The University of Michigan almost from its beginning recognized the importance of teaching the applications of chemistry to industrial life. Silas Hamilton Douglas (A.M. hon. Vermont ‘47), who was appointed Assistant in 1844, showed his interest in this subject in his “Report to the Water Commissioners of the City of Detroit on the Analyses of Waters” in 1854, in which he not only recorded the chemical composition but also discussed the relation between water supply and cholera and the danger of lead poisoning. President Tappan also was interested in the applications of chemistry. In his inaugural address in 1852 he stated:
To this end, we propose to establish a Scientific course parallel to the classical course. In this scientific course a more extended study of the Mathematics will be substituted for the Greek and Latin. There will be comprised in it, besides other branches, Civil Engineering, Astronomy with the use of an Observatory, and the application of Chemistry and other Sciences to Agriculture and the industrial arts, generally.
(Tappan …, p. 40.)
The title, Professor of Metallurgy and Chemical Technology, given Douglas during the last two years of his long career at the University, may be said to have been prophetic of the developments which were to take place in the following seventy-five years. Albert Benjamin Prescott (‘64m, Ph.D. hon. ‘86, LL.D. Northwestern ‘03), who later became Dean of the School of Pharmacy, was primarily an organic chemist, but during the period 1865-70 he also lectured on metallurgy. Byron William Cheever (‘63, ‘67m, ‘75l) was acting Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy from 1881 until his death in 1888, and John Williams Langley (Harvard ‘61, M.D. hon. Michigan ‘77, Ph.D. hon. ibid. ‘92) was Professor of General Chemistry and Metallurgy in 1888-89. The emphasis on metallurgy was due in part to the course in mining engineering which, with Cheever’s appointment, was divided into two options, mining and metallurgy. The last students in mining engineering were graduated in 1896, and the course was discontinued as the result of an agreement with the recently established Michigan College of Mines.
Fortunately, the professorships in metallurgy did not end with Professor J. W. Langley’s resignation in 1889 nor with the discontinuing of the mining engineering course, for Edward DeMille Campbell (‘86) was appointed Assistant Professor of Metallurgy in 1890. This appointment was of great significance because Campbell brought to the University a strong interest in a field of metallurgy which was then in its infancy, the study of the constitution of metals and alloys, particularly iron and steel. He was also much interested in the application of chemistry to industry, and this was to have its effect at an early date.
During this earlier period chemistry was relatively undeveloped, and its applications were mainly to methods of analysis. In 1892 few advanced courses were offered at the University, and almost all graduates expected to work as analysts in chemical laboratories. Analytical procedures were not well standardized, and it required originality and training to work out the problems that arose in routine analytical work. Scientific control of chemical operations was not possible until physical chemists had discovered the underlying laws which control the conditions of equilibrium and the rate of chemical reactions. This body of knowledge was developed sufficiently to be of importance in the decade 1890-1900, and this period may, therefore, properly serve as the starting point in a consideration of chemical engineering. During these years Professor Prescott was Director of the Chemical Laboratory, with appointment dating from 1884. Professor Campbell gave one course in metallurgical operations, and a one-hour course entitled Outlines of Chemical Technology was announced as given by Otis Coe Johnson (Oberlin ‘68, A.M. ibid. ‘77, Michigan ‘71p), but was rarely offered. The only other courses in the applications of chemistry to industry were those in the field of analytical chemistry. Campbell was conducting research on the constitution of steel, and it was during experimental work in this subject that he lost his eyesight in the spring of 1892 (see Part III: Department of Chemistry).
Alfred Holmes White (‘93, ‘04e) went to Europe for further study in the summer of 1896. During his stay at the Federal Polytechnicum at Zurich, Switzerland, he wrote Campbell about the courses which he was taking in chemical technology and the way in which the technical work was organized. Campbell was much interested and made plans to introduce such courses at the University of Michigan. With Prescott’s approval White was appointed Instructor in Chemical Technology in 1897. The two new courses in this subject, one in inorganic and the other in organic chemical technology, were offered in alternate semesters. Campbell at that time was teaching one of the very early courses in metallography given in the United States. It is characteristic of this extraordinary man that although the subject had developed largely since his blindness, he should successfully inaugurate without trained assistants a course in a subject requiring laboratory work.
