Frank Austin Gooch

Frank Austin Gooch (1852 – 1929) was a chemist and engineer.

Frank Austin Gooch (front, 2nd from left).

Biography

He was born to Joshua G. & Sarah Gates (Coolidge) Gooch in Watertown, Massachusetts. On his mother's side of the family, he was a descendant of Thomas Hastings (colonist) who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.[1]

Gooch invented the Gooch crucible, which is used, for example, to determine the solubility of bituminous materials such as road tars and petroleum asphalts. He was awarded a Ph.D. by Harvard University in 1877. Gooch was a Professor of Chemistry at Yale University from 1885 to 1918.

He devised or perfected a large number of analytical processes and methods, including:

  • Invented the Gooch filtering crucible.
  • Studied the quantitative separation of lithium from the other alkali metals, and the estimation of boric acid by distillation with methanol and fixation by calcium oxide.
  • Developed methods for estimating molybdenum, vanadium, selenium, and tellurium.
  • Studied the use of the paratungstate and pyrophosphate ions in analysis.
  • Developed a series of methods for estimating various elements based on the volumetric determination of iodine.
  • Discovered a method for the rapid electrolytic estimation of metals.

He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Further reading
  • Biog. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 1931, 15, 105-135.
  • Ind. Eng. Chem. 1923, 15, 1088-1089.
  • Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci. 1935-36, 70, 541.
  • Am. J. Sci. (Ser. 5) 1929, 18, 539-540.
  • National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, James T. White & Co.: 1921-1984; vol. 12, p329-330.

References
  1. Buckminster, Lydia N.H., The Hastings Memorial, A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of Thomas Hastings of Watertown, Mass. from 1634 to 1864, Boston: Samuel G. Drake Publisher (an undated NEHGS photoduplicate of the 1866 edition), 126.
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