Charles Loring Jackson
Encyclopedia
Charles Loring Jackson was the first significant organic chemist in the United States. He brought organic chemistry
to the United States from Germany and educated a generation of American organic chemists.
in 1867 after studying in private schools in Boston. He joined the Harvard chemistry department as an assistant lecturer immediately after graduation and on his twenty-first birthday became an assistant professor. He was the third member of the department which consisted of Josiah Parsons Cooke
and Henry Barker Hill.
In 1870 Jackson developed a chemistry course which evolved into Chemistry I, that he taught for more than forty years.
As an adult Jackson enjoyed amateur theatricals and writing poetry and romantic fiction. In retirement he enjoyed gardening at his beautiful estate in Pride's Crossing
near Beverly, Massachusetts
.
to train him. He therefore traveled to Heidelberg
, Germany
to study at Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
. There he trained under Robert Bunsen
, a specialist in gas analysis and platinum metals. Although he did not intend to make organic chemistry his specialty, he also worked with the organic chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann
. However, Hofmann inspired Jackson to pursue organic chemistry as a career. Jackson was known to have said that he learned to "use his mind" under Hofmann, "an activity that Bunsen rather discouraged."
During Jackson's time in Heidelberg Hofmann was writing his Faraday Lectures on Justus von Liebig
and had Jackson correct his English
. This was a great opportunity for Jackson to develop an intimate association with Hofmann.
In 1874 Jackson published his first paper which dealt with organic selenium compounds.
. This provided a method of producing substituted benzyl
compounds with interesting results, such as a synthesis of anthracene
. In the following years he developed syntheses of flavoring compounds curcumin
and vanillin
. He also synthesised benzine tri-sulfonic acid
and developed what is now a traditional method of nitrating organic materials, preliminary sulfonation followed by nitration
. In the late 1880s he discovered the reaction between highly substituted aromatic halides and malonic ester in which a halogen
radical
is replaced by a hydrogen
, his most prolific source of scientific publications. He also did considerable work on the derivatives of o-quinone
, although he missed the discovery of the parent compound by only a small margin.
to the development of the organic chemistry industry in the United States
should not be under estimated. In the 1870s when Jackson traveled to Europe there literally was no organic synthesis being done in the United States
either in academia or in industry. This short-coming became very evident with the advent of World War I
and World War II
when the supply of strategic organic materials from Germany
to the United States was cut off. Had the United States been unable to quickly develop an organic synthesis capability, the outcome of the World Wars might have been quite different.
Several of Jackson's students at Harvard, Roger Adams
, Farrington Daniels
, Frank C. Whitmore
, James B. Sumner
and James Bryant Conant
to name a few, were instrumental in developing organic synthesis in the United States. Some of them had traveled to Germany to study organic synthesis
using the connections Jackson had established.
In Jackson's time academic research was generally quite open, resulting in an open and internationalist
philosophy among scientists. The World Wars put this philosophy at odds with commonly held beliefs about national security
, intellectual property
, trade secret
s and technology leakage.
Organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
to the United States from Germany and educated a generation of American organic chemists.
Personal life
Charles Loring Jackson was born in Boston on April 4, 1845. He graduated from Harvard CollegeHarvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1867 after studying in private schools in Boston. He joined the Harvard chemistry department as an assistant lecturer immediately after graduation and on his twenty-first birthday became an assistant professor. He was the third member of the department which consisted of Josiah Parsons Cooke
Josiah Parsons Cooke
Josiah Parsons Cooke was an American scientist who worked at Harvard University and was instrumental in the measurement of atomic weights, inspiring America's first Nobel laureate in chemistry, Theodore Richards, to pursue similar research...
and Henry Barker Hill.
In 1870 Jackson developed a chemistry course which evolved into Chemistry I, that he taught for more than forty years.
As an adult Jackson enjoyed amateur theatricals and writing poetry and romantic fiction. In retirement he enjoyed gardening at his beautiful estate in Pride's Crossing
Pride's Crossing
Pride's Crossing is a play by Tina Howe. It received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play and was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Drama....
near Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...
