Thomas Bliss Stillman

Background

Thomas was born on May 24, 1852 at Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, the son of Dr. Charles Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Starr) Stillman.

Education

His early schooling at Plainfield was supplemented by studies at the grammar school of Madison University, Hamilton, New York, and at Alfred University, Alfred, New York. In 1870 he entered Rutgers College, from which he graduated in 1873 with the degree of B. S. He then pursued a special course in analytical chemistry at Rutgers, where he also assisted in teaching this subject.

In the spring of 1874 he was appointed chemistry assistant to Prof. A. R. Leeds of the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, and two years later went abroad to study analytical chemistry under the celebrated Dr. R. Fresenius at Wiesbaden, Germany.

In 1882 he resumed his connection as assistant to Professor Leeds at Stevens Institute, performing post-graduate studies for which he received the degree of Ph. D. in 1883.

Career

Stillman remained at Wiesbaden, Germany for two years, then, declining the offer of a position as instructor by Fresenius, returned to the United States and opened an analytical laboratory in New York City in 1879. He also became consulting chemist of the Sawyer-Mann Electric Light Company, associate editor in the science department of the Scientific American, and manager of the assay department of the Mining Record.

In 1886 he was appointed professor of analytical chemistry at Stevens and in 1902, upon the death of Professor Leeds, became head of the chemical department with the title of professor of engineering chemistry. In addition to his work as a teacher, Stillman conducted an outside consulting practice, serving as chemical expert to various municipalities in their water-supply problems, of which subject he had made a special study. He took also an active interest in the improvement of the milk supply of cities, and for a number of years was chemist to the Medical Milk Commission of Newark, New Jersey.

In 1909 Stillman retired from his professorship at Stevens in order to devote all his time to consulting and chemical engineering practice. He became senior member of the firm of Stillman & Van Siclen, chemical experts, in New York.

In 1911 he was appointed city chemist of Jersey City and Bayonne, a position which he continued to occupy until his death, four years later.

He died on August 10, 1915 at Jersy City, New Jersey.

Achievements

• Thomas Bliss Stillman was famous as he published Engineering Chemistry, a Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis for the Use of Students, Chemists and Engineers (1897), a standard work which has gone through six editions and has long been used as a college textbook and practical treatise. In addition to his Engineering Chemistry, Stillman published Examination of Lubricating Oils (1914) and was the author of more than thirty journal articles relating to chemical analysis and various chemical engineering subjects. He patented several processes, for manufacturing fertilizers, illuminating gas.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Engineering Chemistry: A Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Engineering Chemistry: A Manual of Quantitat...)

  • Engineering chemistry; a manual of quantitative chemical analysis ..

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Engineering Chemistry; A Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis for the Use of Students, Chemists & Engineers - Primary Source Edition

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Examination of Lubricating Oils

Membership

He was a member of the American Chemical Society, American Electro-Chemical Society, and chemical societies in Germany, Great Britain, and France.

Personality

Though a man of genial disposition, he had a capacity for hard work.

Connections

In 1881 he married Emma L. Pomplitz of Baltimore, Maryland, who survived him with three children.

Father:

Charles Henry Stillman

Mother:

Mary Elizabeth (Starr) Stillman

Wife:

Emma L. Pomplitz