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OCR for page 51
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
June 23, 1886-July 30, 1968
BY ROBERT M. JOYCE
ELMER KEISER BOLTON was one of the outstanding leaders
of industrial research. He became an industrial re-
search director at a time when research was only beginning to
be a significant factor in the chemical industry. There were
no models for this new role, and BoTton's concepts of direct-
ing industrial research were in large measure those that he
formulated himself, reflecting his vision and drive to achieve
important commercial goals.
The record of industrial products developed by Du Font
research organizations that he directed is impressive; it in-
cludes synthetic dyes and intermediates, flotation chemicals,
rubber chemicals, neoprene synthetic rubber, nylon synthetic
fiber, and Teflon polytetrafluoroethylene resin. His leacler-
ship in bringing these developments to fruition was always
apparent to management and to those he directed, but be-
cause of his characteristic self-effacement his name is not
widely associated with these accomplishments. Throughout
his career he supported and encouraged his technical person-
nel. Most important, he had the knack of picking the right
time and direction to take in moving a research lead into
development. Many of his decisions proved crucial to the
ultimate success of these ventures.
51
OCR for page 52
52
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Elmer Bolton's paternal grandfather emigrated from
Bolton-le-Moors, England about ~ 833 and settled near
Frankford, Pennsylvania. Bolton's father, George, was born
in 1861 and grew up and setting in that area; he ran a men's
furnishings store on Main Street in Frankford. He married
Jane E. Holt, and the couple had two children: Elmer Keiser,
born 23 Tune 1886, and Thomas Coulston, born 17 De-
cember 1887. Both attended the local high school in Frank-
ford and then went on to college. The younger brother,
Thomas, became a professor of insurance and finance in the
College of Business Administration at Syracuse University.
Elmer went to Bucknell University and took "The CIas-
sical Course," which led to a B.A. degree in 1908. The Clas-
sical Course included elective studies in chemistry during the
second, third, and fourth years, and it must have been at this
time that his interest in chemistry was kindled. Bolton
entered Harvard in 1908 to pursue graduate study in organic
chemistry. He received his A.M. from Harvard in 1910 and
his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1913. His thesis, directed by
Professor Charles L. Jackson, concerned the chemistry of
. . .
perlocloqulnones.
At Harvard, Bolton formed what were to be lifelong
friendships with two students who were to become outstand-
ing professors of organic chemistry: Frank C. Whitmore, who
would teach at Northwestern and Penn State, and Roger
Adams, who had an illustrious career at Illinois. Adams in
particular was later to have an important influence on Bol-
ton's ideas about industrial research. Adams had received his
A.B. from Harvard in 1909 and continued there to his Ph.D.
in 1912. He then spent the academic year 1~912-1913 with
Professor Richard WilIstatter at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut
in Berlin, which may have been a factor in Bolton's decision
to do the same thing for the succeeding two years.
OCR for page 53
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
53
Bolton and Adams shared many traits. Both were ex-
tremely devoted to organic chemistry but also had a variety of
other interests. They hac3 the happy faculty of "being inter-
estecT." Both hac3 an intense drive for concrete accomplish-
ment and an instinct for inspiring those who worked with
them. Their choices of different careers may have reflected,
in part, (differences in family background: Bolton's forebears
followed commercial pursuits, whereas there were teachers,
including his mother, in Adams' family. In later years, Adams
unquestionably influenced Bolton's ideas on inclustrial sup-
port of chemical research and chemistry students in uni-
versities. Adams always referred to Bolton as"Keis," whereas
at Du Pont he was "Dr. Bolton" to all but a few close friends,
to whom he was "Elmer."
When BoIton received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1913,
the university awarded him the Sheldon Fellowship, which
he used to spend two years of postcloctoral research with
WilIstatter at the Kaiser Wilhelm Tnstitut. Here he became
involved in WilIstatter's major program on anthocyanins, ancT
he published three papers with WilIstatter on isolation and
structures of some anthocyanin pigments.
WilIstatter was sufficiently impressed with Bolton to com-
ment in his autobiography on Bolton's research, as well as on
another trait. He wrote, "One of my capable American col-
leagues had the minor weakness of easily making mistakes
in calculations. One (lay in exasperation I burst out, 'You
must have been a bank teller.' The answer: 'That ~ was; I
earned my way through school by being a bank teller in
Philaclelphia."' ~
Several consequences of his stay in Germany were to have
a significant influence on Bolton's subsequent career. First,
OR. Willstatter, Aus Meinem Leben (Weinheim: Verlag Chemie, 1949), p. 221.
