The Kuderna–Danish concentrator

While we often speak about science in society, how often do we embed questions about the risks, rewards and the long-term environmental impacts of the molecules we make into our undergraduate teaching? Perhaps we should talk more about the chemists whose projects have taken us into very dark corners. Thomas Midgely promoted alkyl lead additives in petrol and later developed chlorofluorocarbons. Gerhard Schrader devised the nerve agents that plague us today. What of Wallace Carrothers, who devised several of the polymers that we now worry are filtering into our food chains? Many others are forgotten but have left as lasting an inheritance.

One such figure was the chemist Julius Hyman, who invented some of the most potent and long-lasting insecticides. He was born on 2 April 1901 in Traverse City, Michigan, a small town on one of the Great Lakes in the northern US, a popular summer resort for those wanting to escape the sweltering summers of Chicago. His father, Herman, was a horse trader. Press cuttings from the time suggest that Herman’s business didn’t always go smoothly – in 1911 he was shot at several times by an irate customer who thought he’d been swindled.

After graduating from high school, Julius moved to Chicago where he matriculated for a chemistry degree in 1918. After graduating with honours in 1922, he went to study in Leipzig in Germany, possibly with Arthur Hantzsch, where he submitted a thesis on ultraviolet spectrophotometry in 1925.

Returning with a PhD, he found work with the Pure Oil Company in Chicago, a firm that had been set up to rival the might of Standard Oil. A key problem of the time was ‘breaking’ oil–water emulsions and Hyman patented several methods to address this.

But he had grander ideas. Around 1930 he approached his cousin Joseph Regenstein, a successful businessman, and proposed that they go into business together. In Hyman’s words he would be ‘the brains’ while Regenstein would be the money. Regenstein agreed and, with a couple of other friends and cousins on board, early in 1931 they formed the Varnoil Company, later renamed Velsicol. Hyman was a 20% shareholder but also the vice-president and research director, with complete discretion to direct work as he liked. All the employees signed a contract enforcing confidentiality; it also stipulated that all intellectual property belonged to the company. Crucially, Hyman never signed the agreements. He set up labs in one of Regenstein’s buildings and began to recruit chemists and other technically trained staff. Among these was a young chemist, Abe ‘Al’ Danish.