F.B. Seymour - Böcker

Because of a lack of appreciation for his efforts in developing modern polymer science, the contributions of Hermann Staudinger were disregarded for decades. There have also been delays in recognizing the contributions of other pioneers in polymer science. Hence, it is gratifying to note that Professor Seymour chaired an American Chemical Society Symposium focusing on the contributions of these pioneers and that Kluwer Academic Publishers has published the proceedings of this important symposium. H.Mark v DEDICATION This book on Pioneers in Polymer Science is dedicated to Nobel Laureate Polymer Scientists Hermann Staudinger, Emil Fischer, Herman Mark, Paul J. Flory, Linus Pauling, Carl S. Marvel, M. Polanyi, Giulio Natta, Karl Ziegler, and Bruce Merrifield as well as to those pioneers such as J.C. Patrick, Robert Thomas, William Sparks, Maurice Huggins, Qtto Bayer, Leo Baekeland, Anselm Payer, Roger Boyer, Waldo Semon, Robert Banks, J.P. Hogan, and other pioneers who, to a large degree, were responsible for the development of the world's second largest industry. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The editor appreciates the contribution of co-authors Herman Mark, C.H. Fisher, and G. Alan Stahl who co­ chaired the Symposium on Pioneers in Polymer Science at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society at Seattle, WA in 1984 and who contributed a chapter in this book. The editor is particularly grateful to Mischa Thomas who typed this manuscript.

The word Polyethylene was probably first pronounced in a lecture which M. P. E. Berthelot delivered on April ,27, 1863 to the Chemical Society in Paris, reporting on the "polymerization" of various simple organic compounds (1). Much later this work appeared twice in the literature before the classical ICI breakthrough in the 1930's which is so colorfully described in Ballard's lecture. Once it came up at the end of the last century when H. von Pechmann obtained "a white flocculant material" from the decomposition of diazomethane which, one year later, was termed to be "polymethylene" - (CH ) - from E. Bamberger 2 and F. Tschiemer (1). At that time the investigators were disappointed about this product because it was not what they had expected to find in their experiments. As a result any further work was discontinued. The second time that the word polyethylene appeared in the literature to describe a "white solid powder" was in 1930 when C. S. Marvel and M. E. P. Friedericks (2) attempted to prepare alkylated As compounds in which all five valencies were covalently bonded to five monovalent-aTkyl groups.They reacted Tetra-ethyl-arsenium bromide with butyllithium and expected to get tetra ethyl butyl arsenium. Instead they obtained LiBr + AsEt3 + gaseous products. Delicate and somewhat time-consuming analysis gave a surprising result: ethane and C 's were there in the 4 expected quantities but ethylene was missing - or almost missing - in the gas mixture.

Because of a lack of appreciation for his efforts in developing modern polymer science, the contributions of Hermann Staudinger were disregarded for decades. There have also been delays in recognizing the contributions of other pioneers in polymer science. Hence, it is gratifying to note that Professor Seymour chaired an American Chemical Society Symposium focusing on the contributions of these pioneers and that Kluwer Academic Publishers has published the proceedings of this important symposium. H.Mark v DEDICATION This book on Pioneers in Polymer Science is dedicated to Nobel Laureate Polymer Scientists Hermann Staudinger, Emil Fischer, Herman Mark, Paul J. Flory, Linus Pauling, Carl S. Marvel, M. Polanyi, Giulio Natta, Karl Ziegler, and Bruce Merrifield as well as to those pioneers such as J.C. Patrick, Robert Thomas, William Sparks, Maurice Huggins, Qtto Bayer, Leo Baekeland, Anselm Payer, Roger Boyer, Waldo Semon, Robert Banks, J.P. Hogan, and other pioneers who, to a large degree, were responsible for the development of the world's second largest industry. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The editor appreciates the contribution of co-authors Herman Mark, C.H. Fisher, and G. Alan Stahl who co­ chaired the Symposium on Pioneers in Polymer Science at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society at Seattle, WA in 1984 and who contributed a chapter in this book. The editor is particularly grateful to Mischa Thomas who typed this manuscript.