OCR for page 54
54
B IOGRAPH I CAL MEMOI RS
he carried away a lasting impression of Wilistatter's careful
and logical approach to tackling a research problem and of
his rapport with his collaborators. Second, Bolton learned
about the German system for training chemists, the German
dye industry, and the relationship between the two. In 1920,
when he had become responsible for Du Font dye research,
he wrote:
The greatest contribution which the German universities have made
to their dye industry is not in the number of research chemists who have
entered the industry with previous knowledge of operating processes, nor
the development of new fields of research by the professors of the univer-
sities, but in the large number of research chemists who have been taught
the correct methods for attacking a problem by men prominent in their line
of work and if the American dye industry is to succeed in future years, it
is necessary to receive from our universities chemists who have had a
thorough training in the fundamental principles of research work.2
The thrill important consequence of Bolton's stay in
Germany was his exposure to and interest in German efforts
to make a synthetic rubber. Harries, at the University of Kiel,
was particularly active on this problem, studying the poly-
merization of isoprene and dimethy~butacliene, and Bolton
became familiar with the research through Harries' publica-
tions and, quite probably, by attending seminars. Although
Harries never macle a practical rubber, Bolton was im-
pressed, and his confidence that the objective of a synthetic
rubber could be attained was later to be the key to the clevel-
opment of neoprene.
One other German import was the phrase "eine gute
Nase," which Bolton often urged upon his men: smell out the
significant goal, the critical experiment, and the proper turn
in the road.
When Bolton returned from Europe in 1915, he found
the American chemical industry frantically trying to develop
2 E. K. Bolton, memorandum, 16 July 1920.
OCR for page 55
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
55
methods for making organic chemicals, practically all of
which had previously been imported. The Du Pont Company
was seeking welI-trained chemists, and employed Bolton in
August of 1915.
At that time much of Du Pont's research was conducted by
the Chemical Department at the Experimental Station just
outside Wilmington. Bolton went to the Station, where he
worked on the synthesis of glycerol. The following year
he was offered an instructorship in organic chemistry at
Harvard quite possibly to replace his friend Roger Adams,
who was leaving Harvard to go to the University of Illinois.
Bolton chose to stick with industry and declined the offer.
In 1916 the Du Pont Company decided to embark on the
manufacture of synthetic dyes, and BoTton was selected
leacler of the Dye Group that was set up at the Station to
develop manufacturing processes. The development of dye
intermediates was carried out at Jackson Laboratory, across
the Delaware River from Wilmington, under the direction of
Dr. C. M. A. Stine. One can imagine the furor that would
ensue today from an incident that Bolton later clescribed:
I was in charge of a small group of chemists studying dye processes, as
the Company had decided to enter the dye industry. One of the processes
which I personally explored was the preparation of methyl violet, a dye of
high tinctorial strength, and this work had progressed to the point of a
small semiworks plant. When the first chemical exhibition opened in New
York, I was assigned to go to it. Thinking that the day I would be absent
would be a suitable time to clean the entire laboratory, I requested the
helper to give the place a thorough cleaning and to get rid of the dye
scattered around the building on the shelves, tables, and windowsills. The
helper took my instructions too literally and not only cleaned the labora-
tory from top to bottom but also emptied the boxes containing well over a
hundred pounds of methyl violet, accumulated from the semiworks opera-
tions, into the historic Brandywine Creek that ran close to the laboratory.
For a number of hours the Brandywine was a beautiful violet-colored
stream as it flowed through the City of Wilmington. There appeared to be
no comment expressing appreciation of the improvement in the aesthetic
OCR for page 56
56
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
appearance of the stream but there were comments from my supervisor
the next morning when he told me that a large cotton finishing plant,
located farther down the stream, had to close at noon because of the methyl
violet. For a short time I was positive that my tenure with Du Font was
about to end abruptly, but fortunately this event never transpired.3
There was little knowledge of dye manufacture in the
United States, and Bolton was sent to England in December
1916 to become familiar with British technology for the
manufacture of dyes, particularly indigo.
