Omaha daily bee., 1920-03-11
FORMER OMAHA
DOCTOR VICTIM
OF Influenza
Or. Hugo W. Wightman, In
ventor Of SmokeIess Pow
der and Ex-Creighton
Instructor, Dies Here.

DR.. Hugo w. Wightman, widely
known surgeon and lecturer and the
inventor of smokeless powder, died
yesterday at St. Joseph hospital
where he came from Scottsbluff
Neb., to undergo treatment for in
fluenza at the hands of his "only
friend" and boyhood companion, DR.
A. A. Hoffman. Death was caused
hy inflammation of the brain. DR.
Wightman was professor OF
anatomy and surgery at Creighton
college from 1909 to 1917.
The funeral will be held in the
Hulse & Riepcn undertaking estab-
lishment at 2 Friday afternoon and
will be under the auspices of the
Douglas County Medical society, of
which DR.. Wightman had long been
a member.
DR.. Wightman is survived by a
daughter, Roberta Wightman of
Chicago, the mother, Mrs. Emma
Klosterman of St. Paul. and one
brother, Otto Klosterman, also of
St, Paul. a.
0CllS luVCHtlOl SllCdp.
DR.. Wightman was especially
known as lecturer and as teach
er in several colleges of medicine.
From his invention of smokeless
powder, which is now universally
used, he received neither fame nor
fortune. The formula and the. right
TO manufacture and commercialize
the powder was sold to the DUPONT
Powder company for less than
$1,000.
1t was when he was but l9 years
old and a medical student in the
Bennett Medical college in Chicago,
that DR.. Wightman succeeded in
working out a practical formula for
the making of smokeless powder.
There in a drug store he worked by
day and attended college and at
night experimental on smokeless
powder. One night while in the
midst of an experiment the drug
store was partially wrecked by an
explosion The next morning the
Young medical student was fired"
They didn't want any hair-brained"
inventors around that drug store.
But smokeless powder had been in
vented. 1t has been in use ever
since.
Born In Michigan.
DIR. Wightman was born in
Saginaw, Mich, Sept. l6, 1873, the
son of fisherman on the Saginaw
river. When but little boy he
was taken to Germany but re-
turned to America at the age of Is.
His first schooling was obtained in
the Carlton Union college at North
field, Mimi, and he later graduated
In electrical engineering at the
University of Minnesota at Mime
apolis.
After graduating from the Ben
nett College of Medicine at Chicago
in 1899 DR.. Wightman was engaged
as professor of chemistry and
pharmacy at the Northwestern uni
yersity, Chicago, from which
he graduated in medicine and
surgery in 1901. Later he was an
inferno at the Cooke county hos
pital, Chicago. and an attending man
for eight years in the same hos
pital.
Instructor at Creighton.
From Chicago DR.. Whitman went
to Brazil Ind, where he was en-
gagged in the practice of medicine
and surgery for three years. From
Brazil DR.. Wightman came to
Omaha to accept the chair of anat-
orny and surgery at the Creighton
Medical college, continuing there
until the spring of 1917, when he
moved to Scottsbluff.
Early in February DR.. Wightman
was taken sick with influenza. 1t
was then that he wished to come
back to Omaha and be attended by
the only dear friend he had ever
known, DR.. Hoffman.
Though a surgeon of more than
local reputation, learned in the prac-
tice of medicine and freqeut con-
tributor to various medical journals,
DIR. Wightman remained always
bit contemptuous of the efficacy of
medicines and during his illness it
was difficult to get him to take them
with regularity. Influenza developed
inflammation of the brain and death
cnsued.