Jeffrey L. Sturchio

The Sciences in America, Circa 1880.

For many years American science in the late 19th century was regarded as an intellectual backwater. This view derived from the assumption that the health of American science at the time was equivalent to the condition of pure science, especially pure physics. However, a closer look reveals that there was considerable vitality in American scientific research, especially in the earth and life sciences. This vitality is explainable in part by the natural scientific resources of the American continent but also in part by the energy given science from religious impulses, social reformism, and practicality. Furthermore, contrary to recent assumptions, the federal government was a significant patron of American science. The portrait of American science circa 1880 advanced in this article suggests that the nations scientific enterprise was characterized by pluralism of institutional support and motive and that such pluralism has historically been the normal mode.

Chemistry in America, 1876-1976: Historical Indicators

1. Orientations.- 1.1. American Chemistry in Cultural Context.- 1.2. Indicators of Trends in American Chemistry.- 1.3. Indicators and History.- 1.4. The Structure of This Study.- 2. Chemistry as Occupation and Profession.- 2.1. Chemistry as Occupation.- 2.1.1. The Differentiation of Occupations.- 2.1.2. The Problems of Measurement.- 2.1.3. Indicators of the Occupation.- 2.2. Chemistry as Profession.- 2.2.1. The American Chemical Society.- 2.2.2. The Professionalization of Chemistry.- 2.2.3. Chemistry among the Professions.- 3. Chemical Education as Context.- 3.1. Higher Education.- 3.1.1. Exponential Growth and Relative Decline.- 3.1.2. Decoupling: Vocation and Culture.- 3.2. Secondary Education.- 3.3. Mass Culture.- 4. Chemical Industry as Context.- 4.1. Diversities and Definitions.- 4.2. Chemicals and Allied Products.- 4.3. Oligopoly and Patents.- 4.4. Industry, Progress, and Boosterism.- 5. A Second Look at Employment.- 5.1. Industry.- 5.1.1. Chemists in Industry.- 5.1.2. Research Laboratories and Research Workers.- 5.2. Government.- 5.2.1. The Federal Government.- 5.2.2. Contexts of Federal Employment.- 5.2.3. State and Local Government.- 5.3. Academe.- 5.4. Other Contexts.- 6. Chemistry as Discipline.- 6.1. The Chemical Discipline and the Research University.- 6.2. Papers, Prizes, and International Prestige.- 6.2.1. Citations of American Research.- 6.2.2. Nobel Prizes.- 6.3. The Entrenchment of Chemistry.- 6.4. The Differentiation of Chemistry.- 6.4.1. Chemical Journals.- 6.4.2. Specialization and ACS Strategy.- 6.4.3. Specialty Structure.- 6.5. ACS Presidents: Some Micro-Indicators.- 6.5.1. Age Structure.- 6.5.2. Educational Background.- 6.5.3. Institutional Loci and Employment.- 6.5.4. Social Ties.- 6.6. Concluding Remarks.- Appendixes.- A. Chemistry and Chemists: Alternative Definitions.- B. Chemical Industry: Alternative Definitions.- C. Procedures Used in Analysis of Citations.- D. A Note on the Treatment of Errors.- E. Trend Analyses: Technical Details.- Tables.- An Introductory Note.- I. Data Sources.- A. Federal Government.- B. Other.- II. Bibliography, Historiography, and Methodology.- III. Other Books and Articles.

Chemistry as Discipline

The members of the chemical discipline are not only trained and skilled in the theoretic parts of chemistry, but also committed to the articulation and advancement of those theoretic parts considered as an autonomous intellectual system. Depending on whether stress is placed on “articulation” or “advancement”, the boundaries of membership will be more or less tightly drawn. Either way, those boundaries coincide roughly with the boundaries of academe. The academic community of chemists possesses no monopoly on the articulation and advancement of the concepts of chemistry. It does, however, represent the central core — and probably the overwhelming mass — of those engaged in the activities of the chemical discipline.

Chemical Industry as Context

The chemical industry in the United States has served as a major source of economic and social support for the chemical community. It has provided occupational niches for the majority of American chemists, contributed funds and apparatus for research, sponsored educational activity and, on an ideological level, offered to the general public tangible proof of the contribution of chemistry to national economic welfare. It is therefore of the greatest significance for the institution of chemistry that the enduring trend in chemical industry over the past hundred years has been one of dramatic growth. Capital invested in the chemical industry increased a hundredfold between the 1870s and the 1950s, and the labor force employed in the production of the panoply of chemical products increased from about 7400 persons in 1870 to over 850000 in the early 1970s.1

A Second Look at Employment

The aggregate trends in chemistry as occupation and as profession were considered in Chapter 2. The present discussion will focus upon disaggregated trends for those three sectors of the American economy that have employed significant numbers of chemists: industry, government, and academe. Some mention will also be made of the employment of chemists in other sectors. In every case, the necessary statistics are available only for widely scattered dates or for short runs of time. The varying definitions employed make the compilation of chronological series a more than usually hazardous enterprise. Nonetheless, certain indicators can be assembled.

Chemistry as Occupation and Profession

In 1870 about 800 people were employed as chemists in the United States. By 1970 the number had increased more than a hundredfold, to around 110000. Growth at a rate equivalent to about 5% per year has been the enduring trend.

Chemical Education as Context

A demographic approach will be used in the first section of this chapter.1 Credentialled chemists will be treated as a subgroup of the population of persons with academic degrees. Attention will be paid to the “birth” statistics of degrees conferred and to the “stock” statistics of living degree holders. These data will be broken down to elucidate the many functions of chemical education.2