Theodore William Richards#Scientific research

{{Short description|American chemist and Nobel laureate (1868–1928)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Theodore William Richards

| image = Theodore william richards.jpg

| image_size = 180px

| caption = Richards in 1914

| birth_date = {{birth date|1868|1|31}}

| birth_place = Germantown, Pennsylvania, U.S

| nationality = American

| death_date = {{death date and age|1928|4|2|1868|1|31}}

| death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S

| field = Physical chemistry

| work_institution = Harvard University

| education = Haverford College
Harvard University

| doctoral_advisor = Josiah Parsons Cooke{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}(see Kopperl: "Theodore W. Richards: America's First Nobel Laureate Chemist", in Profiles in Chemistry, in Journal of Chemical Education, 1983, Vol. 60, Issue 9, page 738.

| doctoral_students = Gilbert N. Lewis
Farrington Daniels
Malcolm Dole
Charles Phelps Smyth
Hobart Hurd Willard
James B. Conant

| known_for = Atomic weights
Thermochemistry
Electrochemistry

| prizes = {{no wrap|Davy Medal {{small|(1910)}}
Willard Gibbs Award (1912)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1914)
Franklin Medal (1916)}}

}}

Theodore William Richards (January 31, 1868 – April 2, 1928) was an American physical chemist and the first American scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, earning the award "in recognition of his exact determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of the chemical elements."{{cite web | title = Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1914 - Presentation| url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1914/present.html | access-date = 2007-12-24 }}

Biography

Theodore Richards was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to William Trost Richards, a land- and seascape painter, and Anna Matlack Richards, a poet. Richards received most of his pre-college education from his mother. During one summer's stay at Newport, Rhode Island, Richards met Professor Josiah Parsons Cooke of Harvard, who showed the young boy Saturn's rings through a small telescope. Years later Cooke and Richards would work together in Cooke's laboratory.

Beginning in 1878, the Richards family spent two years in Europe, largely in England, where Theodore Richards' scientific interests grew stronger. After the family's return to the United States, he entered Haverford College, Pennsylvania in 1883 at the age of 14, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1885. He then enrolled at Harvard University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886, as further preparation for graduate studies.

Richards continued on at Harvard, taking as his dissertation topic the determination of the atomic weight of oxygen relative to hydrogen. His doctoral advisor was Josiah Parsons Cooke.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} Next he performed a year of post-doctoral work in Germany, where he studied under Victor Meyer at the University of Göttingen and others. Richards returned to Harvard as an assistant in chemistry, then instructor, assistant professor, and finally full professor in 1901. He became one of the first American scientists ever offered a full professorship in a major European university, from Göttingen, in 1901, but instead of taking the position, he chose to continue in America.{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=I. Bernard |author-link=I. Bernard Cohen |date=1976 |title=Science and the Growth of the American Republic |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=38 |issue=3 |page=383 |jstor=1406619}} In 1903 he became chairman of the department of chemistry at Harvard, and in 1912 he was appointed Erving Professor of Chemistry and director of the new Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory.

In 1896, Richards married Miriam Stuart Thayer. The couple had one daughter, Grace Thayer (who married James Bryant Conant), and two sons, Greenough Thayer and William Theodore. Both sons died by suicide.{{cite book | last = Conant | first = Jennet | title = Tuxedo Park | publisher = Simon & Schuster | year = 2002 | url = https://archive.org/details/tuxedopark00jenn | url-access = registration | quote = Tuxedo Park. | isbn = 978-0-684-87288-9}}- See pages 1 – 3 for William Theodore Richards and page 126 for Greenough Thayer Richards.

Richards maintained interests in both art and music. Among his recreations were sketching, golf, and sailing. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 2, 1928, at the age of 60. According to one of his descendants, Richards suffered from "chronic respiratory problems and a prolonged depression."{{cite book | last = Conant | first = Jennet | title = Tuxedo Park | publisher = Simon & Schuster | year = 2002 | url = https://archive.org/details/tuxedopark00jenn | url-access = registration | quote = Tuxedo Park. | page = [https://archive.org/details/tuxedopark00jenn/page/126 126] | isbn = 978-0-684-87288-9}}

He was a Quaker.{{cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/257/000099957/|title=Theodore W. Richards|publisher=Notable Names Database|access-date=2011-09-18}}

Scientific research

Image:Richards Theodore William graph.jpg

About half of Richards's scientific research concerned atomic weights, starting in 1886 with his graduate studies. On returning to Harvard in 1889, this was his first line of research, continuing up to his death. According to Forbes, by 1932 the atomic weights of 55 elements had been studied by Richards and his students.{{cite journal | title = Investigations of Atomic Weights by Theodore William Richards | author = Forbes, George Shannon | journal = Journal of Chemical Education | volume = 9 | issue = 3| year = 1932 | pages = 453–458 | doi=10.1021/ed009p452|bibcode = 1932JChEd...9..452F }} Among the potential sources of error Richards uncovered in such determinations was the tendency of certain salts to occlude gases or foreign solutes on precipitation.{{cite journal | title = Theodore William Richards Memorial Lecture | author = Hartley, Harold | journal = Journal of the Chemical Society |date=August 1930 | pages = 1945 | url = http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/article.asp?doi=JR9300001937 | doi = 10.1039/JR9300001937}} As an example of the care Richards used in his work, Emsley reports that he carried out 15,000 recrystallizations of thulium bromate in order to obtain the pure element thulium for an atomic weight measurement.{{cite book| pages=442–443| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Yhi5X7OwuGkC&pg=PA442| title =Nature's building blocks: an A-Z guide to the elements| author =John Emsley| publisher=Oxford University Press |location =US| year = 2001| isbn = 0-19-850341-5}}

