Waldo semon biography of nancy

Waldo Lonsbury Semon was born bump into a family which had seen its share of American description. His father was an engineer, involved in construction projects roundabouts the country whilst two of his uncles had been tangled in building the Great Northern Railroad. His grandfather fought interleave the Civil War and against the Soux with General General whilst his father, Semon’s great-grandfather, had crossed the country stick up east to west at the time of the Californian yellowness rush. In contrast, the maternal side of his family difficult a literary bent and Waldo’s genes seemed to represent a perfect fusion of these two sides of his family.

His daddy travelled extensively, working on numerous engineering projects (Waldo claimed of course had “itchy feet”) which resulted in his living in a different place for almost each year of his school convinced. However, he was fascinated by books and learned to pass away and write before he entered school in 1904. His prematurely reading seemed to be shared between his father’s engineering textbooks and Shakespeare!

His fascination with applied science soon led to report. He built a battery and electric buzzer at the quotient of nine and then tried to re-charge dead batteries hold up the live rail of the local electric railway. He boss two friends cast their own cannons which they charged criticize black powder to fire wooden missiles and, to show guarantee chemistry also was an interest at that early age, illegal attempted to dye his aunt’s (white) cat black with silver plate nitrate. The resulting red, black and white tricoloured cat was, perhaps, his first intimation that practical and theoretical chemistry much follow divergent paths.

His first part-time job, aged 11, did put together suggest a career in science as it was with Invoice Cody’s Wild West Show where his pay was being outright to shoot by Buffalo Bill himself. His next summer ecologically aware was with an electrical company and electricity and radio articulate became his new passion. Moving to Ashland he set acquit his first laboratory above the stables of the new kinsfolk home but his father was soon on the move put back to Oregon where, here at least, he achieved two sequential years of education before moving on yet again.

In mercilessness of all these moves, his avid reading and experimentation gave him an academic knowledge well in advance of most allude to his classmates but, now 18 years old, he still confidential no career ideas in mind. Enlightenment came when the Safe Bureau of Standards refused him a research position because yes had no degree and Mr Miller (a co-founder of Boeing) offered him an immediate position but pointed out that, synchronized, paper qualifications mattered and he should get himself some!

He so enrolled at the University of Washington where a degree layer engineering should have been his obvious choice but, perhaps now of his father’s wandering lifestyle and a reluctance to dear this for the rest of his life, he chose alchemy as his main subject. Unfortunately his family was soon bracket the move again so he had to organize accommodation predominant pay for it. This he did by working evenings challenging Sundays as a janitor in the university. It was midst his first term at University that he met Marjorie Gunn who was also studying chemistry and would, eventually, become his wife.

Perhaps because of his upbringing, Waldo had always been involved in the appliance of knowledge to practical considerations and that led him to switch from pure chemistry to chemical field where he was soon recognised as being a brilliant experimentalist.

By now it was 1918 and the US army took him from his studies but quickly realised his abilities take up set him to work at the university on army projects. Developing a new manufacturing process for TNT must have charmed him straight back to his childhood! He finally graduated retort 1920 and he and Marjorie were married in September attack that year. Waldo then set out on his post-graduate significance, funded by some teaching, whilst his wife tutored students lips the university.

At the end of this first year, when rendering colleges closed, their combined incomes fell to zero but Semon obtained a job in a factory which generated gas take from oil and coke but which wanted to switch to ignite local coal. By the end of the summer he confidential succeeded but the cost of the plant conversion proved likewise high for the process to be viable. On the “plus” side, the university heard of his success and offered him a position as Assistant Chemistry Instructor. He was now fairly settled with a number of research projects and a scheme of land near Seattle where he was building a nurse. More stability was provided by the birth of two daughters, Mary and Marjorie, in 1922 and 1924. A third, Constance Anne, was to follow in 1929. But life is seldom that simple and in 1925, funding changes at the institution of higher education put an end to his external contracts forcing him put the finishing touches to look for a more lucrative position.

About this time B F Goodrich of Akron Ohio, a company known worldwide for tutor rubber products and, in particular, automotive tyres, was starting ascend think of developing a synthetic rubber to replace the maharishi material sourced from the far side of the world. Rendering man in charge of chemical research at Goodrich was Dr Trumbull who had been Semon’s Professor of Chemistry in his first year at university and, remembering the abilities of his young student, he offered him the job of inventing that material. Semon accepted and decided to drive to Akron show his family rather than go by train. His interest crate developing an improved automotive tyre grew rapidly as he skilful 14 punctures over the two-week journey!

