Wilhelm Ostwald’s relationships to North America
Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) was professor for chemistry at the Baltic polytechnic school from 1882 till 1887 in his hometown Riga (Latvia). In that time he wrote his first textbook with nearly 2.000 printed pages [1], part of which was also translated into English [2]. He also founded the first international Journal for physical chemistry ("Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie, Stöchiometrie und Verwandschaftslehre") [3].
Among the scientists, Ostwald invited also the mathemathical physicist J. W. Gibbs from Yale University (New Haven) to become a member of the editorial board. Gibbs did not accept the invitation, but later on the american chemists A. A. Noyes (Boston) and Th. W. Richards (Cambridge) became coworkers of this journal. In summer 1887 Ostwald became professor for physical chemistry at the University of Leipzig. Among Ostwald's first students, the american scientists Morris Loeb, J. M. Clements and C. L. Speyers entered his group. Up to now, more than 70 northamericans were known to work at Ostwald’s laboratory in Leipzig till 1906. They later took leading positions at the universities, research institutions and industry in the USA and Canada, e.g. W. R. Whitney, L. A. B. Kahlenberg and B. B. Boltwood. J. W. Servos wrote in his book, that the pupils of Ostwald have played a key role in founding the chemical industry in North America [4-8]. In 1892 Ostwald translated the thermodynamic papers by J.W. Gibbs. As they were first published in the relatively unknown Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, they become more prominent by the german translation only.
In 1891, Ostwald was invited to become a honorary doctor on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the foundation of Yale University in New Haven. He did not accept this honour, as he was fighting very intense for the acceptance of the dissociation theory in Germany and England at that time. In 1893, he was invited to the World-Meeting of Chemistry in Chicago, but he only sends his lecture. In 1897 he could not join the invitation for an honorary doctor by the University of Princeton, as his new Institute at Leipzig was nearly finished and should be inaugurated. Also the invitation by A. A. Noyes he could not join.
The honorary promotion by the University of California, Berkeley as well as that of Toronto in 1906 he could accept. The Academy of Science in New York elected him as a member in 1899 (1908 honorary member). In 1905, this was followed by the membership of the American Academy for Science and Art, Boston, and in 1906 by that of the National Academy of Science, Washington. In 1903 he went to Berkely for he Inauguration of the new laboratory of Jaques Loeb. From this stay a close coworking starts. Ostwald's eldest son Wolfgang worked in Berkely from 1904 to 1906 as assistant. It is known from Ostwald's diary, that he himself was thinking about the emigration to California. In September 1904 a second trip brings him into the USA. In New York he was a honorary guest in the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry. Later on he went for an one week painting trip to the Niagara Falls. The 6th General Meeting of the American Electrochemical Society in St. Louis elected him as Honorary President of the Section Electrochemistry. Later he gave a lecture in the Section Philosophy at the World Congress of Art and Science in St. Louis. In 1905 Ostwald had already made his decision upon another invitation to Berkeley, when the representatives of Harvard University Cambridge elected him as first german - american exchange professor. Therefore, Ostwald skipped the Berkeley trip. By that, the official contacts to the University of California break down. From October 1905 till February 1906 he held courses in Natural Philosophy, Physical Chemistry and painting techniques at Harvard University, at the MIT as well as the Lowell Institution Boston, at the Columbia University New York and other institutions. The lectures at Columbia University were published 1906 with the title: The historical development of general chemistry [9].
Within 120 days Ostwald gave 200 lectures, but he could not join all invitations. Especially remark-able were his Ingersoll Lecture on “Immortality” and his advertising lectures on the artifical language esperanto. During that time also had a talk with the american president Th. Roosevelt. Ostwald's USA travels are documented by lots of paintings. At the Niagara Falls he produced thirty of them, which had been used partially as basis for much bigger pastels in Großbothen.
In 1906 Ostwald skipped the University Service and moved to his country seat in Großbothen near Leipzig/Saxony (FRG). On invitation of the American Philosophical Society Philadelphia (he became a member in 1912) and the University of Illinois a further USA trip was planned in 1912, for which already a course program as well as contacts with different publishers were scheduled. It was also planned to take part at the inauguration of the Rice Institute in Houston. At the end of August he skipped this trip for healthy reasons. He still had contact in 1913 with american colleagues within the Association of Chemical Societies. At his 60th birthday anniversary the publisher Slosson visited him, as he had published some Ostwald papers earlier [10]. World War l did not affected very much the scientific contacts with the USA in the beginning. Ostwald worked together with the american representative F. W. Clarke in the International Atomic Weight Commission. However, this was influenced, when the American Chemical Society cancels the honorary membership (existing since 1900) of Ostwald due to his so-said war research. Ostwald was presumably the only leading german chemist who was not forced to war research. After the war the german scientists were excluded from the international exchange of science. Nevertheless there was still a letter contact, but within a restricted range. In 1928 the honorary membership of Wilhelm Ostwald in the Chemical Society was renewed. Also after the death of Wilhelm Ostwald the contacts of his former pupils to the Ostwald family still exists, even after the Second World War. The survival of the country seat "Energie" in Großbothen is traced back to some extent to the help of his american pupils. Several books of Ostwald have been published in the USA. In 1948 a precious edition of Ostwald’s "Farblehre" was published as the Color Harmony Manual and, according to the publisher, was sold till 1951 in 2000 copies [11]. Remarkable in this context is the fact, that the american artists make use of his “Farblehre”, whereas their german colleagues were afraid to get lost their “artist freedom”.
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References: [1] Ostwald, Wilhelm: Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Chemie, Engelmann, Leipzig 1885-1887 [2] Ostwald, Wilhelm: Solutions, translated by M. M. Pattison Muir, London, Longmans 1891. [3] Ostwald, Wilhelm, Van’t Hoff, J. H. (Eds.): Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, Stöchiometrie und Verwandschaftslehre, Engelmann, Leipzig 1887. [4] Servos, John W.: Physical chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling – The making of a science in America; Princeton University Press, Princeton 1990. [5] Stock, John T.: Ostwald’s american students, Plaidswede Publishing, Concord, New Hampshire 2003 [6] Richards, Theodore W.: The scientific work of Morris Loeb, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1913. Morris Loeb: Memorial Volume, The chemist’s club, New York 1913 [7] Saltzmann, Martin D.: Morris Loeb: Ostwald’s first american student and America’s first physical chemist; Bull. Hist. Chem. 22 (1998) 10-15. [8] Stock, John T.: Morris Loeb, Walter Nernst, and the transference number; Bull. Hist. Chem. 25 (2000) 99-102. [9] Ostwald, Wilhelm: The historical development of general chemistry; Course of six lectures delivered in the department of chemistry of Columbia University, New York (Havemeyer Hall), Jan 26th to Febr. 2nd, 1906. In: School mines quarterly 27 (1906) 2-4, pp. 87-117, 313-339, 338-413. [10] Slosson, Edwin E.: Twelve major prophets of today. 5. Wilhelm Ostwald. In: The Independent. New York 72 (1912), p.921-935. [11] Jacobson, Edwin E., Granville, W.C., Foss, C.E.: Color Harmony Manual, 3rd edition Container Corp. of America, Chicago 1948 (1st edition 1942, 2nd edition 1946)