Oliver Wolcott Gibbs

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Gibbs, [Oliver] Wolcott (1902–58), critic. A descendant of Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was born in New York and attended the Hill School but not college. He held such odd jobs as architect's apprentice and railroad conductor before joining The New Yorker, for which he became drama critic when Robert Benchley retired in 1939 and held the post until his death. Gibbs could be acerbic, as when he wrote of Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands, “This collision between the most completely undisciplined talent in American letters and the actors of the Group Theatre bored me utterly to distraction.” But he could also be warm and open, as when he confessed to a “feeling of rising excitement” while watching Abe Lincoln in Illinois, concluding, “I suppose it was just the surprise and gratitude and somehow sorrow of seeing a very great man exactly as he must have been.” He was one of those rare critics who successfully worked both sides of the footlights, writing the well‐received comedy Season in the Sun (1950).

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Oliver Wolcott Gibbs

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For the writer, see Wolcott Gibbs.

Oliver Wolcott Gibbs
Born February 21, 1822(1822-02-21)
New York City, New York, USA
Died December 9, 1908(1908-12-09) (aged 86)
Nationality United States
Fields Chemistry

Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (February 21, 1822 – December 9, 1908) was an American chemist. He is known for performing the first electrogravimetric analyses, namely the reductions of copper and nickel ions to their respective metals.[1][2]

Contents

Biography

Oliver Wolcott Gibbs was born in New York City in 1822 to George and Laura Gibbs. His father, Colonel George Gibbs, was an ardent mineralogist; the mineral gibbsite was named after him, and his collection was finally bought by Yale College. Oliver was older brother to Alfred Gibbs, who became a Union Army Brigadier General during the American Civil War.[3] Entering Columbia College (now Columbia University) in 1837, Wolcott (he dropped the name "Oliver" at an early date) graduated in 1841. Having assisted Robert Hare at Pennsylvania University for several months, he next entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, qualifying as a doctor of medicine in 1845.

Leaving the United States (US), Gibbs studied in Germany, considered a center of science, with Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg, Heinrich Rose, and Justus von Liebig, and in Paris with Auguste Laurent, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and Henri Victor Regnault.

He returned to the US in 1848 and that year became professor of chemistry at the Free Academy, now the City College of New York. Gibbs was a candidate for Professor of Physical Science at Columbia in 1854, but his application was rejected because he was a Unitarian.[4]

Gibbs became the Rumford professor at Harvard University in 1863, a post he held until his retirement in 1887 as professor emeritus. After retirement, he moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where he worked for about a decade in his own private laboratory.

Gibbs's research was mainly in analytical and inorganic chemistry, especially the cobalt-amines, platinum metals, and complex acids. He published a number of articles related to spectroscopy and the measurement of wavelengths. Gibbs was said to have been an excellent teacher, who also published many articles in scientific journals.[5]

Commemorations

  • National Academy of Sciences, President (also a founding member), 1895-1900.
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science, President, 1897.
  • Gibbs has been honored by the naming of features in and near Yosemite National Park. Mt. Gibbs stands 3,893 metres (12,773 ft) above sea level. Gibbs Lake is located at 2,905 m (9,530 ft) above sea level in the canyon northeast of the peak. Gibbs Lake is formed by Gibbs Creek, originating in the upper reaches of Gibbs Canyon, and drains into Lee Vining Canyon.
  • Gibbs is one of the few scientists recognized in the United States Capitol in Washington DC. A small statue of him is on the Amateis bronze doors.[6]
  • The Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory,[7] a chemistry research building, was constructed by Harvard University on its campus in 1911-1913 (demolished 2001-2002). This four-story free-standing building had a footprint of 71 feet by 41 feet. Prof. William Lipscomb did much of his Nobel prizewinning research on boron chemistry in Gibbs Lab,[8] continuing work started at the University of Minnesota.

References

  1. ^ Gibbs, W. (1864). "On the electrolytic precipitation of copper and nickel as a method of analysis". Zeitschrift für analytische Chemie 3: 334. 
  2. ^ Gibbs, W. (1865). "On the electrolytic precipitation of copper and nickel as a method of analysis". American Journal of Science 39: 64–65. 
  3. ^ Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7. P. 172.
  4. ^ "The Wolcott Gibbs Affair at Columbia, 1854". http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/stand_columbia/TimelineGibbsAffair.html. Retrieved 2008-03-06. 
  5. ^ Clarke, Frank Wigglesworth (1909). "Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Lecture". Journal of the Chemical Society 95: 1299–1312. 
  6. ^ United States. Architect of the Capitol (1978). Art in the United States Capitol. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. pp. 350–351. OCLC 2181271. 
  7. ^ The Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory by Prof. T.W. Richards. http://books.google.com/books?id=BIIfAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA424&lpg=PA424&dq=Harvard+memorial+Gibbs+Laboratory&source=bl&ots=xmJI9KYfI8&sig=xbx3vvo3zCTAoggbIsB4yMrDJVA&hl=en&ei=nMykTtHfOqrl0QGPuujeBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Harvard%20memorial%20Gibbs%20Laboratory&f=false.  Harvard alumni bulletin, Harvard Alumni Association, Associated Harvard Clubs. 15, 1, Sept. 25, 1912, pp. 424-429
  8. ^ "William N. Lipscomb". http://ebooks.worldscinet.com/ISBN/9781848161344/9781848161344_0002.html.  by István Hargittai, Candid Science III, More Conversations with Famous Chemists (pp. 19-27).
Attribution

Further reading

  • Szabadvary, Ferenc (1964). "Wolcott Gibbs and the Centenary of Electrogravimetry". Journal of Chemical Education 41 (12): 666–667. doi:10.1021/ed041p666. 
  • Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.

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