University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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Br. f ogepl) . Cfjamberlain WHEN it became evident to tiie administration that the department of chemistry needed further development, a search was made to find a man who had received a broad training in the science and who, at the same time, was able to use his chemical knowledge in ways most helpful to agriculture. After considerable inquiry, Joseph S. Chamberlain, who was at the time studying in Berlin, Germany, was chosen and he began his work at M. A. C. in the autumn of 1909. Who is this man Chamberlain, where did he grow uj) and receive both his early and advanced training? What has he accomplished and why is the class of 192.5 dedicating this volume to him? These are some of the questions that naturally will be asked and to which answers are sought. It can be said with truth that his was a goodly heritage. His grandfather, a farmer in Sharon, Connecticut, went to Ohio when William I. Chamberlain, the father of Professor Chamberlain, was four years of age. The father of Joseph was a graduate of Western Reserve College and while spending riiost of his life in practical farming, occupied several public positions of importance. Thus, from 1881 to 1887 he was Secretary of Agriculture for Ohio and from 1887 until 1890, president of the Iowa Agricultural College. Later he became editor of the Ohio Farmer as well as the National Stockman and at the time of his death was still serving in the staff of the former publication. Into such an environment Joseph S. Chamberlain was born in 1870 at Hudson, Ohio. He had the usual experiences of most farmers ' boys growing up on a middle western farm. He attended the public schools in Hudson and was graduated from the high school at Columbus where the family resided while the father was Secretary of Agriculture. Professor Chamberlain entered the Iowa Agricultural College and was graduated in 1890 with the degree of B.Sc, taking the regular course cjuite similar to the one given at M. A. C. at that time. He occupied a position of graduate assistant at his alma mater for two years after the completion of his undergraduate course and received the degree of M.Sc. in 1892. He then decided to go back onto the farm and become a real dirt farmer and he followed this decision with two years of farm practice. The longing, however, for a continuation of educational work got the better of him and in 1894 we see him back at his alma mater as assistant in chemistry, a position which he held until 1897. The long vacations at Iowa were then in winter and he took advantage of them by studying chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. He finally severed his connections with Iowa and continued to pursue his studies intensively at Hopkins, receiving a scholarship in 1897-98 and a fellowship in the following year, working particularly witii Professors Ira Remsen and H. N. Morse.

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Br. iosiepf) cubber Cftamfjerlain toljom toe rcsipcct anb esteem a a profegsior of atiilitp, a fjarti taorber for tfje college, anb a true frienb; tfje class of 1925 bebicates tfjis bolume

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In 1889 he received the degree of Ph.D. for an original investigation in organic chemistry entitled A Fnrther Study of Two of the Products of the Transformation of Parasulfamine Benzoic Acid When Heated to iiO° C . From September, 1899 till January, 1901 he was instructor in chemistry at Oberlin and for the balance of the academic year 1901, he acted as research assistant to Professor Renisen at Johns Hopkins. During tlje two summer vacations while connected with Oberlin, he worked in the laboratory of the noted agricultural chemist, W. O. Atwater at Middletown, Connecticut. In the summer of 1901 we find him permanently employed at the Bureau of Chemistry in Washington and he served continually until November, 1908 when he received leave of absence to study in Germany. He went to Berlin and entered the laboratory of the noted physiological chemist, Emil Abderhalden. While abroad he received the call from Amherst to take the newly created position of associate professor of organic and agricultural chemistry and began his duties in September, 1909. Later he was made full professor and at the present time has general supervision of the academic department of chemistry. He made a number of contributions to chemistry in its relation to agriculture prior to his coming to this college among which may be mentioned: Determina- tions of Gliadin and Glutenin in Flour by the Fleurent Magnet Method , Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin 81; Investigations on the Properties of Wheat Proteins , Jour. Am. Chem. Soc, 1906; A Study of the Variations in the Course of the Nitrogen, Sulfate and Phosphate Excretion, as Observed in Short Periods Follow- ing a Small Increase in the Protein Ingested , Journal of American Physiology, 1904 (with P. B. Hawk); The Commercial Status of Durum Wheat , Carleton and Chamberlain, Bulletin 70, Bureau of Plant Industry; Feeding Value of Cereals as Calculated from Chemical Analysis , United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin IW, the latter being made when he was chief of the Cattle Food and Grain Laboratory. In spite of the many demands upon him since coming to M. A. C, he has found time to prepare two text books in chemistry entitled Organic Agricultural Chemistry , published by the Macmillan Company, and a more comprehensive work under the title of Organic Chemistry , put out by P. Blakiston ' s Son Company. As an illustration of his interest in science and of his reputation in his cho.sen field of chemistry, it may be mentioned that he is one of the councillors of the American Chemical Societ.y and for two years was chairman of the Connecticut Valle.y Section. He is also a fellow in the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science and for several years was a member of the Washington Academy of Science. Professor Chamberlain has devoted him.self, heart and soul, to the welfare of Old Aggie. He has served on several faculty committees and for a long period 9