.
Learning chemistry
Jackson was frustrated studying chemistry at Harvard because in the early 1870s there were no chemists in Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
to train him. He therefore traveled to Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to study at Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
The Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg is a public research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire. Heidelberg has been a coeducational institution...
. There he trained under Robert Bunsen
Robert Bunsen
Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium and rubidium with Gustav Kirchhoff. Bunsen developed several gas-analytical methods, was a pioneer in photochemistry, and did early work in the field of organoarsenic...
, a specialist in gas analysis and platinum metals. Although he did not intend to make organic chemistry his specialty, he also worked with the organic chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann was a German chemist.-Biography:Hofmann was born at Gießen, Grand Duchy of Hesse. Not intending originally to devote himself to physical science, he first took up the study of law and philology at Göttingen. But he then turned to chemistry, and studied under Justus von...
. However, Hofmann inspired Jackson to pursue organic chemistry as a career. Jackson was known to have said that he learned to "use his mind" under Hofmann, "an activity that Bunsen rather discouraged."
During Jackson's time in Heidelberg Hofmann was writing his Faraday Lectures on Justus von Liebig
Justus von Liebig
Justus von Liebig was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the...
and had Jackson correct his English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. This was a great opportunity for Jackson to develop an intimate association with Hofmann.
In 1874 Jackson published his first paper which dealt with organic selenium compounds.
Research at Harvard
In 1875 after returning to Harvard Jackson synthesized the first new organic compound made in a Harvard laboratory, p-bromobenzyl bromideBromide
A bromide is a chemical compound containing bromide ion, that is bromine atom with effective charge of −1. The class name can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.-Natural occurrence:...
. This provided a method of producing substituted benzyl
Benzyl
In organic chemistry, benzyl is the term used to describe the substituent or molecular fragment possessing the structure C6H5CH2-. Benzyl features a benzene ring attached to a CH2 group.-Nomenclature:...
compounds with interesting results, such as a synthesis of anthracene
Anthracene
Anthracene is a solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of three fused benzene rings. It is a component of coal-tar. Anthracene is used in the production of the red dye alizarin and other dyes...
. In the following years he developed syntheses of flavoring compounds curcumin
Curcumin
Curcumin is the principal curcuminoid of the popular Indian spice turmeric, which is a member of the ginger family . The other two curcuminoids are desmethoxycurcumin and bis-desmethoxycurcumin. The curcuminoids are natural phenols and are responsible for the yellow color of turmeric...
and vanillin
Vanillin
Vanillin is a phenolic aldehyde, an organic compound with the molecular formula C8H8O3. Its functional groups include aldehyde, ether, and phenol. It is the primary component of the extract of the vanilla bean. It is also found in Leptotes bicolor, roasted coffee and the Chinese red pine...
. He also synthesised benzine tri-sulfonic acid
Sulfonic acid
Sulfonic acid usually refers to a member of the class of organosulfur compounds with the general formula RS2–OH, where R is an alkyl or aryl. The formal part of acid, HS2–OH, are formally derivatives of the "parent" inorganic compound with the formula HSO2.-Preparation:Sulfonic acid is...
and developed what is now a traditional method of nitrating organic materials, preliminary sulfonation followed by nitration
Nitration
Nitration is a general chemical process for the introduction of a nitro group into a chemical compound. The dominant application of nitration is for the production of nitrobenzene, the precursor to methylene diphenyl diisocyanate...
. In the late 1880s he discovered the reaction between highly substituted aromatic halides and malonic ester in which a halogen
Halogen
The halogens or halogen elements are a series of nonmetal elements from Group 17 IUPAC Style of the periodic table, comprising fluorine , chlorine , bromine , iodine , and astatine...
radical
Radical (chemistry)
Radicals are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons on an open shell configuration. Free radicals may have positive, negative, or zero charge...
is replaced by a hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
, his most prolific source of scientific publications. He also did considerable work on the derivatives of o-quinone
1,2-Benzoquinone
1,2-Benzoquinone, also called ortho-benzoquinone or cyclohexa-3,5-diene-1,2-dione, is a ketone, with formula C6H4O2. It is one of the two isomers of quinone, the other being 1,4-benzoquinone....
