Nathaniel Howell Furman (1892–1965) was an American professor of

analytical chemistry Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

who helped develop the electrochemical uranium separation process as a member of the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

Background and career

Furman was born in the Lawrenceville section of

Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey Lawrence Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Located at the cross-roads between the Delaware Valley region to the south and the Raritan Valley region to the north, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New Yo ...

in 1892. He attended

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Scho ...

, where he was a model student, graduating with a Master's Prize from his high school in 1909. He enrolled in

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, where he received

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

honors and graduated in 1913. He received an M.S. in 1915 and a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1917. Furman served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Chemical Warfare Service The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The Chemical Warfare Service was established on 28 June 1918, combining activities that un ...

. He returned to Princeton in 1919 to become an assistant professor, gaining promotion and tenure in 1937, and finished his career in 1960 as the Russell Wellman Moore professor of chemistry.

Manhattan Project

Furman helped develop an ether extraction process to extract

Uranium oxide Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium. The metal uranium forms several oxides: * Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende) * Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5) * Uranium trioxide o ...

, a precursor to the fissile material used in the first atom bombs as discussed in the

Smyth report The Smyth Report (officially ''Atomic Energy for Military Purposes'') is the common name of an administrative history written by American physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop atomic bombs du ...

. He served as a special consultant to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and was an advisor to the post-War

Office of Scientific Research and Development The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1 ...

. An August 8, 1945, special to the Princeton Bulletin revealed that multiple Princeton faculty, among them

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

John Archibald Wheeler John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911April 13, 2008) was an American theoretical physicist. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr in ...

, Henry DeWolf Smyth,

Hugh Stott Taylor Sir Hugh Stott Taylor (6 February 1890 – 17 April 1974) was an English chemist primarily interested in catalysis.Who Was Who, Published by A&C Black Limited In 1925, in a landmark contribution to catalytic theory, Taylor suggested that a cat ...

, and Furman, had all "disappeared to

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ...

" to work secretly on the bomb during wartime.

Books published

In 1933 Furman co-wrote ''Elementary Quantitative Analysis'', one of the first textbooks in the field of analytical chemistry for undergraduates. He co-wrote ''Analytical Chemistry of the Manhattan Project'' in 1950.

Personal life

A resident of

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, Furman owned a summer cottage in

Charlotte, Vermont Charlotte is a New England town, town in Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for Queen Charlotte, though unlike Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia, and other cities and towns ...

, on

Lake Champlain Lake Champlain ( ; french: Lac Champlain) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the US states of New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. The New York portion of t ...

and enjoyed sailboat racing and golf in his spare time. He had a son and a daughter—who became a chemist—with Hannah S. Hendrickson.

Honors

* 1953 - Palladium Medalist, Electrochemical Society * 1951 - President of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

* 1949 - Class of 1913 Distinguished Service Award * 1948 - First recipient of the Fisher Award for analytical chemistry * 1916-1917 - Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furman, N. Howard 1892 births 1965 deaths Lawrenceville School alumni People from Charlotte, Vermont People from Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey Scientists from Princeton, New Jersey Manhattan Project people Electrochemists Princeton University alumni