The Michael Heidelberger Papers

Title:

Letter from Richard Willstatter to Michael Heidelberger

Description:

Heidelberger had helped to synthesize cyclooctatetraene, the next higher analog of benzene (consisting of a ring with eight carbon atoms and four double bonds), during a year of postdoctoral study (1911-12) in the laboratory of the 1915 Nobel Laureate, Richard Willstatter, at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. His research with Willstatter on cyclooctatetraene was controversial, and was questioned as late as the 1940s by Hugh S. Taylor and Charles D. Hurd. In this letter, Willstatter admitted to being "shaken up" by Taylor and Hurd's criticism, which he concluded was due to a misreading of his and Heidelberger's evidence and to ignorance on their part of the chemistry of hydrocarbons of the cyclooctane series. He urged Heidelberger to publish a defense of their research.

In his correspondence with Taylor and Hurd, Heidelberger stood firmly by his and Willstatter's results, pointing out that while Taylor and Hurd showed that cyclooctatetraene resinifies and degrades at high temperatures, he had instead worked in cold temperatures continuously for 24 hours to synthesize a colorless liquid that was both stable and reactive. Heidelberger and Willstatter's results were confirmed by others, and as a consequence of their work cyclooctatetraene became a widely used intermediate in organic chemistry.

In addition, Willstatter congratulated Heidelberger on his research with phosphorylated egg albumin as an antigen for use in precipitin reactions, which Willstatter predicted would open a "new field of work" in immunology.

Item is handwritten.

Number of Image Pages:

1 (63,699 Bytes)

Date:

1940-03-27 (March 27, 1940)

Creator:

Willstatter, Richard

Recipient:

Heidelberger, Michael

Rights:

Courtesy of Michael Heidelberger.

The National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science program has made every effort to secure proper permissions for posting items on the web site. In this instance, however, it has either not been possible to identify or contact the current copyright owner. If you have information regarding the copyright owner, please contact us at profiles@nlm.nih.gov.

Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Chemistry, Organic

Exhibit Category:

The Making of an Immunologist: Heidelberger's Years at the Rockefeller Institute, 1912-1927

Relation:

Letter from Michael Heidelberger to Hugh S. Taylor, Princeton University (September 9, 1939)

Letter from Hugh S. Taylor, Princeton University to Michael Heidelberger (November 4, 1939)

Letter from Michael Heidelberger to Hugh S. Taylor, Princeton University (November 7, 1939)

Letter from Michael Heidelberger to Charles D. Hurd, Northwestern University (November 8, 1939)

Letter from Charles D. Hurd, Northwestern University to Michael Heidelberger (November 29, 1939)

Box Number: 1

Folder Number: 1

Unique Identifier:

DHBBMJ

Document Type:

Letters (correspondence)

Language:

German

Format:

application/pdf

image/tif

Physical Condition:

Good

Folder: MS C 245 (first finding aid)

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2006-07-06

U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services
USA.gov, Copyright, Privacy, Accessibility
Comments, Viewers, Acknowledgments