The first course in chemical engineering in the United States was offered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1888, but aroused little interest. The second was given at the University of Michigan in 1898. The Regents’ Proceedings for April, 1898, contains a communication from Dean Charles E. Greene asking for the establishment “of a course of study in this department leading to the degree of bachelor of science in Chemical Engineering.” This was approved by the Regents, and the direction of the course was entrusted to Campbell, although no formal change was made in his title until 1902, when he became Professor of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Chemistry.
The new program of study was necessarily made up of courses which were already being offered to other groups of students, because at that time the finances of the University did not permit an increase in staff or laboratories. In April, 1898, in his letter to the Regents, Dean Greene stated: “No addition to the teaching force will be needed for this course,” and added, “It is not expected that the number of students will be large.” The program of study as first outlined included the fundamental courses common to all programs in the College of Engineering, one in surveying, four in mechanical engineering, one in electrical engineering, and nine in chemistry. Included in the group of courses in chemistry were two in chemical technology taught by Alfred H. White and one in metallurgy taught by Campbell; these were the forerunners of the courses in chemical engineering proper. The first class graduated with five members in 1903. By making some substitutions in their programs, Wareham S. Baldwin received the degree in 1901 and No man Follett Harriman received it in 1902.
The requirements for graduation in the College at that time were 130 hours of credit and, in addition, a thesis. The thesis was not required after 1905, but the credit requirement in hours was increased to 140. The staff in Chemical Engineering considered it desirable that each student continue to have some training in research, and introduced Technological Chemistry 39, a five-hour course, in which each student worked individually on a problem of his own selection and which was intended to serve as an introduction to further research work.
In the early years all the specialized courses were listed in the Department of Chemistry, but in 1908 the importance of the new department was recognized by Alfred H. White’s promotion to Junior Professor of Chemical Engineering, and by the separate listing of chemical engineering courses including metallurgy in the Announcement of the College under their own heading and on the same basis as the courses in civil and mechanical engineering. Much credit is due Dean Cooley for this recognition; he was a firm believer in the future of the new department and prophesied that he would live to see it the largest in the College — a prophecy which was, for a time, fulfilled.
By 1900 the old Chemistry Building was crowded, and the department had to use space wherever it could be found. The square brick tower at the east end of what is now the Economics Building contained a large tank which had held a part of the campus water supply. The basement was used as a coal bunker. This water tank was removed about 1897, and the space was made available for laboratories. The department was assigned the coal bunker, which was cleaned out and fitted up as a laboratory for gas analysis and photometry, a room on the first floor which was used as a balance room for quantitative analysis, and rooms on the second and third floors which were used for research work and metallography. The old assay laboratory in the basement of the south wing of the building was also assigned to the department.
The present Chemistry Building was constructed in 1909. By that time the Department of Chemical Engineering had grown to such an extent that it was graduating about twenty students a year; it was therefore allotted ample space on the first floor and in the basement of the new building. The staff in 1909 consisted of Campbell, A.H. White, and Instructor Karl Wilhelm Zimmerschied (‘03, M.S. ‘04), who further developed the course in metallography and extended the course work in extractive metallurgy. During the next few years both enrollment and staff increased. Zimmerschied resigned in 1912 to become metallurgist for General Motors Company and, later, president of the Chevrolet Motor Company. His place was taken by Albert Easton White (Brown ‘07, Sc.D. hon. ibid. ‘25), who was appointed Instructor in 1911. Elmer Edwin Ware (‘07e [Ch.E.]) came to the staff in 1909, Walter Lucius Badger (Minnesota ‘07, ‘08e, M.S. ibid. ‘09) in 1912, John Davison Rue (Princeton ‘06, A.M. ibid. ‘08), in 1913, and Clair Upthegrove (‘14e [Ch.E.]) in 1916, all as instructors. In 1914 Campbell realized that work in chemistry and chemical engineering had increased to the point where he could no longer administer the two departments; consequently he chose to continue as Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Laboratory, but resigned as Professor of Chemical Engineering. The administrative direction of the Department of Chemical Engineering passed at that time to Alfred H. White, who had been promoted to a professorship in 1911.
