Background
Robert Ogden Doremus was born on January 11, 1824 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Thomas Cornelius and Sarah Platt (Haines) Doremus.
Robert Ogden Doremus was born on January 11, 1824 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Thomas Cornelius and Sarah Platt (Haines) Doremus.
Doremus was educated at Columbia College, where he graduated in 1842, and at the University of the City of New York, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1851.
He was the first private pupil of John W. Draper and his assistant for seven years, and personally assisted Draper in taking the first photograph ever made of the human face.
Before the invention of the dynamo, Doremus perfected for demonstration an arc-light, producing the current for it with a huge battery of Bunsen cells. One unit of these cells is still preserved in the Museum of the Department of Chemistry of the College of the City of New York. In cooperation with Tessie du Motay he perfected the latter’s processes for the generation of oxygen and its use in increasing the luminosity of a coal-gas flame. Tradition has it that several blocks of streets in the Twenty-third St. region of New York City were really piped for oxygen transmission and the improved gaslights installed along the lines of the oxygen pipes. In 1848, in association with Charles Townsend Harris, Doremus organized a laboratory for investigation and instruction in analytical chemistry, where he lectured to the students of the New York College of Pharmacy. He was elected professor of chemistry at this institution in 1849.
Elected professor of natural history in the New York Free Academy (subsequently called the College of the City of New York) in 1852, with the exception of a trip abroad in 1862-64, he remained actively connected with that institution as professor of chemistry and physics and vice-president until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1903. The general laboratories in the old Free Academy building on Twenty-third St. were among the first college laboratories and were excellent in design and equipment. There Doremus, an impressive personality and inspiring lecturer, awakened in his audiences and pupils an interest in science unusual at that time. His lectures were noted for their scope and vivid demonstrations. Though handicapped by physical deformity, he was a skilful manipulator. The apparatus, often designed by himself, which he used in his classroom and public lectures was unique in its nature and size. Pieces of it still retained at the City College are so novel as to be really “Museum” specimens. Many of his experiments remain vivid in the minds of his former pupils; his demonstrations of heat reflection, magnetic attraction, heat of hydration of lime, weight of gases, the then entirely novel electric light, primary batteries, oxidation of iron, and dozens of others, were carried through on so large and vivid a scale that one never forgot the phenomenon.
In 1862 he was appointed professor of chemistry, toxicology, and medical jurisprudence in Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Through his efforts, the famous nerve specialist, Brown-Seqquard, came to America to lecture at that institution. In 1862 Doremus made an important visit to Paris at the request of Emperor Napoleon III, spending two years there in perfecting and introducing a compressed granulated gunpowder for firearms. In 1862, also, he prepared apparatus for generating chlorine gas between decks for use on the steamer which arrived in New York in that year with an epidemic of cholera on board. The process was again used against cholera in 1876 in the hospital wards of New York.
Ole Bull was a close personal friend of his, and Doremus took great pride in the possession of a fine watch presented to him by the eminent violinist.
Doremus was prominent among the founders of the New York Medical College. At his own expense, he equipped for it one of the first analytical laboratories connected with any medical college in the United States. He organized a similar laboratory for the Long Island Hospital Medical College in 1859. He was a dominating figure on the faculty of the college, and his lectures and other outside activities were instrumental in making the college known and in bringing to the public a knowledge of the influence of science on everyday life. He was a prominent member of the Medical Advisory Commission which established the present New York City Department of Health. He greatly influenced medical jurisprudence with his expert investigations in toxicology. The cartridge with granulated gunpowder for firearms which he patented dispensed with the serge envelope previously used in muzzle-loading cannon and thus avoided the necessity of sponging after firing. This invention was adopted by the governments of the United States and France, and was employed in the Civil and Franco-Prussian wars, besides being used extensively in blasting. His apparatus for generating chlorine gas against cholera was the first use of chlorine as a disinfectant on so large a scale. He patented several methods of extinguishing fires by chemical action which resulted in the establishment of several chemical industries needed to make the materials. Another important contribution was the preservation of “Cleopatra’s Needle" through the use of melted paraffin forced into the porous stone.
Doremus' wife was Estelle E. Skidmore, daughter of Captain Hubbard Skidmore.
