. A recollection of Beckman's student days at the University of Illinois, with special emphasis on some of the faculty and students, follows next. The central portion of the interview considers Beckman as a student and faculty member at Caltech and includes his early experiences with instrumentation, patents, and serving as an expert witness. The interview continues with Beckman discussing the origin of the pH meter and DU spectrophotometer, and concludes with the beginning stages of manufacturing and sales, emphasizing the principles used to build National Technical Laboratories, the company that would become Beckman Instruments.
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| Title & Description |
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Page No. |
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Precollege Experiences
A home laboratory for industrial analysis. Position with Keystone Iron and Steel Works. Service in the Marine Corps. |
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1 |
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Undergraduate Education at the University of Illinois
The American chemical industry. Tension between chemists and chemical engineers. Editing the Illinois Chemist. Carl Marvel and Worth Rodebush. Working as assistant toGerhard Dietrichson. Samuel Parr. G. Frederick Smith. The Illinois style of chemistry. Involvement with the Illinois Chemist. Fellow students who became prominent. Fraternities at Illinois. |
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3 |
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Introduction to Caltech and Work at Bell Labs
Choosing a graduate school. Atmosphere at Caltech. The field of applied chemistry. Roscoe Dickinson. Career goals. Experience in Philadelphia. Early quantum theory. Comparison of Bell Labs with academe. Working groups and individuals at Bell Labs. |
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11 |
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Graduate Education at Caltech
Research on photochemical decomposition. Interest in instrumentation. Linus Pauling and other faculty members. Relationship between Caltech and Berkeley. Fellow graduate students. Paper on periodic table with Arthur A. Noyes. Thesis research. |
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19 |
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Faculty Member at Caltech
Early research plans and activities. Graduate students: L. Reed Brantley, Ralph Wenner, and Albert Myers. Caltech in the late 1920s and the 1930s. Consulting work. |
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24 |
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Research, Patents, and Other Activities Early patents.
The Cox Oil controversy. Expert witness in court cases. The patent filing process. Research on pH measurement. Glass electrode research. Development of the acidimeter. |
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26 |
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Early History of National Technical Laboratories Marketing and business relationships.
Development of NTL. Relationship with instrument inventors and developers. Development of the DU spectrophotometer. The early instrumentation industry. Other activities of NTL. |
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37 |
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| 1922 |
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B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois |
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| 1923 |
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M.S., Physical Chemistry, University of Illinois |
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| 1928 |
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Ph.D., Photochemistry, California Institute of Technology |
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| California Institute of Technology |
| 1926-1929 |
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Instructor |
| 1929-1940 |
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Assistant Professor |
| 1938-1939 |
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Assistant |
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| National Technical Laboratories |
| 1937-1939 |
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Vice President |
| 1939-1940 |
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President |
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| Bell Telephone Laboratories |
| 1924-1926 |
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Research Engineer |
| 1940-1946 |
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Research Assistant, Bartol Research Foundation and Project Engineer |
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| Helipot Corporation |
| 1944-1958 |
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President |
| 1951-1955 |
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Research Chemist |
| 1955-1958 |
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Research Manager |
| 1958-1965 |
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Research Director |
| 1965-1969 |
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Group Technical Director |
| 1969-1972 |
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Manager X-Ray Systems |
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| Arnold O. Beckman, Inc. |
| 1946-1958 |
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President |
| 1972-1975 |
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President |
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| Beckman Instruments, Inc. |
| 1940-1965 |
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President |
| 1965-Present |
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Chairman of Board |
| 1975-1980 |
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Vice President, Research and Development, Diagnostics Division |
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| National Inking Appliance Company |
| 1934-1934 |
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Vice President |
| 1984- |
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Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Bio-Engineering (now emeritus) |
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| 1960 |
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Illinois Achievement Award, University of Illinois
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| 1964 |
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Chairman, Board of Trustees, California Institute of Technology
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| 1965 |
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Honorary Sc.D. degree, Chapman College
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| 1969 |
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Honorary LL.D. degree, University of California at Riverside
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| 1969 |
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Honorary LL.D. degree, Loyola University in California
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| 1974 |
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Scientific Apparatus Makers Association Award
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| 1977 |
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Honorary LL.D. degree, Pepperdine University
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| 1977 |
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Honorary Sc.D. degree, Whittier College
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| 1977 |
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Arnold O. Beckman Conference in Clinical Chemistry, established by American Association for Clinical Chemistry
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| 1980 |
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Arnold O. Beckman Professorship of Chemistry, established by California Institute of Technology
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| 1981 |
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Hoover Medal, American Association of Engineering Societies
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| 1981 |
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Life Achievement Award, Instrument Society of America
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| 1982 |
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Diploma of Honor, Association of Clinical Scientists
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| 1987 |
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Vermilye Medal, The Franklin Institute
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| 1987 |
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National Inventors Hall of Fame, Washington, D.C.
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| 1988 |
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National Medal of Technology
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| 1989 |
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Charles Lathrop Parsons Award, American Chemical Society
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| 1989 |
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National Medal of Science
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Jeffrey L. Sturchio is Executive Director, Public Affairs, Human Health Europe, Middle East & Africa, at Merck & Co., Inc., where he is responsible for the development, coordination, and implementation of a range of policy and communications initiatives for the region. Before assuming his current position in 1995, he was Merck’s Director, Science & Technology Policy, in the Corporate Public Affairs Department from 1993 to 1994; and Associate Director, Information Resources & Publishing, from 1992 to 1993. After a sojourn on the senior staff of the AT&T Archives, Dr. Sturchio joined Merck & Co., Inc. as Corporate Archivist in June 1989. He received an A.B. in history from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania. He was Associate Director of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry from 1984 to 1988, and has held teaching appointments at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and the University of Pennsylvania as well as a fellowship at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Arnold Thackray is president of the Chemical Heritage Foundation. He majored in the physical sciences before turning to the history of science, receiving a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1966. He has held appointments at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1983 he received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry. He served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for more than a quarter of a century. There, he was the founding chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science, where he is the Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus.
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