The outbreak of World War I, with consequent cessation of chemical imports from Germany and with greatly increased demand for and utilization of metals and alloys, brought widespread recognition of the value of chemical engineering and metallurgy. When the United States entered the war in 1917, the demand for trained engineers caused a depletion in the staff. The department lost five of its seven members, A. H. White, A. E. White, C. Upthegrove, J. D. Rue, and E. E. Ware, all of whom received commissions with the armed services.
These leaves of absence necessitated an almost complete reorganization of the teaching staff. Clifford Dyer Holley (Maine ‘00, M.S. ibid. ‘02), of the Acme White Lead and Color Works, was appointed Professor of Chemical Engineering and head of the department on a part-time basis without salary. Professors W. L. Badger and Joseph Stanley Laird (Toronto ‘09, Ph.D. Princeton ‘12) completed the regular staff. In 1917 Assistant Professors John Crowe Brier (‘12, M.S. ‘13), William Platt Wood (‘12, ‘14e [Ch.E.], M.S. ‘16), Instructors Clarence Frederick Smart (‘16e [Ch.E.]) and Franz Perrine Zimmerli (‘18e [Ch.E.], M.S.E. ‘19, Met.E. ‘34) were added. Edwin Myron Baker (Pennsylvania State ‘16) and Adolph Frederick Wendler (‘18e [Ch.E.], M.S.E. ‘19) became instructors in 1918. The period of World War I was one of great activity under trying conditions. The laboratory space was inadequate, the staff was new, and the military training requirement at the University limited the time and energy that a student could give to his studies.
Crowded conditions in the Chemistry Building did not permit the development of a laboratory in unit operations or pilot processing equipment. In 1917 the Swenson Evaporator Company, of Chicago, offered to install at the University certain valuable equipment of this type free of cost if the company in exchange might employ the services of Professor Badger as a research consultant. This offer was accepted by the Board of Regents, and space was found in the abandoned Boiler House in the center of the campus for this equipment. In spite of a discouraging environment good work was done.
At the close of the war, A. H. White, A. E. White, and Upthegrove returned to the University. Holley returned to his position with the Acme White Lead and Color Works, Rue and Ware resigned, and Brier left to become superintendent of the Holland Aniline and Chemical Works. Laird was granted a leave of absence and later resigned, and Zimmerli and Wendler went into industrial work. In 1919 Eugene Hendricks Leslie (Illinois ‘13, Ph.D. Columbia ‘16) was added to the staff as Associate Professor. He was promoted to Professor in 1923 and resigned to enter private practice in 1928. His book on motor fuels, published in 1923, was an important contribution in that field, and he gave valuable assistance in graduate work. George Granger Brown (New York University ‘17 [Ch.E.], Ch.E. ibid. ‘24, Ph.D. Michigan ‘24) became Instructor in 1920, and Brier returned in 1921 as Professor.
Because of the demand for trained engineers and since demobilization of the armed forces left many young men without jobs, they flocked to engineering colleges in embarrassing numbers and were particularly attracted by courses in chemical engineering. In 1920-21 more than one hundred sophomores chose chemical engineering as their field of specialization. The staff and facilities of the department were entirely inadequate to care for the load which this class represented when it reached the senior year. Fortunately, this postwar wave soon receded, but the enrollment continued much higher than before the war.
