(Elementary Organic Chemistry was written to facilitate an...)
Elementary Organic Chemistry was written to facilitate and improve the instruction in short courses in organic chemistry. The material is intended for a course of approximately 50 class periods. Because it is intended for a short course, the authors do not include applications in physiological, pharmaceutical, or phytochemistry.
Homer Burton Adkins was an American chemist who studied the hydrogenation of organic compounds.
Background
Homer Burton Adkins was born on January 16, 1892 near Newport, Ohio, United States, the second son and the youngest of the three children of Alvin Adkins and Emily (Middleswart) Adkins. His parents operated a farm lying in a bend of the Ohio River. The Adkins family was descended from English immigrants who settled in Saratoga County, New York, late in the eighteenth century.
The Middleswart family emigrated from the Netherlands before 1800 and migrated first from New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, and finally settled in the Ohio Valley. Emily Middleswart studied at Shepherd College and was a country schoolteacher before her marriage.
Education
Homer attended Denison University, earning his expenses during summer vacations on the family farm by raising melons, which were shipped by river packets to Wheeling, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh.
Upon graduating with the B. S. in 1915, he entered Ohio State University where he received the M. S. in 1916. Continuing his postgraduate work, he took his Ph. D. in 1918. His major professor was William Lloyd Evans; his doctoral thesis dealt with the oxidation of organic compounds by alkaline permanganate.
Career
Adkins served briefly as a chemist in the War Department, held an instructorship in organic chemistry at Ohio State, and held a summer position with the Du Pont Company before joining the chemistry department at the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1919.
Early in his career he was ambitious to develop broad generalizations around which the facts of organic chemistry might be organized, but he soon lost faith in the prospect of recognizing such generalizations before a more substantial body of experimental facts was available. He then concentrated his research program on gathering such facts. More and more he became an empiricist.
Early in his career Adkins undertook the study of catalytic reactions, particularly those involving hydrogenation of organic compounds. The study of various catalysts revealed the different natures of products formed from a given starting material and the difference in the pathways of the reactions. Preparation of aluminum oxide catalysts by heating various aluminum alkoxides led to catalysts with different surface structures dependent upon the organic groups present in the starting material. His studies on metal oxide catalysts also led to recognition of the role of trace impurities and to the value of mixed oxides. He developed a copper-chromium oxide catalyst of particular value in the conversion of organic esters to alcohols, a process he termed hydrogenolysis.
He also worked with metallic catalysts, Raney nickel in particular. His work led him to the use of higher and higher pressures. He showed great ingenuity in the design of heavy walled reaction vessels and agitators for studies of reactions in which hydrogen was dissolved under high pressure in liquid reactants with the solid catalyst held in suspension.
Late in his career Adkins began to study the reactions of organic compounds with carbon monoxide under high pressure in the presence of catalysts. He was able to convert alcohols to acids with one additional carbon atom, a process termed carbonylation. He was always interested in comparative chemical reactivities. He clearly distinguished between equilibrium and reaction rate and pointed out that various authors differed widely in the criteria used for comparing reactivities of different compounds. Several of his reviews of the subject had broad influence.
Between 1940 and 1946 Adkins and his associates were deeply involved in military research programs. His laboratory staff in Madison, Wisconsin, worked on chemical warfare agents and on chemicals of value as protective agents against toxic gases and vesicants. Synthetic work was also done on potential antimalarial agents.
His administrative duties and extensive travels during this period undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on his health.
In the classroom Adkins was a master of clear and well-organized presentation. His critical evaluations were spiced with wit. His "Survey of Advanced Organic Chemistry" was a milestone course. Until World War II he regularly took his turn in presenting the undergraduate organic course.
It was in the research laboratory, however, that his teaching skill stood out and he was responsible for the direction of more than 100 doctoral candidates. He worked in the research laboratory routinely and was in close touch with the progress of his students, many of whom went on to distinguished careers in industry and the academic world. His professional expertise was widely sought. He served as a consultant to several chemical corporations and was active in the American Chemical Society, in which he held several local and national offices. At the time of his death he was about to become a nominee for the society's presidency.
On June 20, 1949, during a meeting of the Eleventh National Organic Chemistry Symposium in Madison, Adkins suffered a coronary occlusion. He died on August 10, 1949, after what had appeared to be a promising recovery, and was buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison.
He grew up in a family of devouted Baptists but became a member of the First Congregational Church in Madison.
Views
Quotations:
"Basic research is like shooting an arrow in the air and, where it lands, painting a target. "
Membership
Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1942)
Personality
Adkins was tall and thin, vigorous and intense in his actions, personally charming and witty.
He never hesitated to take an unpopular position, especially when he believed an injustice was being done.
He was skeptical of routinely accepted dogmas in science and in social and educational areas and was intolerant of inefficiency and lack of candor.
Throughout his life, Adkins read widely, with particular interest in the philosophy of science and in the Civil War. He also had a deep interest in social and political affairs, toward which he took a moderately liberal position.
Quotes from others about the person
Edwin B. Fred: "He was recognized as one of the leading chemists that America has produced. He was the kind of man who makes a University distinguished. "
Connections
On February 21, 1917, he married Louise Spivey, who had been a Denison classmate and then taught high school mathematics. They had three children: Susanne Dorothea, Nancy, and Roger.