Frank Erhart Emmanuel Germann

Frank Erhart Emmanuel Germann (December 6, 1887 – February 27, 1974) was an American physicist, physical chemist, and university professor. He was a founding member of the modern chemistry department of the University of Colorado.

Early life and education

Germann was born in Peru, Miami County, Indiana, the second child of Mary Fredericke Mueller (1864–1942) and Gustave Adolph Germann (1860–1940). His only sibling was Albert Fredrick Ottomar Germann (1886–1976), who was also a physical chemist. Frank Germann graduated from Peru High School in 1906. He received the A.B. in physics from Indiana University in 1911. He received the Sc.D. degree (docteur ès sciences physiques) from the University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland) in 1914 with research [1] under the guidance of Philippe-Auguste Guye (1862–1922).

Career and research

Germann was on the faculties of the University of Geneva (1912–1914). Indiana University, Bloomington (1914), Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (1914–1918), Colorado School of Mines, Golden (1918–1919), and the University of Colorado, Boulder (1919–1956). He was also on the research staff of the National Bureau of Standards–Boulder (1956–1966).

At the University of Geneva, he was assistant en chimie théorique et technique. His research there resulted in many publications.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

While writing his Sc.D. thesis, he was Instructor of French for one semester in the Department of Romance Languages at Indiana University. At Cornell, Frank's initial appointment was as Assistant in Physics; promotion to Instructor in Physics awaited the doctorate. In his first physical chemistry research, he found evidence for the iscositetrahydrate of uranium nitrate.[9] At Colorado School of Mines, he was Associate Professor, a joint appointment in the Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering.

Germann was appointed Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado for the 1919–1920 academic year, promoted to Professor of Chemistry within a year. Germann joined Professor John Bernard Ekeley (1869–1951) and Assistant Professor Paul Marshall Dean (born 1885). These three men were to lead the Department of Chemistry for many years. Ekeley retired in 1937. Dean retired in 1953. Germann retired in 1956.

Germann's ideas (about capturing carbon dioxide from underground sources, converting the gas to a solid for economical transport, and then using the gas agriculturally to increase plant growth) received national attention.[10][11][12][13][14]

Of Germann's many students, 23 earned graduate degrees in chemistry or chemical engineering from the University of Colorado. Four students—Ralph Newton Traxler,[15] Malcolm Cleveland Hylan,[16] Dzu-Kun Shen,[17] and Thomas Howard James [18]—investigated the chemistry and physics of photography. Two students—Derk Vivian Tieszen [19] and Oscar Brauer Muench [20] —investigated alkali metal platinocyanides. Before spectrophotofluorometers were commercially available, James William Hensley,[21] Ray Alan Woodriff,[22] Elmer Russell Alexander,[23] and Robert George Rekers [24] were investigating fluorescence, phosphorescence, and luminescence.

Paul Frey, a graduate student of Germann, received the National Council Citation Award from Albright College in 1980 “for his excellence as a teacher and as a writer of a long list of books in the field of chemistry.” That list included An Outline of Mathematics and Problems for Students of General Chemistry, a popular addition to the Barnes and Noble College Outline series, that went through eight editions between 1938 and 1985. His most influential textbook was College Chemistry (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1952, 1958, 1965). A popular trimmed version was Essentials of College Chemistry (Prentice-Hall, 1960).

Charles Franklin Metz, another Germann graduate student (M.S. 1928, Ph.D. 1936), was one of the twelve scientists who conducted the world's first firing of a nuclear weapon, the “Trinity” test on New Mexico's Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on Monday, July 16, 1945. On Monday, August 6, 1945, a nuclear bomb was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan. Later that week, on Thursday, August 9, 1945, a nuclear bomb was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered on Tuesday, August 14, 1945.[25]

Personal life

Germann married Martha Minna Marie Knechtel (1892–1966) on July 25, 1916, in St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru. The Rev. Paul Stoeppelwerth officiated at the wedding of his niece-in-law. Martha and Frank had two children: Richard Paul Germann (1981–2007) and Lois Marie Germann Jones (1921–2013).