The East Engineering Building, occupied in 1923, was designed primarily to accommodate the departments of Chemical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, and Metal Processing. Chemical Engineering and Metal Processing were concerned with the properties of metals, and it was arranged that the entire fourth floor should be given over to the metal processing foundry and to the laboratories devoted to metallurgy and to fuels in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Badger’s laboratory in the old Boiler House was transferred to the new Unit Operations Laboratory, a unique pilot plant installation permitting equipment to extend through three floors.
Equipment for research work in the new building came partly from University appropriations, but a much larger amount was acquired by direct gift or through the activities of Engineering Research. Contributions which have been made in this way include valuable material for determining the strength of metals at high temperatures, an X-ray laboratory with a maximum rating of 280,000 volts, high-frequency melting material, elaborate equipment for work with fuels and petroleum, a mass spectrometer, an infrared spectrometer, high-pressure equipment, catalytic pilot plants, equipment for measuring the physical properties of paper and the rate of oxidation in protective films of paint and lacquer, and a constant temperature and humidity room.
For the first fifteen years after the establishment of the department in 1898, courses in chemical engineering were concerned almost entirely with chemical and metallurgical technology and with the chemical aspects of the operation of processes. The term “unit operations” was coined in 1915 by Arthur D. Little in a report to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “Any chemical process, on whatever scale conducted, may be resolved into a co-ordinate series of what may be termed ‘Unit Operations,’ as pulverizing, drying, roasting, crystallizing, filtering, evaporating, electrolyzing, …” At the University of Michigan courses in unit operations were introduced in 1915 by Badger, who offered two courses in equipment for chemical operations. Lack of textbooks hampered the development of these courses, and even as late as 1922-23 they were announced as being “taught largely from blue prints and trade bulletins of apparatus required in many chemical engineering operations.” The appearance of Principles of Chemical Engineering by Walker, Lewis, and McAdams in 1923 permitted this important branch of the subject to be put on a scientific basis.
The year 1925 may be considered as the end of the adolescent period in the growth of the curriculum. It also marks the acceptance of chemical engineering as a fully recognized branch of the profession throughout the United States. When the American Institute of Chemical Engineers published its first list of accredited curriculums in 1925, that of the University of Michigan was one of the fourteen recognized.
Shortly after The Principles of Chemical Engineering was published, Badger and Baker developed a text, Inorganic Chemical Technology, which partly bridged the gap between the descriptive work and the quantitative viewpoint. In 1931 Badger and McCabe brought out Elements of Chemical Engineering, which soon became the most widely used text in this field. Minor revisions of the curriculum increased the emphasis on unit operations at this time.
Metallurgy was first given University recognition in 1875 and continued to develop as an option in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Growth in the earlier years reflected strongly the interests of E. D. Campbell, whose work in iron and steel offered a basis for many of the developments in the field of physical metallurgy. While extractive or process metallurgy received its share of attention, interest in physical metallurgy at the University was given strong impetus by the discovery of tetragonal iron in freshly formed martensite by William Fink (‘21e), when he was working under Campbell’s supervision in 1924. Discovery of tetragonal iron represented the first significant application of X ray to physical metallurgy. The department recognized the importance of such studies in 1929 by appointing Lars Thomassen (Norway Institute of Technology ‘19, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology ‘28) Assistant Professor to establish course work and laboratory in X rays. He became Professor in 1948.
With the continued growth of the department, optional course work in metallurgy increased, and the need for a greater difference in the programs of study in chemical engineering and metallurgy was recognized. The trend in this direction began in 1922, when metallurgical engineering titles were first given to those staff members working primarily in this field. In 1929 the Graduate School distinguished between the programs in chemical and in metallurgical engineering, and in 1935 a separate program was formulated in the College leading to the bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering. At this time the name of the department was changed to Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering.
A. H. White retired from the chairmanship in 1942 after making the department outstanding; he was succeeded by G. G. Brown, who was also made Edward DeMille Campbell University Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1947. In 1951 Brown became Dean of the College and was succeeded as chairman by Katz.