Richards was the first to show, by chemical analysis, that an element could have different atomic weights. He was asked to analyze samples of naturally occurring lead and lead produced by radioactive decay. His measurements showed that the two samples had different atomic weights, supporting the concepts of isotopes.{{cite journal|title=Theodore W. Richards: America's First Nobel Laureate in Chemistry |author=Kopperl, Sheldon J. |journal=Journal of Chemical Education |volume=60 |issue=9 |year=1983 |pages=738–739 |url=http://search.jce.divched.org/JCEIndex/FMPro?-db=jceindex.fp5&-lay=wwwform&combo=theodore%20richards&-find=&-format=detail.html&-skip=0&-max=1&-token.2=0&-token.3=10 |doi=10.1021/ed060p738 |bibcode=1983JChEd..60..738K }}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite book | last = Harrow | first = Benjamin | title = Eminent Chemists of Our Time | publisher = Van Nostrand | year = 1920 | url = https://archive.org/details/eminentchemists00harrgoog | quote = eminent chemists richards. | page = [https://archive.org/details/eminentchemists00harrgoog/page/n111 74]}}

Although Richards's chemical determinations of atomic weights were highly significant for their time, they have largely been superseded. Modern scientists use electronic instrumentation, such as mass spectrometers, to determine both the masses and the abundances of an element's isotopes. From this information, an average atomic mass can be calculated, and compared to the values measured by Richards. The modern methods are faster and more sensitive than those on which Richards had to rely, but not necessarily less expensive.

Other scientific work of Theodore Richards included investigations of the compressibilities of atoms, heats of solution and neutralization, and the electrochemistry of amalgams. His investigation of electrochemical potentials at low temperatures was among the work that led, in the hands of others, to the Nernst heat theorem and the Third law of thermodynamics, although not without heated debate between Nernst and Richards.{{cite book | last = Nernst | first = Walther | title = The New Heat Theorem | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.206086 | publisher = Methuen and Company, Ltd | year = 1926 }}- Reprinted in 1969 by Dover - See especially pages 227 – 231 for Nernst's comments on Richards work

Richards also is credited with the invention of the adiabatic calorimeter as well as the nephelometer, which was devised for his work on the atomic weight of strontium.

Legacy and honors

Member of the American Philosophical Society (1902){{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1902;smode=advanced;startDoc=1|access-date=2021-05-19|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}
Lowell Lectures (1908)
Davy Medal (1910)
Faraday Lectureship (1911)
Willard Gibbs Medal (1912)
President of the American Chemical Society (1914)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1914)
Franklin Medal (1916)
President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1917)
Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (1918)
Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (1919)
President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences President (1919 – 1921)
Lavoisier Medal (1922)
Le Blanc Medal (1922)
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1923)
Member of the International Atomic Weights Committee
Theodore Richards Medal (1932, awarded posthumously) The Theodore William Richards Medal is awarded every two years to an outstanding chemist by the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society. The award was established in 1928. American sculptor and friend Cyrus Dallin designed the medal and his original plaster can be seen at the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Selected writings

File:Richards, Theodore William – Determinations of atomic weights, 1910 – BEIC 12404551.jpg

{{cite journal | title = Energy Changes Involved in the Dilution of Zinc and Cadmium Amalgams | author = Richards, Theodore W. |author2=Forbes, George Shannon | journal = Carnegie Institution Report | year = 1906 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/energychangesin02forbgoog/page/n11 1]–68 | url = https://archive.org/details/energychangesin02forbgoog | quote = theodore richards atomic. | publisher = Carnegie Institution of Washington}}
{{Cite book|title=Determinations of atomic weights|volume=|publisher=Carnagie Institution of Washington|location=Washington|year=1910|language=en|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=12404551}}
{{cite book | last = Richards | first = Theodore W. | title = The Scientific Work of Morris Loeb | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 1913 | url = https://archive.org/details/scientificworkof00loebrich| quote = theodore richards. }}
{{cite journal | title = Concerning the Compressibilities of the Elements, and Their Relations to Other Properties | author = Richards, Theodore W. | journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society | volume = 37 | issue = 7 | year = 1915 | pages = 1643–1656 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=auQBAAAAYAAJ&q=theodore+richards&pg=PA1668 | doi = 10.1021/ja02172a001 | publisher = American Chemical Society| pmc = 1090843 | pmid=16576032| bibcode = 1915JAChS..37.1643R }}