Charles Avery Doremus (6 September 1851 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

– 2 December 1925 in New York City) was an 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 th ...

Early life and education

Charles Avery Doremus was the son of chemist and physician

Robert Ogden Doremus Robert Ogden Doremus (11 January 1824 – 22 March 1906) was a United States chemist and physician. Biography Doremus was the son of philanthropist Sarah Platt Doremus and her merchant husband Thomas. He studied at Columbia, and graduated from Ne ...

. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1870, and subsequently studied in the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, receiving the degree of

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from Heidelberg in 1872.

Career

In 1877 Doremus became professor of chemistry and

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

in the medical department of the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

, which office he held until 1882, when he became assistant to the chair of chemistry and physics in the College of the City of New York. Meanwhile, he had received the appointments in New York City of lecturer on practical chemistry and toxicology in

Bellevue Hospital Medical College NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

, and professor of chemistry in the American Veterinary College. The chemical laboratories in these institutions, excepting Bellevue, were organized under his direction. Doremus made a specialty of medical chemistry and

, and was frequently called into courts as an expert in such matters. He was chemist to the Medico-Legal Society, and a member of the chemical societies of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and

, and for some time edited the journal of the latter society. He wrote frequent papers on sanitary chemistry and methods of analysis, which appeared in the proceedings of the societies to which he belonged, and he is the author of a “Report on

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

,” contributed to the U. S. government reports on the Exhibition held in Vienna in 1873. He was a holder of patents for a process for softening water, for a gas furnace, for producing

hydrofluoric acid Hydrofluoric acid is a Solution (chemistry), solution of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in water. Solutions of HF are colourless, acidic and highly Corrosive substance, corrosive. It is used to make most fluorine-containing compounds; examples include th ...

, for extracting alumina from

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

and for the extraction of

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

from

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

Personal life

Doremus married playwright Elizabeth Johnson Ward in 1880, in Washington, D.C. They had two sons who died in infancy, and a daughter, Katherine. Doremus died in 1925, aged 74 years, in New York.

Notes

References

* Attribution * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Doremus, Charles Avery 1851 births 1925 deaths American chemists Heidelberg University alumni Scientists from New York City New York University alumni University at Buffalo faculty New York University faculty