A major change in the curriculums began during the period of low enrollment in World War II and continued for several years. The courses in organic and inorganic technology and the required senior thesis course were discontinued. Brown introduced thermodynamics, for many years an important graduate course, at the junior level for both chemical and metallurgical engineering students. The fuels laboratory was changed to a general measurement laboratory by Associate Professor Richard Emory Townsend (‘24, M.S. ‘25, Ch.E. ‘42), who joined the staff in 1935, and Thomassen. The Structure of Solids as basic to engineering materials, physical metallurgy, and X rays was introduced by Thomassen and Associate Professor Maurice Joseph Sinnott (‘38e [Ch.E.], Sc.D. ‘46). Seniors were given process design and equipment design courses.
During this period, graduate programs in special fields of study were emphasized. A master of science degree (protective coatings) was initiated for a program built around Carrick’s courses in paints, varnish, and lacquers. The basic course in engineering materials for all engineering students, in which A. H. White’s book was used as a text, was combined with the metal processing shop course in 1947; staff members from both departments have co-operated in giving this instruction. Because the need for students who have broad training in chemistry as well as in engineering was recognized, a combined program between chemistry and chemical engineering was established.
Since a distinction was made between the chemical engineering and metallurgical engineering degrees in 1935 many students have received both. These students were well qualified to serve as materials engineers, especially if they elected courses in plastics, protective coatings, and electrochemistry. A new four-year program designed to cover this field was given for the first time in 1952, with the degree bachelor of science in engineering (materials).
In 1948 the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the department was celebrated by a reunion of about two hundred chemical and metallurgical engineering alumni. In its fifty years the department had enrolled a total of 3,876 undergraduate students and granted 2,151 bachelor’s degrees. In the Graduate School 940 higher degrees had been granted. In 1947-48 the teaching staff numbered twenty-five, and there were 510 undergraduate students in chemical and 80 in metallurgical engineering and 197 graduate students. As of April, 1952, a total of 2,537 bachelor’s degrees, 1,032 master’s degrees, 9 professional degrees, and 177 doctoral degrees had been granted students from the department.
Graduate study and research. — A program of research work was organized soon after the department was established in 1898. Campbell, who had already lost his eyesight, continued his investigations and became a world-recognized authority on steel. Programs in the constitution and properties of Portland cement and on the utilization of fuels were also instituted at an early date and continued for many years.
In 1900 the Michigan Gas Association established a fellowship in gas engineering which is still maintained and which is the senior industrial fellowship in any of the various fields of science or engineering in the United States. A. H. White made significant contributions to the manufactured gas industry with the assistance of this fellowship.
The small group of graduate students specializing in chemical and metallurgical engineering was included with the group specializing in chemistry until 1911. The number of graduate students grew rather slowly until the close of World War I, after which there was a rapid increase.
The Department of Engineering Research, now the Engineering Research Institute, was organized in 1920. Albert E. White divided his time for a few years between teaching metallurgical engineering and guiding the new department, which has always maintained close and helpful relations with the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering.
The American Council on Education presented a report in 1934 in which universities were rated on their adequacy in staff and equipment to prepare candidates for the doctorate. The jurors were asked to star the departments of highest rank; roughly, the highest 20 per cent. The University of Michigan was one of the three universities of the United States starred as “most distinguished” in chemical engineering. The work in metallurgy was rated as “adequate.”
In 1935, 20 per cent of all graduate students in the United States working toward the master’s degree and 13 per cent of those studying for the doctorate in chemical engineering were enrolled at the University of Michigan. For metallurgical engineering the corresponding figures were 25 per cent of those studying for the master’s degree and 35 per cent of those working for the doctorate.
Coincident with the depression, the graduate group in the department increased to about one hundred students, a number that has been maintained except during World War II, when as few as thirty-five students were enrolled, and in 1949, when the graduate enrollment reached a peak of 235 students. In 1932 thirty-three students were working toward the doctorate, and in the twenty years to 1952, 137 doctoral degrees were granted in chemical or in metallurgical engineering. Many of the graduate theses were on programs carried out by individual professors; others resulted from single excursions into new fields.