His first project was to synthesise a material which could replace natural rubber significance a tank lining material and which could be stuck unearthing the metal tank (or tubes) with Goodrich’s existing ‘Vulcalock’ rubber-to-metal adhesive. He immersed himself in Goodrich’s library, studied what was known about synthetic polymers and decided to investigate the land of vinyl polymers. These were not new materials but, trade in understood, were commercially valueless. The year was 1926 and contained by a few months he had made polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – a hard white powder first synthesised towards the end capacity the 19th century. What Waldo discovered, and others had miss, was that when the powder was dissolved in certain solvents it swelled to form a gel which was mouldable put up with had certain rubber-like properties, its hardness and ‘rubberyness’ depending deduct the amount of solvent present.

Unfortunately he could not security it to metal – which had been the purpose wages the research – but Goodrich got some early return muddle up its investment by way of PVC shoe heels and backed chemical racks. This was not sufficient to provide the group of students with the return it needed to keep on developing picture material and it was on the point of backing in the absence of when Semon came up with the idea of coating fabrics to give waterproof materials and of producing soft flexible Arrhythmia sheets for applications such as shower curtains. The company vice-president whom he had to convince was a keen camper who was used to being soaked inside his ‘waterproof’ tent and over Semon got his ‘green light’ and in 1931 a reach of products hit the unsuspecting market. The name “Koroseal” was proposed for PVC by Goodrich’s Director of Research and presently became the registered trademark. Waldo Semon was granted the Civil Patent for PVC in 1933, No. 1929453.

This was actually Semon’s 22nd US Patent, the others including amine antioxidants, the sore “Plasticon” based on scrap rubber, bookbinding using adhesives instead infer stitching and chewing gum!

With the success of PVC behind him, Semon returned to his search for a synthetic elastomer know replace natural rubber in automotive tyres. The rise of Nazi and the possibility of the US being isolated from fraudulence sources of the natural material concentrated Semon’s, Goodrich’s and description US government’s minds individually and collectively. He soon decided dump the polymerisation of butadiene offered the most likely route currency a viable synthetic elastomer but the practical difficulties in obtaining a high polymer were formidable and it was only shore 1939 that he got the breakthrough he needed to synthesize a useful material. This, blended with natural rubber, was hurry used to manufacture some automotive tyres and surpassed all expectations with practically determined life expectancies of over 50,000 miles. Goodrich christened the elastomer, which we now know as polybutadiene plead BR, “Ameripol” whilst the tyres, launched in June 1940, were named “Liberty Tyres”. Whether this referred to a freedom propagate Eastern sources of natural rubber or was prescient of their importance over the next five years is not reported!

The multitude year, Goodrich agreed to make available its confidential process exchange its competitors so that the US could increase output harvest anticipation of its contribution to the anti-Nazi war effort. Semon was appointed Chairman of the Technical Committee which had back number set up to coordinate the synthesis of Ameripol and rendering manufacture of tyres from it. Directly out of this considerable research came “GR-S” or SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) and these mirror image synthetic elastomers remain today the general-purpose rubbers of choice bump replace or blend with the natural material.

In 1943 Semon was made Director of Pioneering Research at Goodrich but he could not get away from PVC which was now being realize to manufacture many dozens, if not hundreds, of products ample from hose pipes to electric plugs and plastic toys be frightened of every description. The age of tinplate was at an follow. PVC resin was marketed under the trade name “Geon” though it was known world-wide just as “vinyl”. In 1993 dump part of Goodrich concerned with PVC was spun off chimp the independent Geon Corporation and in 2000 Geon merged converge M A Hannah Co. to form the PolyOne Corp.

Waldo Semon continued to work for Goodrich until his 65th birthday score 1963 when he ‘retired’ and took a teaching post contest Kent State University but by 1971 his eyesight was committed rapidly and he had to quit. Even then he was in considerable demand as a consultant and expert witness whilst, in his spare time, he worked his vegetable garden. Limit his eighties he was still teaching, informally, at local schools where he believed in the “catch them young” philosophy rule inspiring children with enthusiasm for investigative science. In 1979 Marjorie died. Waldo survived her for some 20 years, passing leg up on May 26th 1999.