Frank was raised as a member of the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) and as a youngster attended the Lutheran St. John's Christian Day School in Peru. He was a member of the Lutheran Concordia Club at Indiana University, and later the Lutheran Academy for Scholarship (Academia Lutherana Philosophiæ). He contributed an article to the Academy quarterly.[26]

Notes
  1. Frank-E.-E. Germann, Recherches sur les gaz retenus par l'argent métallique. Formation du chlorure de nitrosyle. Microanalyse des gaz. Université de Genève doctorat ès sciences physiques et chimiques Thèse no. 545 (Genève: Imprimerie Αlbert Κündig, 1915).
  2. F. E. E. Germann, “Eine Bestimmung der Dampfdruck- und Dichtskurven des Sauerstoffs und Konstruktion eines Apparates zur Bestimmung kritischer Daten,” Physikalische Zeitschrift, vol. 14 (1913), pp. 857–860.
  3. M. Skossarewski und F. Germann, “Anordnung zur selbst-tätigen Zirkulation eines Gases in einem geschlossenen Kreis,” Angewandte Chemie, vol. 27, Referatenteil zu Nr. 25 (March 27, 1914), p. 220.
  4. M. Skossarewski et F. Germann, “Dispositif pour réaliser la circulation automatique d’un gaz dans un circuit fermé,” Journal de Chimie Physique, vol. 11 (1913), pp. 584–588.
  5. Philippe-Auguste Guye et Frank-E.-E. Germann, “Analyse de très petites quantities de gaz; Application à l’analyse de l’air,” Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, vol. 159 (1914), pp. 154–157.
  6. Philippe-Auguste Guye und Frank-E.-E. Germann, “Einen Apparat zur Analyse ganz kleiner Gasmengen,” Zeitschrift für analytische Chemie (Fresenius’ Journal of Analytical Chemistry), vol. 54, no. 5 (1915), pp. 263–264.
  7. Philippe-Auguste Guye et Frank-E.-E. Germann, “Sur les gas retenus par l’iode et l’argent,” Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, vol. 159 (1914), pp. 225–229.
  8. Philippe-Auguste Guye et Frank-E.-E. Germann, “Contributions à l’étude des causes d’erreur affectant les determinations des poids atomiques. IV. Méthode micro-analytique pour l’étude des gaz; Application à l’analyse de traces d’air. V. Des impuretes gazeuses continues dans l’argent considéré comme etalon auxiliaire de poids atomiques,” Journal de Chimie Physique, vol. 14 (1913), pp. 195–243.
  9. Frank E. E. Germann, “A New Hydrate of Uranium Nitrate: Uranium Nitrate Icositetrahydrate,” abstract of a paper presented at the Rochester meeting of the American Physical Society, October 26 and 27, 1917, Physical Review (Second Series), vol. 11, no. 3 (1918), pp. 245–246; submitted October 11, 1917.
  10. Frank E. E. German, “Solid Carbon Dioxide from Flue Gas by Application of Joule–Thomson Effect,” Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 25, no. 2 (February 1933), pp. 150–152.
  11. “Science Marches On: Science Review of the Year,” Science News-Letter, vol. 24, no. 663 (Saturday, December 23, 1933), pp. 403–416.
  12. “The year 1933 in Review: High Points in Chemistry,” Industrial and Engineering Chemistry News Edition, vol. 11, no. 24 (Wednesday, December 20, 1933), p. 361.
  13. Frank E. E. Germann, “The Occurrence of Carbon Dioxide, With Notes on the Origin and Relative Importance of Subterranean Carbon Dioxide,” Science, vol. 87, no. 2267 (June 10, 1938), pp. 513–521.
  14. Frank E. E. Germann and Herbert W. Ayres, “The Origin of Underground Carbon Dioxide,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 46, no. 1 (January 1942), pp. 61–68.
  15. Ralph Newton Traxler, “The Adsorption of Iodine by Silver Iodide,” M.A. thesis, 1922; Frank E. E. Germann and Ralph N. Traxler, “Adsorption of Iodine by Silver Iodide,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 44, no. 3 (1922), pp. 460–464.
  16. Ralph Newton Traxler, “Adsorption in Photography,” Ph.D. thesis, 1923; Frank E. E. Germann and Malcolm C. Hylan, “Dispersity of Silver Halides in Relation to Their Photographic Behavior,” Science (New Series),’’ vol. 58, no. 1504 (October 26, 1923), pp. 332–333; Frank E. E. Germann and Malcolm C. Hylan, “The Photographic Sensitiveness of Silver Iodide,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 45, no. 11 (November 1923), pp. 2486–2493; Frank E. E. Germann and Malcolm C. Hylan, “Dispersity of Silver Halides in Relation to Their Photographic Behavior,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 28, no. 5 (1924), pp. 449–456.