When Bolton returned from England, he was assigned to
the Wilmington office as advisor on dyes and intermediates.
In 1918 he was transferred to the Dyestuffs Department as
assistant general manager of the Lodi Works, where silk
colorants were made. In 1~919 he returned to the Chemical
Department as manager of its Organic Division, a capacity in
which he supervised the research of the Dyestuffs Depart-
ment at Jackson Laboratory.
Two principles that BoTton was to follow and insist on
throughout his career were firmly in his mind by 1920. Thus,
he wrote: "A very important problem in the development of
the Chemical Industry is to determine whether the methods
for research work for developing new manufacturing pro-
cesses leacl to results in the shortest time with the minimum
expenditure of money."4
This philosophy was later to be implementer! many times
in his decisions to move laboratory findings quickly into the
development phase.
Again in 1920, he wrote: ". . . the method of manufacture
should then be cleveloped with the use of pure materials for
the purpose of eliminating the confusing effect of by-
products introducecl by impurities.... After the most favor-
3E. K. Bolton, "Fundamental Research in the Chemical Industry" (Willard Gibbs
Medal Address, 21 May 1954).
4Ibid.
OCR for page 57
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
57
able conditions for the manufacture of the intermediate or
the dye have been worked out with pure materials, the pro-
cess should then be aciaptecI to the use of available plant
materials."5
This emphasis on the use of pure materials in research
was stressed to the chemists in BoTton's organizations almost
as much as the historic Du Pont emphasis on safety, and it was
to be a critical factor in the discovery and development of
neoprene and nylon. One wonders whether this insistence on
purity might have been picked up cluring his experience with
WilIstatter; Roger Adams, who also worked in WilIstatter's
laboratory, was equally insistent on this point.
In 1922 the Du Pont Company established research divi-
sions for each of its four production clepartments. These
divisions were located at plant sites, and the Chemical
Department was maintainer! at the Experimental Station to
carry out exploratory research aimec! at cleveloping new
areas of chemical business.
Bolton was appointed director of research for the Dye-
stuffs Department, and it was here that the vision that charac-
terized his career became apparent. Although the principal
business of his department was dyestuffs, Bolton decidecI to
explore other types of products that might be made from the
great variety of dye intermediates then at hand. By 1923 he
had in progress research on rubber accelerators, and soon
thereafter extended the research to encompass antioxidants
for rubber and gasoline, flotation agents, insecticides, seed
disinfectants, and large-scale manufacture of tetraethyIlead.
Several commercial products soon emerged from these pro-
grams, and the business of the Dyestuffs Department was
broadened! substantially.
In the early 1920s the notorious Stevenson Plan, a British-
colonial natural rubber monopoly effort, was promulgates] to
5Ibid.
OCR for page 58
58
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
control the price and supply of natural rubber at a time when
U.S. clemand was increasing rapidly because of the burgeon-
ing automobile industry. Bolton had not forgotten the Ger-
man work on synthetic rubber with which he had become
acquainted during his postdoctoral years in Germany, and he
persuaded his management (Vice-President Willis Harring-
ton) that a synthetic rubber would be an excellent research
. .
O Elective.
Work was started in September 1925 on polymerization of
butadiene, which was obtained by hydrogenation of diacet-
ylene, but not much progress was macle. From December 29
through 31, 1925, Bolton attended the first National Sympo-
sium on Organic Chemistry at Rochester, New York, where
he heard a paper by Father Nieuwlancl of Notre Dame en-
titIed "Acetylene Reactions, Mostly Catalytic." Nieuwlanc!
describect a new catalyst based on cuprous chIoricte that poly-
merized acetylene to higher unsaturated hydrocarbons, pri-
marily clivinylacetylene (DVA). He reported that DVA pO{y-
merized rapicIly at room temperature to a hard resin. This
resin had the remarkable and embarrassing property of
sometimes explocting when struck. Bolton had the ideas that
DVA might be the basis for a synthetic rubber, and that Nieuw-
lan~l's chemistry might be mollified to yield monovinylacet-
ylene (MVA), an alternative raw material for butadiene. He
approached Nieuwland, found that Nieuwland had stopped
work on DVA because he felt it too treacherous, and then
proposed that Nieuwland work with Du Pont as a consultant
on the company's efforts to develop this chemistry. Nieuw-
lancl agreed. On 3 May 1926, at the invitation of Nieuwland,
Bolton sent W. S. Calcott to Notre Dame to consummate the
consulting agreement anti to get technical details for the labo-
ratory preparation of DVA.
