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CHEMICAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION MARVIN MARGOSHES Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Michael A. Grayson at The Chemical Heritage Foundation Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 6 April 2011 (With Subsequent Corrections and Additions) This oral history is designated Free Access. Please note: Users citing this interview for purposes of publication are obliged under the terms of the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) Center for Oral History to credit CHF using the format below: Marvin Margoshes, interview by Michael A. Grayson at The Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 April 2011 (Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History Transcript # 0697). Chemical Heritage Foundation Center for Oral History 315 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) serves the community of the chemical and molecular sciences, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future. CHF maintains a world-class collection of materials that document the history and heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries; encourages research in CHF collections; and carries out a program of outreach and interpretation in order to advance an understanding of the role of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries in shaping society. MARVIN MARGOSHES 1925 Born in New York, New York, on 23 May Education 1950 B. S., Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Chemistry, cum laude 1953 Ph.D., Iowa State College, Physical Chemistry Professional Experience Harvard Medical School 1954-1957 Research Fellow and Research Associate, Biophysics Research Laboratory, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital National Bureau of Standards 1957-1969 Spectrochemical Analysis Section, Analytical Chemistry Division Digilab, Inc. (Block Engineering, Inc.) 1969-1970 Project Manager Technicon Instrument Corporation 1971-1989 Director, Chemical Instrumentation, Corporate Research; Manager, Program of Grants for Research on Scientific and Industrial Instrumentation Techtransfer Service, Inc. 1990-1993 President Honors 1953 First Annual Phi Lambda Upsilon Award for Graduate Research, Iowa State College 1964 Department of Commerce Merit Award 1969 Department of Commerce Merit Award 1971 Outstanding Member Award, Baltimore-Washington Section, Society for Applied Spectroscopy 1976 Society for Applied Spectroscopy Gold Medal 1998 Distinguished Service Award, Society for Applied Spectroscopy ABSTRACT Marvin Margoshes grew up in New York City, New York, one of three children. His parents had left the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his father from Galicia and his mother from Hungary, and had met as members of a Zionist organization. Margoshes’s father, though he did not finish high school and only obtained a GED when he was sixty, helped organize the national dental laboratory business and founded a school for technicians. Margoshes himself was always interested in science, settling on chemistry when he was at Brooklyn Technical High School. After high school Margoshes worked in a chemistry lab at New York University Medical School until he enlisted in the U.S. Army. The Army sent him to become an instrument technician in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but he was soon sent on to the Pacific theater, where he fought in the Battle of Leyte and the Battle of Okinawa. He describes his experiences in battle, in typhoons, and with pygmies on Mindoro. Finally back from war, Margoshes enrolled at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, intending to major in chemistry, though he also liked physics. For a PhD Margoshes entered Iowa State University, where his advisor, Velmer Fassel, assigned him to run an infrared spectroscopy lab with George Hammond. For fun in Ames, Iowa, Margoshes and his classmates bowled, worked crossword puzzles, and ate all they could at buffets. Margoshes then moved on to Harvard University, where he was a research fellow. He also had an unpaid job in flame spectroscopy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and worked with Bert Vallee on a study of cadmium as a cause of hypertension; this work required rapid transfer of kidneys to the lab, first from human cadavers and then from horses. The invention of the AutoAnalyzer, which provided a profile of blood results; previous methods performed only one test at a time. Margoshes began work in the analytical chemistry spectrometry group of Bourdon Scribner at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). At the NBS he worked with cyanogen and spent a year studying Russian, as most of the work published about cyanogen was in that language. Stanley Rasberry worked with Margoshes on inductively coupled plasma with argon, while Fassel used helium; he also worked with Rasberry on the first laser probe. Margoshes began computer work using the time sharing computer; he invented a coenzymometer (DetermiTubes), which he says had a good run; and he had an idea for a glucose analyzer but could not sell the idea to Technicon. After nearly twenty years at NBS Margoshes went to work at Block Engineering, doing Fourier transform analysis with Tomas Hirschfeld. After just two years he moved to Technicon. Morris Shamos liked Margoshes and recognized his scientific knowledge and ability. He put Margoshes in charge of a program that offered grants for projects with a commercial value. Margoshes felt this was the perfect job for him: he became known as the “company skeptic” because his extensive knowledge allowed him to understand and evaluate proposals. Technicon was sold several times; when Bayer AG acquired it Margoshes quit because Bayer refused to do business in Israel. During the course of his career, Margoshes performed an analysis of sodium for United Fruit Company, who wanted to emphasize the importance of bananas in a low-sodium diet; that article was published in New England Journal of Medicine, a fact of which Margoshes is proud; he also analyzed potassium in bananas and discovered its importance for astronauts. He has written the chapter on emission spectroscopy in Treatise on Analytical Chemistry, as well as a chapter (with Donald Burns) on automation. In addition he has been review editor of Analytical Chemistry, and admits that he is not immune from editors’ annoying criticisms of his own writing. At the end of the interview, Margoshes moves on to a discussion of the evolution of electronics, the development of small instruments, and the size and power of computers. He explains demand-pull and science-push and how users, wanting to improve instruments, often change their purpose. He talks about his experiences on the school board in Tarrytown, New York. Throughout the interview Margoshes stresses the importance of broad general knowledge. His mantra is that there is no such thing as useless knowledge, and he gives several examples. His advice to young people is not to specialize too much, as everything changes, often rapidly. He talks about his patents and his experiences getting patents, which he says are like puzzles. He explains a little about his work with the echelle spectrometer and noise in Fourier infrared and emission spectroscopy. He considers his plasma jet work his most significant. INTERVIEWER Michael A. Grayson retired from the Mass Spectrometry Research Resource at Washington University in St Louis in 2006. He received his B.S. degree in physics from St. Louis University in 1963 and his M.S. in physics from the University of Missouri at Rolla in 1965. He is the author of over forty-five papers in the scientific literature dealing with mass spectrometry. Before joining the Research Resource, he was a staff scientist at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratory. While completing his undergraduate and graduate education, he worked at Monsanto Company in St. Louis, where he learned the art and science of mass spectrometry under O. P. Tanner. Grayson is a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry [ASMS], and currently is the Archivist for that Society. He has served many different positions within ASMS. He has served on the Board of Trustees of CHF and is currently a member of CHF's Heritage Council. He continues to pursue his interest in the history of mass spectrometry by recording oral histories, assisting in the collection of papers, researching the early history of the field, and preparing posters recounting historic developments in the field. TABLE OF CONTENTS Early Years 1 Margoshes’ opening statement. Family background. One brother, one sister. Parents Zionists. Father organized dental laboratory business nationally and founded school for technicians. Interested in science from young age, chemistry his focus in high school. Tested into Brooklyn Technical High School. College Years 6 Worked in chemistry lab at NYU Medical School. Enlisted; sent to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to become instrument technician. Excellent chemistry teacher. Sent to Deadeyes – 96th Infantry Division. Battle of Leyte. Wounded. Battle of Luzon. Battle of Okinawa. Another wound. Surviving typhoons. Mindoro pygmies. Atom bomb. Home. Back to College 30 Enrolled at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. Math not good enough for physics so stayed in chemistry. Large entering class full of returning soldiers. Same problem when applying to graduate school. Entered Iowa State University to work in lab of Velmer Fassel, leader in emission spectroscopy. Assigned to run infrared spectroscopy lab with George Hammond. William Coblentz’s “magic chart.” Using Henry Gilman’s materials for his thesis. Learning classical methods and precision. Majored in