Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an early
American chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...
and
science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, at
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
, the first person to use the process of
fractional distillation in America, and a founder of the ''
American Journal of Science'', the oldest continuously published scientific journal in the United States.
Early life
![Benjamin Silliman at National Portrait Gallery IMG 4444](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Benjamin_Silliman_at_National_Portrait_Gallery_IMG_4444.JPG)
![Benjamin Silliman3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Benjamin_Silliman3.jpg)
Silliman was born in a tavern in North Stratford, now
Trumbull,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
, to
Mary (Fish) Silliman (widow of John Noyes) and General
Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman (1732–1790) was a Connecticut militia General during the American War for Independence.
Biography
Silliman was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and practiced law and served as a crown attorne ...
. He was born in August 1779, several months after British forces took his father prisoner and his mother had fled their home in
Fairfield, Connecticut, to escape 2,000 British troops who burned Fairfield center to the ground.
Silliman was educated at Yale, receiving a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree in 1796 and a
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in 1799. He studied law with
Simeon Baldwin
Simeon Baldwin (December 14, 1761 – May 26, 1851) was son-in-law of Roger Sherman, father of Connecticut Governor and US Senator Roger Sherman Baldwin, grandfather of Connecticut Governor & Chief Justice Simeon Eben Baldwin and great-grandfat ...
from 1798 to 1799 and became a tutor at Yale from 1799 to 1802. He was admitted to the bar in 1802. That same year he was hired by Yale President
Timothy Dwight IV
Timothy Dwight (May 14, 1752January 11, 1817) was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College (1795–1817).
Early life
Timothy Dwight was born May 14, 17 ...
as a professor of chemistry and natural history. Silliman, who had never studied chemistry,
prepared for the job by studying chemistry with Professor
James Woodhouse
James Woodhouse (17 November 1770, Philadelphia – 4 June 1809, Philadelphia) was an American surgeon and chemist.
Biography
He was the son of English emigrants to the United States. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1787, and ...
at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. In 1804, he delivered his first lectures in chemistry, which were also the first science lectures ever given at Yale. In 1805, he traveled to
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
for further study.
Career
![The American Journal of Science cover page first issue 1818](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/The_American_Journal_of_Science_cover_page_first_issue_1818.jpg)
Returning to
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...
, he studied its
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
. His chemical analysis of a
meteorite that fell in 1807 near
Weston
Weston may refer to:
Places Australia
* Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Weston, New South Wales
* Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra
* Weston Park, Canberra, a park
Canada
* Weston, Nova Scotia
* ...
, Connecticut, was the first published scientific account of an American meteorite. He lectured publicly at New Haven in 1808 and came to discover many of the constituent elements of many
mineral
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...
s. Some time around 1818, Ephraim Lane took some samples of rocks he found at an area called Saganawamps, now a part of the
Old Mine Park Archeological Site in Trumbull, Connecticut, to Silliman for identification. Silliman reported in his new ''
American Journal of Science'', a publication covering all the natural sciences but with an emphasis on geology, that he had identified
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
,
tellurium
Tellurium is a chemical element with the symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur, all three of which are chalcogens. It is occasionall ...
,
topaz and
fluorite
Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.
The Mohs sca ...
in the rocks. He played a major role in the discoveries of the first fossil fishes found in the United States. In 1837, the first (and at the time only) prismatic barite ore of
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
in the United States was discovered at the mine. The mineral
sillimanite
Sillimanite is an aluminosilicate mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5. Sillimanite is named after the American chemist Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864). It was first described in 1824 for an occurrence in Chester, Connecticut.
Occurrence ...
was named after Silliman in 1850. Upon the founding of the
Medical School, he also taught there as one of the founding faculty members.
In 1833 he discussed the relationship of
Flood geology
Flood geology (also creation geology or diluvial geology) is a pseudoscientific attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the global flood described in Genesis 6–8. In the ea ...
to the Genesis account, and also wrote about this topic in 1840.
Silliman was an early supporter of coeducation in the Ivy League. Although Yale wouldn't admit women as students until over 100 years later, he allowed young women into his lecture classes. His efforts convinced Frederick Barnard, later President of Columbia College, that women ought to be admitted as students. "The elder Silliman, during the entire period of his distinguished career as a Professor of Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy in Yale College, was accustomed every year to admit to his lecture-courses classes of young women from the schools of New Haven. In that institution the undersigned had an opportunity to observe, as a student, the effect of the practice, similar to that which he afterward created for himself in Alabama, as a teacher. The results in both instances, so far as they went, were good; and they went far enough to make it evident that if the presence of young women in college, instead of being occasional, should be constant, they would be better."
American historian
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States ...
mentions in his book about early 19th century Americans in Paris that in 1825 Professor Benjamin Silliman while on a tour of Europe conferring with other scientists encountered his former Yale science student
Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
. McCullough also relates that Silliman would later become president of the college.