Over the next three years, the Du Pont group, working
with Nieuwland, made little progress toward a synthetic
rubber. They did learn to carry out Nieuwlancl's reaction in
OCR for page 59
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
59
high yield in a continuous-flow reactor, and they were able to
modify it to get MVA as the principal product in good yield. In
1929 modification of the conditions for polymerizing DVA
gave a lead to a new finish that had excellent chemical resis-
tance, but that discolored on exposure to light.
Despite the discouragements of these three years, Bolton
persisted in maintaining the synthetic rubber program, and
events were taking place that would enable him to give
it new impetus. In 1927 the company Chemical Director,
Dr. C. M. A. Stine, persuaded company management to
undertake a program of fundamental research with no spe-
cific commercial objectives and received authorization of
$250,000 for the purpose. In 1928 Wallace Carothers, then
an instructor at Harvard, was hired as group leader to head
this program. It is probable that Bolton's friend Roger
Adams influenced this selection; Adams had trained
Carothers and was by then department head at Illinois and a
consultant for Du Font.
In 1929 Stine was promoted to the company Executive
Committee, and Bolton was transferred back to the Chemical
Department as assistant chemical director; his responsibil-
ities included the work in Carothers' group. Bolton asked
Carothers to start a project on reactions of MVA and another
on purification of DVA, the latter because of his belief that
pure DVA was essential to a study of its polymerization.
Dr. Arnold Collins, assigned to the latter project, arranged
for construction of a laboratory still capable of distilling DVA
at low pressure in a nitrogen atmosphere. With this instru-
ment he isolated from impure DVA a low-boilin~. chIorine-
. · .
1 by,
containing fraction that, on standing under nitrogen over the
weekend, polymerized to a rubbery solid. The road was now
open to Bolton's dream.
The chlorine-containing compound was soon found to be
2-chIorobutadiene (chloroprene) and to be easily made by
copper-catalyzed addition of hydrogen chloride to MVA.
OCR for page 60
60
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Bolton moved quickly. He and Harold Wiley, who had suc-
ceeded him as director of research for the Dyestuffs Depart-
ment, laid out a development program. In nineteen months
Wiley's group had done the process and product development
and had in operation a pilot plant with a monthly capacity
of 1500 pounds. The new product, Duprene (now called
neoprene), was announced on 2 November 193 ~ at a meeting
of the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society in
Akron.
Duprene was not a replacement for natural rubber;
initially it would cost twenty times as much as the natural
product. Nevertheless, it was far superior to natural rubber
in resistance to oils and to outdoor degradation, and Bolton
insisted that it would find commercial uses; he was right.
The critical technical discoveries in neoprene develop-
ment were made by several scientists, but it was Bolton who
recognized the import of Nieuwland's work, gave his organi-
zation the direction to capitalize on it, and persisted for six
years in the face of many technical discouragements to
achieve his objective of the first commercial synthetic rubber.
Carothers' arrival at Du Font in 1928 to head the funda-
mental research group had preceded Bolton's return to the
Chemical Department by a year; one year later, in 1930,
Bolton was appointed director of the department. Thus was
effected the confluence of two remarkable careers. Carothers
was a chemical genius; Bolton recognized that and gave him
and his programs full support. After Carothers' death,
Bolton wrote of him:
In our association with Dr. Carothers, we were always impressed by the
breadth and depth of his knowledge. He not only provided inspiration and
guidance to men under his immediate direction, but gave freely of his
knowledge to the chemists of the department engaged in applied research.
In addition, he was a brilliant experimentalist. Regarding his personal
characteristics, he was modest, unassuming to a fault, most uncomplaining,
OCR for page 63
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
63
At this point Bolton macie a characteristically bold and
visionary decision. He took the position that a synthetic fiber
would be too large and important a commercial development
to be based on the raw material castor oil, which was then the
only practical source of sebacic acid. He reasoned that there
were six carbons in benzene, that both adipic acid and hexa-
methylenediamine could be macle from benzene, that there
would always be plenty of benzene, and that the polyamide to
be clevelopec! shouict be 6/6.
This polyamide was first made on 28 February 1935.
