Background

He was born on April 5, 1872 in rural South Hampton, New Hampshire, United States, the son of Samuel Melcher Prescott, a farmer and blacksmith, and Mary Emily Cate.

Education

After attending public school in South Hampton and the Sanborn Seminary in Kingston, New Hampshire, Prescott entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1890. There he took courses in the nation's first industrial biology department and was inspired by the brilliant teaching of William T. Sedgwick. Prescott graduated in 1894 with the S. B. degree.

Career

After serving for fifteen months as chemist at the Worcester, Massachussets, Sewage Purification Works, Prescott joined Sedgwick's department as assistant and rose through the faculty ranks, becoming professor in 1914, head of the Department of Biology and Public Health in 1922, and dean of science in 1932.

Between 1895 and 1897 Prescott and W. Lyman Underwood conducted a series of exhaustive experiments on the presence of microorganisms in canned clams, lobsters, and corn. They showed conclusively that boiling canned food for ten minutes at 250 degrees Fahrenheit killed all microorganisms and rendered the food sanitary. Prescott and Underwood disseminated their findings widely, thus gaining wide recognition for their work.

In succeeding years Prescott devoted his efforts to many different kinds of bacteriological researches. A recurrent interest of his was the fermentation process. In the Boston Biochemical Laboratory he and his associates worked on many practical bacteriological problems of preservation. Between 1914 and 1917 Prescott directed a laboratory for the United Fruit Company in Port Limon, Costa Rica, where he worked on bacteriological analysis of local soils and crop diseases.

As major in the sanitary corps of the army (1918 - 1919), he served as chief of the United States Department of Agriculture's dehydration division. When Prescott became dean of science at MIT in 1932, his research did not cease. He continued to work on microorganic fermentation but did not venture into new fields, such as refrigeration.

By the late 1930's Prescott had become increasingly optimistic that food science and technology might be able to surmount the problems of overpopulation. He shifted his attention somewhat in the 1940's to industrial microbiology, studying substances other than foods. Prescott retired from his post of dean of science at MIT in 1942.

He served as consultant to the federal government during World War II and to a variety of corporations in the food industry. Prescott died in Boston.

Achievements

• Samuel Cate Prescott belonged to the first generation of professional specialized scientists and engineers who successfully applied the principles of modern science and technology to food preservation. He was a pioneer who took the established precepts and paradigms of science and applied them to practical problems. Prescott's most important contribution was the discovery of the definitive scientific method for making canned food entirely sanitary. Besides, he founded the Boston Biochemical Laboratory.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Study of Ice Cream Stabilizers

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Elements of Water Bacteriology, with Special Reference to Sanitary Water Analysis

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

Views

Prescott believed that food scientists should have close ties to private industry, keeping entrepreneurs abreast of the latest knowledge.

Connections

Prescott was married on June 30, 1910, to Alice Durgin Chase, daughter of a manufacturer of wood products. They had three children.

Father:

Samuel Melcher Prescott

Mother:

Mary Emily Cate

Spouse:

Alice Durgin Chase

teacher, influencer:

William T. Sedgwick

Daughter:

Eleanor Prescott Clemence

Son:

Samuel Chase Prescott

Son:

Robert Sedgwick Prescott

coworker:

W. Lyman Underwood