Homer W. Hillyer

Homer W. Hillyer
Born
Homer Winthrop Hillyer

(1859-01-26)January 26, 1859
Waupun, Wisconsin
DiedJanuary 3, 1949(1949-01-03) (aged 89)
Glastonbury, Connecticut
Occupations
  • Professor
  • Chemical engineer
SpouseHarriet Robbins (m. 1887)
ParentEdwin Hillyer (father)
Relatives
Academic background
Education
ThesisMethods for determining the relative stability of the fatty bromides (1885)
Ira Remsen
Academic work
DisciplineChemistry
Sub-discipline
Organic chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, applied chemistry, horticulture
Institutions
Notable ideas
Suspended atomic sulfur as a fungicide

Homer Winthrop Hillyer (January 26, 1859[1] – January 3, 1949) was an American chemistry professor,[2] chemical engineer, inventor, and horticulturist.[3] He taught at the University of Wisconsin (UW) for twenty years before moving to Buffalo, New York,[4] New York City, and Farmington, Connecticut, where he worked in the chemical industry until his retirement in 1925.[5] He developed fungicides using atomic sulfur for fruit[6] after obtaining a patent for agricultural products using suspended sulfur.[7]

Hillyer was born in Waupun, Wisconsin, to industrialist and politician Edwin Hillyer and Angeline née Coe, a descendant of American colonial Robert Coe. His cousin Henry Waldo Coe was a physician and politician. His nephew Arthur Hillyer Ford was an electrical engineer and professor at Iowa State University.[1]

Hillyer married Harriet Robbins in 1887. Robbins's father was a lobbyist for the automotive industry in Baltimore. They had no children.[8] They helped found the Farmington Poetry Club.[5]

Education and career

Hillyer attended Ripon College before finishing his bachelor's degree in chemistry at UW in 1882. He was awarded a scholarship, followed by a graduate fellowship,[9] at Johns Hopkins University[10] where his research focused on aluminum alcoholates, phenoxy-ozone compounds, and phenyl ether derivatives.[11] He was awarded his PhD in chemistry in 1885.[12]

After receiving his PhD, Hillyer was a chemistry instructor at UW. In 1889, he was offered a professorship there to teach organic chemistry.[13] He was one of the earliest educators in UW's school of pharmacy.[11] He stayed there until 1905,[13] when he decided to pursue his interest in research into pomology, in particular, growing fruit trees. A colleague suggested that Connecticut was a better place to grow apples than California, so he and his wife moved to Farmington, Connecticut.[5]

Hillyer took a research position at General Chemical Company, where he worked on fungicide research until 1917, which took him to New York City part time. He then worked at their successor, National Aniline & Chemical Co. in Buffalo, New York, until his retirement, at which time he and his wife returned to Farmington.[5] He died in hospice care in 1949.[6]

Publications

  • Kahlenberg, Louis; Hillyer, H. W. (1894). "Solubility of Metallic Oxides in Normal Potassium Salts of Tartaric and Other Organic Acids". American Chemical Journal. 16: 94–115.
  • Remsen, Ira; Hillyer, Homer W. (1886). "Methods for Determining the Relative Stability of the Alkyl Bromides". American Chemical Journal. 8: 251.
  • Hillyer, H. W. (1899). Laboratory Manual: Experiments to Illustrate the Elementary Principles of Chemistry. New York: The Macmillan Company.
  • Hillyer, H. W. (1903). "On the cleansing power of soap". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 25 (5): 511–524. doi:10.1021/ja02007a010. ISSN 0002-7863.
  • Hillyer, Homer Winthrop (1885). Methods for Determining the Relative Stability of the Fatty Bromides (PhD). Johns Hopkins University.
  • Hillyer, Homer W. (1890). "A Self-Regulating Gas-Generator on a New Principle". American Chemical Journal. 12: 228.

References

  1. 1 2 Bartlett, J. Gardner (1911). Robert Coe, Puritan. Published for private circulation. ISBN 9780598765826. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  2. ↑ "Homer Winthrop Hillyer (1859-1949)". Smithsonian Learning Lab. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  3. ↑ "News and Notes". Science. 109 (2821): 72–76. 1949-01-21. doi:10.1126/science.109.2821.72. ISSN 0036-8075.
  4. ↑ "City News". Waupun Leader. Waupun, Wisconsin. December 11, 1919. p. 5.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Hillyer Dies, Noted in Research". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. January 4, 1949. p. 5.
  6. 1 2 "Dr. Homer W. Hillyer Dies in Glastonbury". Connecticut Post. Bridgeport, Connecticut. Associated Press. January 4, 1949. p. 13.
  7. ↑ "Patents to Connecticut Inventors". Stamford Advocate. Stamford, Connecticut. December 27, 1912. p. 9.
  8. ↑ "Couple Read By Way Of Celebration". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. July 12, 1947. p. 8.
  9. ↑ Bibliographia Hopkinsiensis, 1876–1893: Chemistry; Geology, and Mineralogy. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University. 1893. p. 9.
  10. ↑ "The Baltimore Students Honored". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. June 8, 1883. p. 1.
  11. 1 2 Sonnedecker, Glenn (1953-01-01). "The Scientific Background of Chemistry Teachers in Representative Pharmacy Schools of the United States during the 19th Century". Chymia. 4: 171–200. doi:10.2307/27757168. ISSN 0095-9367.
  12. ↑ "Johns Hopkins University: Closing Exercises and Conferring Degrees and Announcement of Fellowships". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. June 12, 1885. p. 4.
  13. 1 2 University of Wisconsin (1907). General Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of the University of Wisconsin, 1849–1907. Madison, Wisconsin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.