Owing to advances that had been made in the technology of
handling and spinning polyamides, 6/6 couIcl be spun into
fibers. These had high strength and elasticity, were not
sensitive to common solvents, and melted at 263° C, thus
providing a good margin above commonly used ironing
temperatures.
On 27 October 1938 Du Pont announced that it had au-
thorized construction of a plant to be built at Seaford, Dela-
ware to make the worId's first completely synthetic fiber 6/6
nylon. The announcement was macle in a radio broadcast by
Dr. C. M. A. Stine, whose initiation of the fundamental re-
search program in the Chemical Department eleven years
earlier had begun the chain of events that had tech to nylon.
Research came to a halt that day at the Experimental Station
as we clustered around nachos that had been brought in for
the occasion.
It is worth noting that Bolton, with his firm ideas about
process development, had insisted that every aspect of the
nylon process be thoroughly worked out in a pilot plant at the
Experimental Station. Here again, his insistence on pure raw
materials came to the fore. The pilot plant began suddenly to
produce poor quality fiber. Bolton surmised that inferior
purity of one or both of the nylon raw materials was the
OCR for page 64
64
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
source of the problem, and he insisted on shutting (town the
pilot plant. The raw materials were carefully checked and
found to be below the specified purity; spinning was resumed
only after they hac! been brought up to standard. The Sea-
ford plant was essentially an enlarged carbon copy of this
pilot plant, and it had a remarkably trouble-free startup.
One can only speculate on the degree to which BoTton and
his colleagues realized at the time the magnitude of what they
had wrought. It is certain that Bolton's persistence and vision
kept the development alive during many discouraging times.
He recognized a fact of history that pioneering inventions
represent dramatic change and are almost invariably brought
to fruition only by the dogged persistence of a few people
who have faith.
When Bolton became director of the Chemical Depart-
ment in 1930, the technical staff numbered 121; when he
retired in 1951, it had grown to 203. The stature of a
manager in industry, however, is measured not by the size of
the organization he creates, but by its accomplishments. The
clevelopment of neoprene and nylon paved the way to two
new industries and must be considered his greatest achieve-
ments as an industrial research director. Considerable space
has been devoted to these developments because they illus-
trate the role that Bolton played as director. The following
paragraphs summarize significant contributions made to the
Du Pont Company by the Chemical Department cluring his
tenure as director of that department.
Neoprene put Du Pont in the synthetic rubber business
and thus in position to commercialize another synthetic elas-
tomer that emerged from Chemical Department research
Hypalon'~' chIorosulfonated polyethylene—in 1935.
Nylon fiber grew beyond all expectations. It also spawned
a number of related products, including monofilaments and
molding resins. It can be consiclered the progenitor of the
OCR for page 65
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
65
many new products baser! on condensation polymer technol-
ogy that were developed by Du Pont anct other companies.
In 1937 Bolton returned from a visit to Imperial Chem-
ical Industries (act) in England, with whom Du Pont then had
an agreement for exchange of technical information, with a
few grams of the first sample of high molecular weight poly-
ethylene ever macle. Although the Ice polymerization method
required a pressure of 3000 atm, well beyond the reach of
commercial compressors then available, Bolton immediately
launched programs to investigate the properties and poten-
tial uses of this novel polymer, using samples supplied by Ice.
His foresight was rewarded almost two years later when
Chemical Department scientists discovered that ethylene
could be converted to high molecular weight polymer in an
emulsion system at a pressure of only 1000 atm, which could
be attained with commercial compressors. Less than three
years later, in 1943, this discovery was commercialized as
Platoons polyethylene.
In the course of the research on ethylene polymerization,
it was found that carrying out the polymerization in carbon
tetrachIoride at moderate pressure gave a mixture of
low molecular weight products that could be separated by
cTistillation and that were shown to have the structure CI(CH2
CH2)n CCi3. It was found that this reaction, which was named
"telomerization," occurred in addition to polymerizations of
many monomers and with a wicle variety of endgrouping
compounds, called "telogens," which covered a broad spec-
trum of capability for terminating the growing polymer
chain. Although the low molecular weight products of telo-
merization reactions clid not achieve commercial significance,
the reaction became widely used to control the molecular
weight range of many commercial addition polymers.