, although he missed the discovery of the parent compound by only a small margin.
The European connection
The importance of Jackson's studies in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to the development of the organic chemistry industry in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
should not be under estimated. In the 1870s when Jackson traveled to Europe there literally was no organic synthesis being done in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
either in academia or in industry. This short-coming became very evident with the advent of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when the supply of strategic organic materials from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to the United States was cut off. Had the United States been unable to quickly develop an organic synthesis capability, the outcome of the World Wars might have been quite different.
Several of Jackson's students at Harvard, Roger Adams
Roger Adams
Roger Adams was an American organic chemist. He is best-known for the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and his work did much to determine the composition of naturally occurring substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids...
, Farrington Daniels
Farrington Daniels
Farrington Daniels , was an American physical chemist, is considered one of the pioneers of the modern direct use of solar energy.- Biography :Daniels was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 8, 1889...
, Frank C. Whitmore
Frank C. Whitmore
Frank Clifford Whitmore , nicknamed "Rocky", was a prominent chemist who submitted significant evidence for the existence of carbocation mechanisms in organic chemistry.He was born in 1887 in the town of North Attleborough, Massachusetts....
, James B. Sumner
James B. Sumner
James Batcheller Sumner was an American chemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946 with John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley.-Biography:...
and James Bryant Conant
James Bryant Conant
James Bryant Conant was a chemist, educational administrator, and government official. As thePresident of Harvard University he reformed it as a research institution.-Biography :...
to name a few, were instrumental in developing organic synthesis in the United States. Some of them had traveled to Germany to study organic synthesis
Organic synthesis
Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the construction of organic compounds via organic reactions. Organic molecules can often contain a higher level of complexity compared to purely inorganic compounds, so the synthesis of organic compounds has...
using the connections Jackson had established.
In Jackson's time academic research was generally quite open, resulting in an open and internationalist
Internationalist
Internationalist may refer to:* Internationalism , a movement to increase cooperation across national borders* Internationalist, socialists opposed to World War I* The Internationalist Review, an e-journal founded in Maastricht...
philosophy among scientists. The World Wars put this philosophy at odds with commonly held beliefs about national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
, intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, trade secret
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s and technology leakage.
Fiction
- Charles Loring Jackson, The Gold Point and Other Strange Stories, Stratford Company of Boston (1926)
Scientific
- Charles Loring Jackson, Biographical memoir of Henry Barker Hill, 1849-1903, National Academy of Sciences (January 1, 1905) ASIN B0008AF3CW
- Charles Loring Jackson, On certain colored substances derived from nitro compounds, ASIN B0008CBY1E
- Charles Loring Jackson, Charles Robert Sanger: [Biographical notice], Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, ASIN B0008CWAYE
- Charles Loring Jackson, On certain nitro derivatives of the vicinal tribrombenzol, Harvard University--Chemical Laboratory Contributions, ASIN B0008CBYHS
- Charles Loring Jackson, Memoir of Josiah Parsons Cooke, 1827-1894, National Academy of Sciences (January 1, 1902) ASIN B0008AF390
- Charles Loring Jackson, On certain derivatives of orthobenzoquinone, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (January 1, 1900) ASIN B0008CBYIC
- Charles Loring Jackson, On the action of sodic ethylate on tribromdinitrobenzol, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (January 1, 1898) ASIN B0008CBYH8
- Charles Loring Jackson, On certain derivatives of symmetrical trichlorbenzol, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (January 1, 1898) ASIN B0008CBYHI
- Charles Loring Jackson, On the oxide of dichlormethoxyquinone-dibenzoylmethylacetal, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (January 1, 1898) ASIN B0008CBYI2
- Charles Loring Jackson, Samuel Cabot, John Wilson and Son, University Press (January 1, 1908) ASIN B0008D0U36