Background
Clarke was born on March 19, 1847, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Henry W. Clarke, a Boston hardware merchant and later a dealer in iron-working machinery, and Abby Fisher Clarke, who died when he was about ten days old.
29 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
In March 1865 Clarke entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University (now John A. Paulson School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences) where he studied chemistry under Wolcott Gibbs. He received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in 1867.
29 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
In March 1865 Clarke entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University (now John A. Paulson School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences) where he studied chemistry under Wolcott Gibbs. He received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in 1867.
Legion of Honour
(The rather widespread occurrence in western Colorado of c...)
The rather widespread occurrence in western Colorado of consider able quantities of a canary-yellow ore of uranium has been known for a few years past. It has been marketed to the extent of a few tons, but its mineralogical nature was unknown or incorrectly surmised until 1899.
https://www.amazon.com/Contributions-Mineralogy-Geological-Classic-Reprint/dp/0260062723/?tag=2022091-20
1905
Clarke was born on March 19, 1847, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Henry W. Clarke, a Boston hardware merchant and later a dealer in iron-working machinery, and Abby Fisher Clarke, who died when he was about ten days old.
Clarke received his primary and secondary schooling in the Boston area. In March 1865 he entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University (now John A. Paulson School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences) where he studied chemistry under Wolcott Gibbs. He received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in 1867.
Clarke remained at Harvard for an additional year at which time his first scientific paper, describing some new techniques in mineral analysis, was published. During the subsequent year, 1869, he acted as an assistant to J. M. Crafts at Cornell University. For the next four years, he lectured on chemistry in the Boston Dental College and supplemented his meager earnings with newspaper and magazine articles. He reported Tyndall’s Lowell Institute lectures and the proceedings of meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the Boston Advertiser. He wrote popular scientific reviews, many for periodicals catering to young readers. Foreshadowing the later direction of his career he proposed in 1873, in Popular Science Monthly, a scheme of evolution of the heavy elements from the light. In spite of these varied and time-consuming activities, he maintained involvement in scientific researches. He initiated a series of articles under the general title of “Constants of Nature” for the Smithsonian Institution with the contribution “A Table of Specific Gravities, Boiling Points and Melting Points of Solids and Liquids.”
Clarke accepted an appointment as professor of chemistry and physics at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1873. Following his marriage to May P. Olmsted of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1874, he went to the University of Cincinnati as professor of chemistry and physics, a position he held for nine years. In 1883 he was appointed chief chemist to the U. S. Geological Survey in Washington, D.C., and honorary curator of minerals of the United States National Museum. He retired from these offices on 31 December 1924.
Clarke received honorary degrees from Columbian University in 1891, from Victoria in 1903, from Aberdeen in 1906, and from Cincinnati in 1914. He was honored with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1900.
The forty-one years Clarke spent at the Geological Survey witnessed the development of the United States as one of the foremost centers of geochemical research. As a chief chemist, he was responsible for the analyses, of thousands of samples of crustal rock, water, and air. Such investigations were carried out with great accuracy using the best available techniques. The laboratories gained international distinction and provided a training site for many young aspiring chemists both from the United States and abroad. Both major and trace elemental concentrations were sought in the materials under study.
His first published paper in 1868 bore the title “On a New Process in Mineral Analysis.” The studies provided the base upon which Clarke put forth his interpretation of natural phenomena. An annual report of the work done in the Washington laboratory of the chemistry and physics division of the U.S. Geological Survey contained the results from the examination of minerals, rocks, and waters. The vehicles for the transmission to the scientific community of such work and its significance in understanding geological phenomena at the earth’s surface were the volumes The Data of Geochemistry first published as U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin no. 331 (1908).
Clarke was closely involved in the formation of the American Chemical Society. Before 1873 chemistry was not accorded much importance in the A. A. A. S. In that year, at a meeting in Portland, Maine, Clarke, with C. E. Munroe, W. McMurtrie and H. W. Wiley proposed the establishment of a subsection of chemistry. This suggestion was accepted and the section first met the following year in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1876 the New York chemists formed a local society with the name of the American Chemical Society; eight years later the Washington, D.C., chemists created a similar organization. In 1886 Clarke wrote to Munroe, who was serving as chairman of the A.A.A.S. section of chemistry, that it would be most reasonable to form a national chemical society. Three years later a proposal of the New York group was accepted - their name and charter would form the basis of a national society to include both the New York and Washington groups as local sections. Clarke became president of the American Chemical Society in 1901.
(The rather widespread occurrence in western Colorado of c...)
1905Clarke’s impact upon environmental science derived from his thesis that the chemistry and mineralogy of a rock is a record of past chemical reactions, which in part serves to describe geological events connected with the formation or alteration of the solid phase. The earth’s crust is the site of such reactions and is composed of three domains: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the lithosphere. Since the compositions of the first two zones are relatively homogenous and well-defined, the solid earth was the focus of his studies. The analysis and synthesis of minerals and rocks were the techniques used to define the chemical reactions.
Clarke emphasized the importance of equilibrium considerations in the prediction and description of a chemical reaction in nature. This has been used by subsequent generations of geochemists who have successfully applied equilibrium thermodynamics to the formation and alteration of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
Clarke also calculated the average composition of sedimentary rocks, using such data to compute the total amount of sedimentation occurring during geologic time. The argument given is that the total amount of igneous rock eroded is equal to the total amount of sedimentary rock produced plus the dissolved salts of the sea. He calculated that ninety-three million cubic miles of sediments had been produced over geological time.
He extended his interest in inorganic sediments to those precipitated biologically with investigations upon the inorganic constituents of marine invertebrates. He was aware that many important rocks were composed of solids precipitated by the animals and plants of the sea, furnishing, through their shells, silicon dioxide, calcium carbonate, and calcium phosphates. He was able to provide some of the first estimates on the relative contributions of such materials to the geological column.
It is interesting to note that Clarke himself had little proficiency in the laboratory; yet his interest in mineralogy dates to his initial researches.
Clarke was not a hearty laugher. He was known to "ripple" quietly at exceptional displays of wit or humor. Clarke's humorous use of language was compared to Lewis Carroll and the talent was renowned at Washington D.C.'s Cosmos Club. Somewhat of gossip, he specialized in knowing not only what people were currently doing, but also what their forebears had done.
In his communications, Professor Clarke exhibited restraint in speaking either negatively or positively of others. His praise he reserved for the individual's absence and many were advanced in his profession by Clarke's recommendation out of the earshot of the candidate.
Clarke married May P. Olmsted of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1874. The couple had at least 3 children.