Petroleum. — G. G. Brown, who completed his study of the utilization of natural gasoline for the Natural Gasoline Association of America in the early thirties, was familiar with the problems of the petroleum industry through his consulting connections in this field. This led him to initiate doctoral theses in the fields of pressure-volume-temperature relations of the hydrocarbons, thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbon mixtures at high temperatures and pressures, vapor-liquid equilibria at high pressure, computation of fractionating column designs, and cracking. Reports on these studies established the department’s reputation in the field of petroleum and attracted students throughout the country to graduate study at Michigan. In 1936 Donald LaVerne Katz (‘31e [Ch.E.], Ph.D. ‘33), who had been one of Brown’s students and who had spent three years with the Phillips Petroleum Company in petroleum production research, joined the department. His researches in critical phenomena, surface tension, viscosity, phase behavior, gas hydrates, and reservoir phenomenon complemented those of Brown, and both men were closely associated in much of their work. The “Brown Plan” of oil conservation was adopted by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Board of Alberta for the Turner Valley Field. Brown received the Hanlon Award of the Natural Gasoline Association of America in 1940, and Professor Katz was similarly honored in 1950.
Robert Roy White (Cooper Union ‘36, Ph.D. Michigan ‘41), another of Brown’s former graduate students, joined the department in 1942. His interest in petroleum was directed to chemical reaction kinetics, mass transfer, and distillation. When A. H. White retired, R. R. White guided the Michigan Gas Association fellowships in the direction of fundamental kinetic studies on synthesis gas. In 1945 he received the Junior Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for one of his first papers on chemical reaction kinetics, and in 1945-46 the Russell Award of the University.
Associate Professor G. Brymer Williams (‘36e [Ch.E.], Ph.D. ‘49) returned to the University in 1947 to assist in teaching petroleum process design and to conduct phase equilibria studies. Associate Professor Cedomir M. Sliepcevich (‘41e [Ch.E.], Ph.D. ‘48) joined the staff in 1946 to work in the field of reaction kinetics at high pressure. He has continued in this field and is closely associated with Professor R. R. White.
Heat transfer and evaporation. — Students of Badger and Baker worked in the field of heat transfer in condensation processes and in boiling of solutions in evaporators. Badger earned a world-wide reputation as an expert on evaporation. Professor Alan Shivers Foust (Texas ‘28e [Ch.E.], Ph.D. Michigan ‘38), a student at the time Badger left the University to devote his entire attention to consulting engineering, joined the staff in 1937 and until 1952 continued the work in the field of evaporation and general heat transfer.
Associate Professor Jesse Louis York (New Mexico ‘38, Ph.D. Michigan ‘50) conducted studies on entrainment in evaporation, which led into the field of analyzing sprays to determine particle sizes. In 1937 Katz began teaching Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow which formerly had been taught by Badger. This contact with graduate students led him into a series of general researches in heat transfer. A number of reports was prepared on the subject of heat transfer through finned tubes as a result both of this general interest and of research sponsored by Wolverine Tube Division. Associate Professor Warren Lee McCabe (‘22e [Ch.E.], Ph.D. ‘28), a member of the staff from 1925 to 1936, was associated with Badger and made auxiliary studies in the field of crystallization and thermodynamic properties of caustic solutions. Associate Professor Elmore Shaw Pettyjohn (‘18, M.S.E. ‘22, Ch.E. ‘30), a member of the staff from 1937 to 1942, was also interested in this area.
Organic industries. — About 1925 J. C. Brier became active in the field of paint and varnish production and utilization, developing methods for extracting oil from soy bean flakes. This work was interrupted when he left for active duty in the Army Ordnance during World War II. On returning to the University he engaged in research on fundamental combustion of artillery powder.
In 1945 Professor Leo Lehr Carrick (Valparaiso ‘11, Ph.D. Indiana ‘22) joined the department after spending many years at North Dakota Agricultural College. He organized a classwork program on protective coatings and engaged in research projects in the field of paints, varnish, and lacquers.
