North Andover High School - Knight Yearbook (North Andover, MA)

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1937 YEAR BOOK The full value and extent of his work can never be truly estimated. Due to him all classes have been given the opportunity to acquire an education- Be¬ cause of his work the whole school system has become enlarged. Under this is included the establishment of health and hygiene in schools, an enlarged curriculum and a closer relationship between teacher and pupil. Another major result of his career was the establishment of the normal schools. The result of these schools is now felt tremendously throughout the educational world. Due to them teaching has been elevated to a higher level and the finer points in the school curriculum have been advanced. Mann’s service to the country is on a level with that of Washington and Lincoln. Washington, with the Declaration of Independence brought polit¬ ical freedom; Lincoln and the Civil War brought physical freedom; and Mann, in his fight for education brought intellectual freedom without which the other two types cannot long be retained- His was a life dedicated to a cause; his a life consecrated to a purpose. In our graduation we see the fulfillment of his American dream. We can under¬ stand this whole hearted devotion to an ideal so ably expressed in his last words given to his class at Antioch:— “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” CAROLINE BARKER VALEDICTORY Trends of Chemistry HE first sciences arose to fill utilitarian needs. Every science started with a few practical and useful discoveries. The earliest forms of chemistry were actually only aids to primitive medicine. Many animals seem to know what to eat in order to relieve certain illnesses- Prob¬ ably primitive man also possessed this same sort of knowledge. The first real chemistry was the preparation of herbs for medicinal pur¬ poses. Practitioners of this art were called alchemists. The field of the al¬ chemists gradually widened in scope to include such searches as that for the elixir of life, the universal cure of human ills and the secret of changing the baser metals to gold. Until this time it was believed that all matter was conn posed of four elemental substances: earth, air, fire, and water. Each of these elements had its characteristic attributes derived from four fundamental qual¬ ities : hotness, coldness, wetness, and dryness. Alchemists believed that by altering the proportions of these qualities they could form new elements. It is a well know fact that these alchemists failed due to faulty choice of ele¬ mental substances. However, unscientific as alchemy was, it was the fore¬ runner of modern chemistry- Toward the end of this period of alchemistry pure science crept in. This is the search after truth rather than merely the search to fulfill utilitarian needs. The awakening of the new science of chemistry occurred at about the same time as the awakening of astronomy and physics under Galileo. A character¬ istic part of this change is the publication by Boyle of what is known as Boyle’s Law relating to the expansion of gases. Up to this time alchemists had believed in a substance which they called phlogiston. This was what they thought escaped when something burned, 23

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JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL Horace Mann’s life although not particularly exciting was one of accomp¬ lishments and significance. Born in Franklin, Massachusetts, he was brought up in poverty but after obtaining a hard earned education, he graduated from Brown University when twenty-four years of age. Upon leaving school he practiced law, but later entered political life as a member of the state legisla¬ ture. With the establishment of the first state board of education in America Mann gave up a promising law career to become the secretary of this board just one hundred years ago. This decision was a turning point not only in Mann’s life but in the history of American education, for it was during his twelve years in this office that he accomplished his great works which so benefited America. To fully appreciate Mann’s achievements in this position one must realize the condition of the schools at that time. The Revolutionary War had for eight years pushed aside all thoughts of education which then, even in New England, had been developed only to a very limited degree. Even after the war real liberty and equality were not practiced. The old idea of class distinction still survived and only a few realized that education for all was necessary if a democratic government was to remain. Each state had its early leaders who helped to bring about the great educa¬ tional revival of the mid-nineteenth century—at the head of which was Hor¬ ace Mann. The problem which he faced in Massachusetts was fairly typical of that in the other states. Free public high schools had not yet won the con¬ sent of the people. There existed only the small, scattered district schools, and to unite these into one state system with proper state and local control was Horace Mann’s task. He described the drawbacks in the district system, saying, “These schools at the present time are so many independent commun¬ ities each being governed by its own habits, traditions and local customs. There is no bond of brotherhood or family between them. They are strangers and aliens to each other.” With the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of Education and the election of Horace Mann as secretary a new epoch began. This pioneer did more than promote and improve the common schools; he lifted the ideals of democracy itself. Through him the whole school system was transformed. Mann has said, “In a republic, ignorance is a crime,” and so clearly did he set forth a plan for the school system that for a century educational progress has moved steadily in the direction which he indicated. At the end of twelve years he resigned as secretary of the board. During this period he had placed education in Massachusetts upon a firm foundation. During his service he brought the cause of education favorably before the public; installed a system of state supervision for schools ; attempted to elim¬ inate sectarianism ; introduced the use of school libraries and established the first normal school. After Horace Mann’s resignation he accepted the presidency of the newly established Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio- Antioch at that time was more or less an experiment and he put his courage and energy into bring¬ ing about order and system from the chaos that existed there. To him a col¬ lege was not only a home of scholarship but also a place for physical and spiritual training. This idea has persisted throughout the life of the college up to the present day and signifies Mann’s achievements there. Six years after his entrance into Antioch, Mann died worn out by the years of overwork and strain. He had come to the end of a career which was to stand out forever in the hearts of all friends of education and of democracy. 22

