Evening star., 1921-03-06
BY J. OLIN HOWE.

his way into natures secrets |
further than the microscope /
can follow him. He may even have I
divided the atom. as science has long |
sought to do. Indeed, it is not easy
to see how any one can have done I
what Frederick Howard has with
out that.
Certainly he splits up the chemical |
globule. He produces three different |
reactions which his brother chemists |
have held to be impossible. He has |
divided and subdivided natural fbers |
such as those in leather until their |
minuteness goes beyond the ken of |
man. He has obtained neutral fluid |
which will not stay within a closed |
tin can. which almost defies the law !
of gravity by running up the arm
one plunges'into container of 1t. and i
which penetrates fibers until oxygen |
or oXidization, any way-cannot |
keep up with it.
All this for useful purposes. SO !
that leather may become more plia- |
BILE and wear three times as long, or
may be redeemed when spoiled in tam
ming, or burned and stiffened by the
acids in perspiration: SO that work.
ers' clothing may be made perma-
nently proof against fires; so that
any textile may be rendered moth
proof without the slightest change
in it that the eye can ever see; so
that sails shall not mi!dew; so that all
odors may be abolished; so that all
parts of milk difficult of digestion
may be removed from it and the re-
sulting serum make many u typhoid
patient whole.
THE last thing in the world this
quiet. kindly man thinks of is
apa1CSiS
coveries come always from the prac-
tical. helpful side. Abstract science
holds out no allure for him. Nor
does he think of money. except when
he wishes to do some charitable act,
when his right hand and his left are
ignorant each of what the other does.
Chemist Howard has more than a
thousand original formulas. Not one
is patented. To be sure. to patent
chemical formula is usually to re-
veal it's secret. But scarce any of
this leather chemists have been put
on the market in the past
Recently, however, some of his
friends. determined that his mature
years should be spent free from
financial worries. got together and
built him n new laboratory, and he
turned over to the company they
organized a number of his best for
mulas. In this new laboratory at
Quincy. Mass. Mr.. Howard has a
group of young chemists, where he is
teaching them his secrets, that they
may not die with him.
Frederick Augustus Howard. his
parents named him, but he has been
plain Fred Howard for siNty-odd
years, and his business signature is
a mere f. A. Howard. He lives in
South Easton. Mass, as typical
New England village as its name
would signify: lives in the house
where he was born and his father
and grandfather before him.
Primarily. Mr.. Howard is leather
chemist. He was the first to make
this the field of his chemical activi-
ties. and for forty years The chem
ical phases of the tanning and use
of leather have been his chief object
in life. Tireless research' has car
thousands of experiments. 1t is an
everyday matter for him to have
hundred or a hundred and fifty in
process at the same time.
He is a born chemist. but got Into
chemistry by accident His mothers ,
people were carriage makers and his
fathers shoemakers, and II was de-
cided the youth should follow the
former occupation. He did, Tor
while. but didn't like it, and ere long
was selling the water of the Simpson
spring, on his Grandfather Simpsons !
farm.
Soon he was making beverages
from this, and that took him INTO
chemistry. He read the United states
Disueusatory, with its two thousand
odd pages, through twice and was SO
absorbed by the subject that he hired |
a chemist to come to South f-aStoh !,
and teach him the science. Later ne |
spent considerable time stnoyinS
with Prof. Alexander Bernstein i'll |
Boston. |
One day an uncle, a shoe manu-
facturer, called the young chemist |
attention TO the fact that hemiock
leather. much more durable tan
mage than oak. was made so hard and ,
brittle by the tanning process as
often to be all but unworkable. II
took Howard more than a year 10
learn why. and at the end Oh that
time he was well on has way 10 Il
knowledge of fibers probably greater
than that of any other man IN
America.
THE purpose of the tanning process
which has come down to US
through the ages from Adam. is to
distribute through the fibers OF the
skin or hide a fluid which preserves
them from decay. Howard found that
the resin of hemlock extract was not
evenly deposited, but often thorough
ly disturbed natures exquisite ar.
raueement Of the fibers and matted
and clogged them and cemented them
together; and that, moreover. the
CRYSTALS of tannin which had not been
properly dissolved or had recrystailiZ-
ed had sharp edge, across which the
faulty drawn fbers were often cut
and broken.
The chemists task was to break
up these crystalline forms and spread
the tannin over the fibers and in ac-
that he went the way
which finally led to the neutral fluid
which is the foundation of so much
that he has done in chemistry. A
truly neutral fluid is something of
infinite possibilities which chemists
have been seeking since the begin
ming of analysis.
Howard needed it for penetrat ion