As professor emeritus, he delivered lectures at Yale on geology until 1855; Benjamin Silliman Sr had been the first person to use the process of
fractional distillation, and, in 1854, Benjamin Silliman Jr became the first person to fractionate
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
by distillation.
In 1864, Silliman noted
oil seep
A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation stru ...
s in the
Ojai, California area. In 1866, this led to the start of oil exploration and development in the Ojai
Basin.
Like his son-in-law
James Dana, Silliman was a
Christian. In an address delivered before the ''Association of American Geologists'' he spoke in favor of
old-earth creationism, stating:
In the same line of thought, he posed arguments against atheism and materialism.
1807 meteor
At 6:30 in the morning of December 14, 1807, a blazing fireball about two-thirds the apparent size of the moon in the sky, was seen traveling southwards by early risers in Vermont and Massachusetts. Three loud explosions were heard over the town of
Weston
Weston may refer to:
Places Australia
* Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Weston, New South Wales
* Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra
* Weston Park, Canberra, a park
Canada
* Weston, Nova Scotia
* ...
in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Stone fragments fell in at least 6 places. The largest and only unbroken stone of the Weston fall, which weighed 36.5 pounds (16.5 kilograms), was found some days after Silliman and Kingsley had spent several fruitless hours hunting for it. The owner, a
Trumbull farmer named Elijah Seeley, was urged to present it to Yale by local people who had met the professors during their investigation, but he insisted on putting it up for sale. It was purchased by Colonel
George Gibbs for his large and famous collection of minerals; when the collection became the property of Yale in 1825, Silliman finally acquired this stone; the only specimen of the Weston meteorite that remains in the Yale
Peabody Museum collection today.
Personal life
![Harriett Trumbull 0100 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Harriett_Trumbull_0100_%28cropped%29.jpg)
![The Benjamin Silliman Family](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/The_Benjamin_Silliman_Family.jpg)
His first marriage was on September 17, 1809, to Harriet Trumbull, daughter of Connecticut governor
Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., who was the son of Governor
Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. of Connecticut, a hero of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. Silliman and his wife had four children: one daughter married Professor Oliver P. Hubbard, another married Professor
James Dwight Dana
James Dwight Dana FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structure of continent ...
(Silliman's doctoral student until 1833 and assistant from 1836 to 1837);
and youngest daughter Julia married Edward Whiting Gilman, brother of Yale graduate and educator
Daniel Coit Gilman
Daniel Coit Gilman (; July 6, 1831 – October 13, 1908) was an American educator and academic. Gilman was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and subsequently served as the second president of the University ...
. His son
Benjamin Silliman Jr.
Benjamin Silliman Jr. (December 4, 1816 – January 14, 1885) was a professor of chemistry at Yale University and instrumental in developing the oil industry.
His father Benjamin Silliman Sr., also a famous Yale chemist, developed the process o ...
, also a professor of chemistry at Yale, wrote a report that convinced investors to back
George Bissell's seminal search for oil. His second marriage was in 1851 to Mrs. Sarah Isabella (McClellan) Webb, daughter of
John McClellan. Silliman died at New Haven and is buried in
Grove Street Cemetery.
Legacy
Silliman deemed
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
an "enormous evil". He favored
colonization of free African Americans in
Liberia, serving as a board member of the Connecticut
Colonization Society between 1828 and 1835. He was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...
in 1813,
American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref> and an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1815. Silliman founded and edited the '' American Journal of Science'', and was appointed one of the corporate members of the National Academy of Sciences by the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
. He was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Things named for him
Silliman College
Silliman College is a residential college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, named for scientist and Yale professor Benjamin Silliman. It opened in September 1940 as the last of the original ten residential colleges, and contains bu ...
, one of Yale's residential colleges, is named for him, as is the mineral Sillimanite
Sillimanite is an aluminosilicate mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5. Sillimanite is named after the American chemist Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864). It was first described in 1824 for an occurrence in Chester, Connecticut.
Occurrence ...
.
In Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief ...
, Mount Silliman
Mount Silliman is a mountain in California along the boundary between Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park The summit, at is on the Sillman Crest, a part of the Kings-Kaweah Divide.
History
The peak was named by members of the ...
is named for him, as is Silliman Pass
Silliman Pass is a mountain pass on the border of Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park.
It stands high.
Location
It stands on the Kings-Kaweah Divide, loosely north of Mount Silliman., Hiking trip , EveryTrailTwin Lakes an ...
, a creek and two lakes below the summit of Mount Silliman.
See also
* Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences is a learned society founded in 1799 in New Haven, Connecticut "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest and happiness of a free and virtuous people." Its purpose is the ...
* Petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Yale University on Silliman
The Yale Standard on Silliman
Sillimanite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silliman, Benjamin
1779 births
1864 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
American chemists
American mineralogists
Burials at Grove Street Cemetery
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the American Antiquarian Society
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Yale University alumni
Yale University faculty
People from Trumbull, Connecticut
Silliman family