Silliman, B Jnr
NAME: Silliman, Benjamin (Jnr)
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Identified major uses of petroleum and the broad principles for the refinement of petroleum
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: December 4, 1816, New Haven, CT
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: January 14, 1885, New Haven, CT. Aged 71
DISCIPLINE: Chemistry
FIELD: Education
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Benjamin Silliman, Senior; Harriet Trumbull
SIBLINGS:
SPOUSE: Susan Huldah Forbes
CHILDREN: Seven
EDUCATION: Yale College
MAJOR WORK: Identification of kerosene and paraffin
LIFE AND TIMES:
After graduating in 1837 he became an assistant in his father's (<father was> Benjamin Silliman, Snr*) laboratory and in several other departments. He also worked briefly for Boston chemist <worked for> CT Jackson*, and did editorial work for "The American Journal of Science and Arts."
In 1846, at the suggestion of Silliman's father, Yale established two professorships, one for agricultural chemistry and another for applied chemistry, which went to Silliman. His textbook, "First Principles of Chemistry", published in 1847, not only revealed Silliman's wide knowledge of the subject, but also his great facility for combining, analyzing and clearly explaining complicated material.
The book sold 25,000 copies in the first 25 years, an amazing number for a textbook. For financial reasons, he accepted the professorship of medical chemistry and toxicology in the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1849.
When his father retired in 1854, Silliman returned to Yale to take over his job as professor of general and applied chemistry. Generally, his interests lay in mineralogy, petroleum, coal, precious metals and combustion gases for illumination (he was a director of the New Haven Gas Works for many years.) Much of his research was at the request of businesses interested in making a profit out of natural resources
In 1855, Silliman wrote his most influential work, "Report on the Rock Oil, or Petroleum, from Venango County, Penn. 1855," based on his analysis of a sample of surface oil from the nearby Titusville area, where <influenced by> Edwin Drake* would later make the first successful attempt to drill for oil.
In this pamphlet, published by the journal, "American Chemist" Silliman showed that petroleum is basically a mixture of hydrocarbons, and therefore entirely different from vegetable and animal oils. He also demonstrated that by fractional distillation and a simple means of purification, these hydrocarbons could be separated into a series of distillates comprising 90 per cent of the whole. Fifty percent of this (which he identified as kerosene) could be used as a cheap, safe high-quality lighting-fuel.
From the high-boiling-point, oily fraction he extracted paraffin, which he purified to make candles far superior to those made of tallow. He also produced valuable lubricants, which had the advantage of not turning rancid, freezing or growing microorganisms. By heating the crude petroleum and passing it through coke, he discovered that it decomposed to form another gas of highly illuminating power.
Through these discoveries he identified the chief uses to which petroleum would be put over the next 50 years and broadly set out the principles by which it would be refined and purified. It was not until the invention of the internal combustion engine that uses would be found for the low-boiling-point gases, in the form of gasoline.
After the first oil had been successfully drilled in the United States, speculation about what resources lay beneath the Earth's surface excited scientists and entrepreneurs. Silliman caught the mood of the time, and, in 1864, made a trip to California.
After he gave a lecture on the rich resources of California, with special mention of oil in the southern part of the state, Silliman was attacked by Josiah D. Whitney, head of the California Geological Society, and William H. Brewer, a former student and professor of agriculture in the Scientific School. Both scientists had previously stated there was no oil in southern California. It was then revealed that the sample Silliman had used to obtain his positive results had been salted to produce more favorable results. Silliman's judgment no longer had credibility.
In 1870, he was forced to resign from Yale College, although not from the medical school. Silliman's reputation as an author and editor, however, remained unblemished. In 1871, he brought out "A Century of Medicine and Chemistry", and in 1874, "American Contributions to Chemistry", a biographical dictionary.
In the late 1870s, advances in machinery and drilling techniques resulted in abundant oil production in southern California. But these vindications of his work came too late to salvage his career as a scientist.
ASSESSMENT: Although some of his disputed reports were later vindicated, his surveys are considered never to have been extensive enough to support his optimistic conclusions.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: A friend of phrenologist <a pal of> Combe*
His work related to that of micro-paleontologist <work related to> D’Orbigny*
He taught OC <taught> Marsh*
His brother-in-law was <brother-in-law was > Dana*
ONELINER: Benjamin Silliman, Jnr, pioneer petroleum chemist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dictionary of Scientific Biography.