1934 - Technology

Technology

The pH meter invented by Illinois-born California Institute of Technology chemist Arnold O. (Orville) Beckman, 34, to measure the sourness of lemons provides laboratories with a quick and simple way to measure acidity and alkalinity that can speed up or slow chemical reactions in industrial production. Contained in a walnut box 12 inches high, eight inches deep, and nine inches high, his device measures electric current flowing into a glass electrode immersed in a chemical solution. Beckman will start National Technical Laboratories at Fullerton, Calif., next year to manufacture and sell the meters, and the company will grow to employ some 10,000 people producing more than $2 billion worth of instruments and supplies per year (see spectrophotometer, 1939).

Industrial chemist Arthur D. Little dies of a heart attack at Northeast Harbor, Me., August 1 at age 72, having said, "Research serves to make building stones out of stumbling blocks." The 49-year-old firm that bears his name will continue into the next century, becoming one of the largest U.S. industrial research laboratories and also an international consulting firm with more than 2,500 employees specializing in manufacturing, marketing, energy, information technology, and environmental issues; mechanical engineer Frederick A. Halsey dies of heart disease at New York October 20 at age 75, having seen his compensation plan widely adopted for guaranteeing every worker a wage based on his or her past performance.