Associate Professor Donald William McCready (Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘24e [Ch.E.], Ph.D. Michigan ‘33) came in 1929 as Instructor. For a time he engaged in research on drying paper, but his interest turned to plastics and polymers.
Thermodynamics. — G. G. Brown organized a graduate course in the field of thermodynamics in 1923 and continued to teach it until he became Dean. This background caused him to direct many students into thermodynamic problems for their research. Much of the work done in the field of petroleum was in the application of thermodynamics, as was Brown’s earlier work in the field of combustion. Sliepcevich is continuing this interest, and Associate Professor Joseph J. Martin (Iowa State College ‘39, D.Sc. Carnegie Tech. ‘48), who joined the staff in 1947, is also conducting research in this field. Professor Clarence Arnold Siebert (Wayne University ‘30, Ph.D. Michigan ‘34), who joined the staff in 1936, has applied thermodynamics in the field of metallurgy. In 1939 Brown was honored with the Walker Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for publications in this field.
High-temperature properties of metals. — Although A. E. White came to the University in 1911, it was not until after World War I that he was to engage in his research on metals and alloys at elevated temperatures, a field in which he has continued to maintain an active interest. Immediately after World War I, many questions were raised concerning the behavior of metals and alloys which would meet new and more exacting requirements, particularly those in services at high temperatures. In 1927 A. E. White and C. Upthegrove contributed to a symposium in this field sponsored by the A.S.T.M. and the A.S.M.E. and were invited to become members of the joint research committee of the two societies on metals at elevated temperatures. While some work had been done previously, this marked the real beginning of a research program under A. E. White’s direction which was to give the University of Michigan recognition throughout the world and to establish, through the Engineering Research Institute, what is today one of the largest and best equipped laboratories of this type.
Claude Lester Clark (‘25, Ph.D. ‘28) and James Wright Freeman (‘33, Ph.D. ‘40) have also contributed much to the development of this program as well as to the teaching of graduate students. Clark was concerned largely with the investigation of the fundamental effects of composition and the development of medium alloy steels for elevated temperature service. He left the University for the Timken Steel and Tube Company in 1940, and Associate Professor Freeman continued the work, with special emphasis on the fundamental factors affecting control of creep and ruptures. An extensive program sponsored by the N.A.C.A. on metals and alloys for special service at elevated temperatures has been in progress since the early 1940’s under his supervision.
Another phase of the behavior of metals at high temperature received attention in oxidation and decarbonization studies by Professors Wood, Upthegrove, and Thomassen, of the staff, and by Walter Edwin Jominy (‘15, M.S. ‘16) and Donald William Murphy (Detroit City College ‘28, Sc.D. ‘31) of the Engineering Research Institute. Studies were made of the hydrogen-oxygen-carboniron equilibria and of nitrogen dilution as basic information to the mechanism of scaling and oxidation. Thomassen is continuing his work in the oxidation studies of nickel chromium alloys.
Theoretical metallurgy. — In the early days departmental research in theoretical metallurgy centered almost entirely around E. D. Campbell and his studies of the constitution of iron and steel. His work was extensive, and many of his publications are to be found in the Transactions of the British Iron and Steel Institute. The American Society for Metals, honoring his memory, established the annual Edward DeMille Campbell lecture in 1925, the year of his death. For a time emphasis in theoretical metallurgy was shifted to the nonferrous field, although malleabilization studies continued to receive the attention of A. E. White. Upthegrove, while working in the field of metals at elevated temperatures, found other interests in recrystallization, grain growth, equilibrium studies in binary and ternary systems, and in diffusion.