The adventitious discovery of the spontaneous polymeri-
zation of tetrafluoroethylene by Roy I. Plunkett of the Or-
OCR for page 66
66
B I OGRAPH I CAL MEMOI RS
ganic Chemicals Department in 1940 was taken up by the
Chemical Department. They found a way to make the
polymer under controlled conditions and how to fabricate
the polymer, which represented a new order of intractability
in plastics. Teflon ~ tetrafluoroethylene resin was com-
mercialized in 1944, in time to make a contribution in World
War II. A number of other products based on polymers and
copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene have followed.
Research in the Chemical Department in the 1940s led to
discovery of the urea herbicides; the first two were marketed
in 1953 and 1954. This discovery evolvecI into a family of
herbicides with uses ranging from nonselective weed control
in tank farms and railroad rights-of-way to selective control
of seedling weeds in cotton ant! cereal crops.
Also in the 1940s, the Chemical Department first made
polyvinyl fluoride and observed the outstanding durability of
its films to outdoor exposure far superior to polyethylene
or polyvinyl chloride. This observation eventually led to the
commercialization in 1961 of Ternary polyvinyl fluoride
film, which is used as a pigmented, weatI~er-resistant, lami-
nated overlay for architectural metal siding and paneling.
In 1948 the Chemical Department began research on the
concept of a photosensitive, etchable plastic printing medium
as a replacement for metal printing plates. Practical reaTiza-
tion of this iclea proved exceedingly difficult, and success was
not achieved until 1958 with the introduction of Dycril
photopolymer printing plate.
These developments are testimonial to an effective re-
search organization, but organizations tenet to reflect the
character of their leaders, and BoTton's influence was always
felt. He met with his staff managers every Tuesday and
Thursday morning. The purpose of the Tuesday meetings
was to allow two first-line supervisors to discuss the research
OCR for page 67
ELMER KEISER BOLTON
67
of their groups, and each brought one of his chemists to give
a brief talk on his own work. This was Bolton's way of main-
taining personal contact with the technical staff. A young
chemist approaching his first such appearance felt rather like
a pitcher who had been called up from the minor leagues to
start a World Series game, yet the appearance itself belied
that impression. Discussion after the chemist's talk involves]
only pertinent technical questions or su~stit>ns Rolton'.s
.
1 ~ By_
supportive approach to his research scientists flowed to all of
his managers. I recall thinking after my first such meeting
that those men seemed genuinely interested in what I was
doing, and were pulling for me.
Bolton was not an outgoing person, yet he was an easy and
Interesting conversationalist at the occasional social gather-
ings that involved members of the Chemical Department. He
had detailed knowledge of all of the research programs in the
department and, to a surprising extent, of many of the pro-
grams being carried out in research organizations of other
departments of the company. He had a deep personal inter-
est in research personnel as individuals. In his Perkin Medal
Address, he saicI:
Since the most valuable research asset is good men, it is the policy of
the Company to staff our laboratories with the best-qualified men available.
As stated recently by Dr. James B. Conant, "Ten second-rate men are no
substitute for one first-rate man." This has certainly been the experience
of Du Pont's research organization [p. 112].
His interest in his scientists clid not stop with their acqui-
sition; he knew them all by name and by accomplishment. He
was responsible for transferring a number of them to more
responsible positions in other departments.
He was adamant about giving credit to the scientists who
made the discoveries, and this was an important factor in the
success of his organizations. It is revealing that he was exempt
OCR for page 68
68
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
from the verbal caricatures that the troops in most organi-
zations make among themselves about their superiors; he
simply engendered respect.
Bolton received honorary D.Sc. degrees from his alma
mater, Bucknell University (1932), and from the University
of Delaware (19421. He was a member of the Board of
Trustees of Bucknell (1937-1967) anti was Trustee Emeritus
(1967-19681. He served on the visiting committees of MIT
(1938-1939) and Harvard (1940-19411.
He was a regional director of the American Chemical
Society ~ ~ 936- ~ 938) and cl irector-at-large ~ ~ 940- ~ 9431. He
served on the Advisory Board to Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry and Chemical and Engineering News ~~ 94~ 9491.
He was honored with: The Chemical Industry Medal
1941; The Perkin Medal, 1945; Election to the National
Academy of Sciences, 1946; and The Willard Gibbs Medal,
1954.