  17. Dzu-Kun Shen, “Photographic Sensitivity and the Latent Image,” Ph.D. thesis, 1928; Frank E. E. Germann and Dzu-Kun Shen, “Studies in Photography. I. The Nature of Sensitivity and the Latent Image,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 33, no. 6 (1929), pp. 864–872; Frank E. E. Germann and Dzu-Kun Shen, “Studies in Photography. II. The Rôle of Sensitizers in Photography and the Latent Image,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 33, no. 10 (1929), pp. 1583–1592; Frank E. E. Germann and D. K. Shen, “The Relation Between Photographic Reversal and the Sensitivity of the Silver Halide Grain,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 35 (1931), pp. 93–99; Frank E. E. Germann and Dzu-Kun Shen, “Sensitization and Desensitization of Silver Iodide,” The Journal of the Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science, vol. 1 (1929), p. 25.
  18. Thomas Howard James, “The Influence of Salts upon Intermittent Photographic Exposures,” M.A. thesis, 1935; Thomas Howard James, “The Nature of the Latent Photographic Image from a Theoretical and Experimental Point of View,” Ph.D. thesis, 1935; T. Howard James, F. E. E. Germann, and Julian M. Blair, “The Influence of Salts on Intermittent Photographic Exposures,” The Journal of the Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science, vol. 1, no. 6 (1934), p. 17; T. Howard James, F. E. E. Germann, and Julian M. Blair, “The Action of Water on the Latent Photographic Image,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 38, no. 9 (December 1934), pp. 1211–1216; T. Howard James, F. E. E. Germann, and Julian M. Blair, “Action of Water on the Latent Photographic Image,” The Journal of the Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science, vol. 1, no. 6 (1934), p. 20.
  19. Derk Vivian Tieszen, “Sodium Platinocyanide,” M.A. thesis, 1928.
  20. Oscar Brauer Muench, “Lithium Platinocyanide and a Micro Method for the Quantitative Determination of its Hydrates,” Ph.D. thesis, 1928; Frank E. E. Germann and O. B. Muench, “Studies on the Physical and Chemical Properties of the Platinocyanides. I. The Hydrates of Lithium Platinocyanide,” Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 33, no. 3 (1933), pp. 415–423.
  21. James William Hensley, “A Method of Capillary-Fluorescence Analysis,” M.S. thesis, 1939; Frank E. E. Germann and James W. Hensley, “Quantitative Capillary Luminescence Analysis, Journal of Physical Chemistry vol. 44, no. 9 (September 1940), pp. 1071–1081; Frank E. E. Germann and J. W. Hensley, “A Direct Vision Fluorometer,” University of Colorado Studies. Series D. Physical and Biological Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1 (March 1940), pp. 37–41.
  22. Ray Alan Woodriff, “Investigation by an Improved Method of the Wavelengths of Fluorescence of Lead Tungstate–Calcium Tungstate Mixtures Excited by Various Wave Lengths of Ultraviolet Light,” Ph.D. thesis 1942; Frank E. E. Germann and Ray Alan Woodriff, “Energy Distribution in Fluorescence,” The Journal of the Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science, vol. 3 (1946), p. 17; Frank E. E. Germann and Ray Woodriff, “Cross-Prism Investigation of Fluorescence,” The Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 15, no. 6 (June 1944), pp. 145–149.
  23. Elmer Russell Alexander, “Ethylene Borate and Similar Borate Glasses as Media for Investigating Phosphorescence of Organic Compounds,” Ph.D. thesis, 1949.
  24. Robert George Rekers, “An Investigation of the Fluorescence of Certain Organic Compounds in Dilute Solution,” Ph.D. thesis, 1951.
  25. Personal communications: Vicky Lopez-Terrill, Archives and Special Collections, Morgan Library, Colorado State University; Alan Brady Carr, Historian, Los Alamos National Laboratory; and Charles V. Metz, Capt. USAF. See also obituary, “Dr. Charles Metz,” News-Gazette (Winchester, Indiana), Wednesday, February 13, 1974, p. 7; and biographical entry, Randolph County, Indiana, 1818-1990 (Winchester, Indiana: Historical & Genealogical Society of Randolph County, Indiana, 1991), p. 579.
  26. Frank E. E. Germann, “The ‘Parity Law’ of Nuclear Physics Challenged,” The Lutheran Scholar, vol. 14, no. 4 (October 1957), pp. 571–577.

Further reading
  • Bodurtha, Arthur L., ed., History of Miami County Indiana: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1914), vol. II, p. 456.
  • Davis, William E., Glory Colorado! A History of the University of Colorado, 1858–1963 (Boulder: Pruett Press, 1965).
  • Fleck, George, Parallel Lives: Two Hoosier Chemists from Peru (Williamsburg, Massachusetts: The Impress Group, 2016). ISBN 9781532326172.
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