Henry Bradford Nason

Henry Bradford Nason ( born June 22, 1835 in Foxborough, Massachusetts / USA, † January 17, 1895 in Troy, New York / USA ) was an American chemist and geologist.

Life and work

Henry Bradford Nason, who was still a schoolboy interest in geology, the college attended in Amherst ( Massachusetts) and was graduated here in 1855. Then he went to Göttingen and studied chemistry and natural sciences. He graduated with a PhD. from. When he left the Georgia Augusta, the fraternity Hannovera appointed him an honorary member. Nason worked for some time at the chemist Robert Bunsen in Heidelberg and at the hut watchers Carl Friedrich Plattner in Freiberg (Saxony), before he returned to the United States in 1858.

First, he got a job as a lecturer in natural history at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (New York). Soon after, he became professor of chemistry and natural science at Beloit College in Beloit (Wisconsin ). At times he looked at both universities, before only in the chemistry and mineralogy Troy taught from 1868. His academic work gave him time for wide study trips. So he ran not only geological studies in the southern United States and in California but visited several more times Europe. In 1861 he was first in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Scotland, after which he enrolled again in November in Göttingen to deepen at the geologist Wolfgang Sartorius, Baron von Walter Hausen his knowledge of mineralogy. Then he visited glacier in Switzerland and volcanic areas in Italy. Looking for rare plants for a botanical work, he stayed in the summer of 1877 in Finland and Russia. In 1884 he traveled to Norway to study glaciers and fjords.

In 1878, he U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a special order for a trip to Europe: Nason should explore at the World Exhibition in Paris, whether there chemical-technical innovations were shown that could be of importance for the further development of the United States.

The focus of his research activities put Nason over time more to the field of petrochemicals and published findings in this regard. Almost 15 years he was a consultant to the Standard Oil Company. He was a member of several scientific societies and associations to promote the industry, as in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society of Chemical Industry, the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the American Chemical Society ( which he was president in 1889/90 ) and in the Academy of Sciences in New York. He also was one of the founders of the Geological Society of America. In addition, Nason was a member of the German Chemical Society and the Chemical Society in London.

Henry Bratford Nason wrote several textbooks and has participated in other co-wrote with. A work of his academic teacher Friedrich Wöhler in Göttingen he translated into English.

In American Biographies Nasons teaching skills are emphasized through which he was able to convey to his students the necessary knowledge easily.

Honor

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy was a dormitory for new students on campus his name.

Works

• Table of Reactions for Qualitative Analysis, Troy 1865
• Wohler ( SN ) / Nason, Handbook of Mineral Analysis, Philadelphia 1868 (Translation )
• Table for Qualitative Analysis in Colors, Troy 1870
• Elder Horst, Manual of Blowpipe Analysis, and Determinative Mineralogy, with Charles F. Chandler, Philadelphia, 1873; 1875; 1876 ​​; 1880
• Proceedings of the Semi- Centennial Celebration of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy 1875
• Biographical Record of Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy 1887