C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

Noyes Laboratory:
One Hundred Years of Chemistry

A Century of Accomplishment
The Bare Facts
Nobel Prize Winners
ACS Presidents
Priestley Medal Winner

Fine Chemicals

The Illinois State Water Survey

Chemists and Chemistry at Noyes:
Roger Adams: "The Chief"
Ludwig F. Audrieth and Synthetic Sweeteners
John C. Bailar Jr. and Coordination Chemistry
St. Elmo Brady: Pioneer
George L. Clark and High-Intensity X-Ray Tubes
Willis H. Flygare and Microwave Spectrometry
Reynold C. Fuson: Teaching Chemistry
Herbert S. Gutowsky and NMR Spectroscopy
B. Smith Hopkins and the Chemistry of Rare Earths
Henry Fraser Johnstone and the Study of Air Pollution
Herbert A. Laitinen and Analytical Chemistry
Carl "Speed" Marvel: Advances in Polymer Chemistry
William A. Noyes: The Department Comes of Age
Arthur W. Palmer: The Early Years
Samuel W. Parr and Applied Chemistry
Charles C. Price III and Antimalarials
Worth H. Rodebush and Physical Chemistry
William C. Rose and Amino Acids
George F. Smith and the Aerosol Can
Harold R. Snyder and Antimalarials
Marion Sparks and Chemical Information

Landmark Designation

G. Frederick Smith, as he was more commonly known, received all his degrees from the University of Michigan, culminating in a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry in 1922 under the guidance of H. H. Willard. Smith had joined the faculty of the University of Illinois the year before to teach analytical chemistry.

At Michigan Smith had learned about perchlorates and, after his arrival at Illinois, he published an article on the analysis of steel in which he pointed out the advantages of magnesium perchlorate as a super drying agent. Smith had prepared his own magnesium perchlorate for his tests.

Chemists in steel laboratories started asking him for some for their own trials and Smith told them to buy it commercially, only to learn later there was none for sale. A. H. Thomas Company then financed Smith to make magnesium perchlorate for them, marketing it as "Dehydrite." Smith made it in his garage laboratory for years, finally establishing in 1928 a small perchlorate company in Columbus, Ohio, the G.H. Smith Chemical Company. Smith’s company became the largest manufacturer of perchloric acid and perchlorate salts in the world.

During the depression one of Smith’s students, Charles Getz, who was working his way through college, learned that milk would foam if CO2 were forced into it and then the pressure released. This led to the idea of producing whipped cream by the release of gas under pressure. Getz and Smith found that nitrous oxide was the gas that worked best and they developed Instantwhip, the first aerosol product to be marketed in a returnable container. Smith’s returnable container and filling system made a process invented and patented by Getz for whipping cream under pressure commercially viable.

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