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JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL making burning possible. When oxygen was discovered by Priestly this erroneous idea of the alchemists was destroyed. Priestley was followed by other scientists who established the chemical principles of today. One of these was Dalton whose idea of the chemical atom led directly to our present conception of it. Then followed Avogardro who corrected much of Dalton’s work and introduced several new principles of his own. Then came Wohler with his creation of an organic substance from in¬ organic substances, a task heretofore believed impossible. In the latter half of the nineteenth century came the all important periodic table of the chemical elements arranged by Mendeleeff which has led to the discovery of many new elements and to the knowledge that only a finite number of these elements, about ninety in fact, can exist on earth. As the accumulated knowledge of the chemists increased they were able to determine structural arrangements of atoms and also space arrangements. After the structures of the atoms were discovered the problem of synthesizing new molecules was greatly simplified. Knowledge of structural chemistry has opened new fields to the biochemists and has produced new reasons for hoping that sometime the processes of life will be understood with completeness. If the day ever comes when proto¬ plasm, the life substance in living form, can be produced from nonliving sub¬ stances in the chemical laboratory, the organic chemist will have been re¬ sponsible for the accumulation of knowledge making this discovery possible. The age of theory had reached its peak when Andrew Carnegie applied chemical processes to his steel industry. At first many of his competitors laughed but shortly they were forced to adopt similar measures or lose their business- There is a vast difference between the earlier days and the pres¬ ent, when every large industry has its own well stocked laboratory and ex¬ perienced research staff. Steel, gasoline, dyes, illuminating gas, bakelite and most of the other products used in this industrial age are produced under the skillful guidance of the chemist. The desirability of controlling industrial operations in a scientific manner has finally been recognized to so great an extent that even the government is spending vast sums of money on experi¬ mental research. For instance, our own department of agriculture is contin¬ ually assisting the people of this country by the publication of its researches relating to soil chemistry, fertilizers and the utilization of farm wastes. Often entire industries have been founded as a result of chemical discover¬ ies. Examples of this are the Aluminum Company of ' America and industries producing nitrates, helium, and rayon. Gradually this period of utilitarianism is giving way to another period of theorism or pure science- All sciences are being drawn together. The phys¬ icists recently presented a new theory of the atom and the chemist is now able to go forward with a new study of the processes of chemical combination. The physical chemist is comparatively new but is not out of place among biochemists and biophysicists. ' The application of physical methods to the problems of chemistry, has proceeded so far that it has become somewhat difficult to classify a man as either a chemist or a physicist. Thus we see that throughout the history of the science of chemistry there has been a gradual swinging between theorism and practicalism. The alchemists with their practical searches gave way to the search for fundamentals of the time of Dalton and Wohler. This in time gave way to the utilitarianism character¬ ized by Andrew Carnegie. Now there is a very definite turn back to the discovery of fundamental prfii- 24