In this period John Chipman (University of the South ‘20, Sc.D. hon. ibid. ‘40, Ph.D. California ‘26), who was associated with the department while in the Engineering Research Institute, became interested in the application of thermodynamics to steel making. His work at the University established a fundamental basis for most of the studies in recent years in this field. He left the University in 1935 and became head of the Department of Metallurgy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Thomassen’s work in the determination of depth of cold working effects in machining, line broadening, and in the use of tracers or radioactive materials in solid diffusion represents basic investigations in these fields. Siebert has continued the work in the application of thermodynamics to metals and alloys and has indicated a growing interest in the general physical metallurgy field of iron and steels. Sinnott joined the department in 1944. His teaching interest has been largely in the physics of solids, and his research with metals and high temperature refractory materials has turned in this direction.
Cast metals. — Professor Richard Schneidewind (‘23, Ph.D. ‘33), who wrote his doctoral thesis on kinetics and malleabilization, has contributed much in the general field of theoretical aspects of cast metals. His contributions have included factors controlling austenite transformation at constant temperature and tensile properties immediately following solidification. In 1950 he was awarded the McFadden Gold Medal of the American Foundrymen’s Society. Before his appointment to the staff in 1937 he conducted numerous electrochemical studies in the Engineering Research Institute.
Professor Harry Linn Campbell (‘14e [Ch.E.], M.S. ‘21) had appointments in the departments of Production Engineering and Chemical Engineering, bringing the practical operation of the foundry and metallurgical studies together. Professor Franklin Bruce Rote (‘38, Ph.D. ‘44) continued in this relationship from 1946. He was active in the development of the field of nodular iron. With Wood, he worked on pearlitic iron for surface hardening and with Upthegrove on the fracture tests for melt quality. In 1951 Professor Richard A. Flinn (City College of New York ‘36e [Ch.E.], Sc.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘41) replaced Rote. Flinn had an active interest in isothermal transformations of alloy iron and mechanisms of graphitization of gray and nodular irons.
Other research. — Associate Professor Lloyd Earl Brownell (Clarkson ‘37, Ph.D. Michigan ‘48) joined the staff in 1942. He has studied flow of fluids through porous media, has had an active interest in food technology and the effect of radiation on food and drug sterilization, and has contributed to the design of chemical engineering equipment. Sliepcevich has done valuable work on light scattering functions for the determination of particle sizes in fogs and sprays. Assistant Professor Edwin Harold Young (University of Detroit ‘42, M.S.E. Michigan ‘49), who came in 1947, has worked with Brownell on equipment design. Assistant Professor Lloyd Lute Kempe (Minnesota ‘32, Ph.D. ibid. ‘48) joined the staff on a half-time basis in 1952 while serving half-time with the Bacteriology Department of the Medical School. He is interested in the development of a program in bioengineering, paralleling Brownell’s interest.
Staff activities and professional societies. — A. H. White was an early member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, becoming president in 1929-30. He was active in the establishment on the Michigan campus of the first student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1922, and he was president of the American Society of Engineering Education in 1942. Brown likewise was active in the Institute. He was president in 1944, and over a period of years he has contributed to the work of the constitution and the education and accrediting committees. He served as director of research for the National Dairy Products, Inc., and as director of engineering for the United States Atomic Energy Commission. A. E. White was the first president of the American Society for Metals in 1920. Later, he was president of the American Society for Testing Materials.
Members of the staff have been authors of seventeen books and more than seven hundred publications. The text Unit Operations, prepared under the leadership of Brown, appeared in 1950 and was promptly adopted by 115 institutions, including almost all departments of chemical engineering in the country.
Alfred H. White
Clair Upthegrove
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Announcement, College of Engineering (title varies), Univ. Mich., 1906-52.
Calendar, Univ. Mich., 1871-1914.
President’s Report, Univ. Mich., 1920-52.
Proceedings of the Board of Regents …, 1890-1952.
Shaw, Wilfred B.The University of Michigan. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
Tappan, Henry P.A Discourse, Delivered by … on the Occasion of his Inauguration as Chancellor … Detroit: Advertiser Power Presses, 1852.
The University of Michigan, an encyclopedic survey ... Wilfred B. Shaw, editor, Volume III, Part VII, pp. 1190-1200.