None of the twenty-one U.S. patents on which BoTton was
named inventor or coinventor led to a significant commercial
achievement; his technical contributions were those of a
manager and were macle through the organizations he cli-
rected. He had a strong belief in establishing good industry-
university relations and was instrumental in hiring top uni-
versity professors as consultants at a time when the practice
was not prevalent. His first such venture turned into a fortu-
itous and fortunate double: he engages! Roger Adams as a
consultant, but Adams balked at Bolton's proposal that he
visit Du Pont every month and suggested that Bolton also hire
his Illinois colleague C. S. (Speed) Marvel so that the two
conic visit on alternate months. Bolton did so, beginning one
of the longest and most fruitful consulting arrangements
in the history of industry-university relationships. Bolton
served for many years as chairman of the Du Pont Committee
on Aid to Education ant! was in considerable measure re-
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ELMER KEISER BOLTON
69
sponsible for a substantial increase in the amount and scope
of grants to universities in support of technical education and
research.
Bolton married Marguerite L. Duncan in 1916, and they
had three children, Marjorie Louise (Mrs. Robert A. Orr),
Elmer K., and Duncan A.
BoTton retired from Du Pont in 1951. He continued to
follow the scientific literature and, at his request, Du Font
abstracts of research reports. He flied 30 July 1968 at the age
of eighty-two.
He was a great leader, endowed with the trait that he
often urged on his associates: he hacl "eine gute Nase."
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70
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1912
With Charles L. Jackson. Octoiodoquinhydrone. Chem. Ber., 45:
871-73. Also in: I. Am. Chem. Soc., 36:301-8.
1914
With Charles L. Jackson. Action of sodium hydroxide on iodoanil.
I Am. Chem. Soc., 36:551-68.
With Charles L. Jackson. Certain derivatives of iodanil. }. Am.
Chem. Soc., 36:1473-84.
With Latham Clarke. Action of nitric acid on iodanil. i. Am. Chem.
Soc., 36: 1899-1908.
1915
With Richard Willstatter. Anthocyanins. IV. Dyestuff of the scarlet
pelargonia. Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem., 408:42-61.
1916
With Richard Willstatter. Anthocyanins. XI. The anthocyanin of
red-flowering varieties of salvia. Faustus Liebigs Ann. Chem.,
412: 113-36. Also in: l. Chem. Soc. (London), 112 I :42-43.
With Richard Willstatter. Anthocyanins. XII. Anthocyanin of the
winter aster (chrysanthemum). Tustus Liebigs Ann. Chem.,
412:13~48. Also in: l. Chem. Soc. (London), 112 1:43-44.
1942
Development of nylon. Ind. Eng. Chem., 34:53-58.
1945
Du Pont research (Perkin Medal address). Ind. Eng. Chem.,
37~21: 10~15.
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ELMER KEISER BOLTON
U.S. PATENTS
1919
U.S. 1,320,443. Process of diazotization.
1929
U.S. 1,716,104. Concentration of ores by flotation.
1930
71
U.S. 1,777,600. With F. B. Downing. Process of preparing
butadiene.
U.S. 1,780,000. Concentration of ores by flotation.
1934
U.S. 1,961,840. Insecticide.
1935
U.S.2,014,198. With O. M. Hayden. Chemical product and process
of preparing same (rubber composition).
1936
U.S. 2,048,774. Synthetic resins (alkyds).
U.S. 2,048,775. Purification of cotton [inters.
1937
U.S. 2,069,573. Phenolic compounds.
U.S. 2,071,966. Pickling inhibitor and process.
U.S. 2,087,237. Sizing fabric.
1938
U.S. 2,107,852. Sizing fabric.
1940
U.S. 2,225,294. With I. K. Hunt. Cleaning process.
1941
U.S. 2,230,371. Stabilization of organic substances.
U.S. 2,265,127. Pigment composition.
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72
U.S. 2,279,774. Coated product.
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1942
1943
U.S. 2,325,586. With D. D. Coffman and L. Gilman. Polymeric
guanidines and process for preparing the same.
1945
U.S. 2,384,070. Milling resins with thiols.
1946
U.S. 2,402,596. Pickling solutions for metals.
1950
U.S. 2,495,918. Poly-N-vinyl lactam photographic silver halide
emulsions.
U.S. 2,512,606. With William Kirk, Jr. Polyamides and method for
. .
O staining same.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
elmer keiser
