GombergHouses

Moses Gomberg in Ann Arbor ⁽^b⁾

Ann Arbor, Michigan, must have seemed like paradise to Moses Gomberg who had fled Elizabetgrad, Ukraine, in 1884 at the age of 18 during the pogroms following the assassination of Czar Alexander II, and spent his first two years in America as an immigrant in Chicago. Though he had been well educated in a Russian gymnasium, it is thought that he did not speak English on arrival in America. He must have learned quickly, because in addition to working in the Chicago Stock Yards he was able to supplement his education by studying at Lake High School in Chicago.

Gomberg entered the University of Michigan as a freshman in 1886,⁽^a⁾ and for the rest of his life, except for a year in Germany, a term in California, and a few trips, he would live within easy walking distance of its Chemistry Laboratory.

After 4 years as an undergraduate Gomberg earned the B.S. in Chemistry and Crystallography in 1890. He then entered graduate school in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Professor A. B. Prescott, M.D. (1832-1905), who was Professor of Organic Chemistry, Director of the Chemical Laboratories and Dean of Pharmacy.⁽^p⁾ Prescott, a cripple since childhood, was an unusually kindly and accomplished mentor. Although he would present the work of his students at scientific meetings, he would rarely include his own name as author. He had served as President of the American Chemical Society in 1896.

Prescott's most noted research involved analyzing iodide complexes of the alkaloids. His vice-presidential address to the 1887 New York meeting of the AAAS was entitled "The Chemistry of Nitrogen as Disclosed in the Constitution of the Alkaloids." He concluded the address with a discussion of diazo and azo compounds and stated "Whatever may be in reserve for future chemistry,... its importance is sure to belong, in greater part, to the chemistry of nitrogen."

By at least 1890 Gomberg's sister, Sophia,⁽^s⁾ must have come to join him in Ann Arbor. She graduated from Ann Arbor High School with a diploma in Science in June 1892. Neither sibling married, and they would live together until his death in 1947. It is not known where, or how long, their parents lived.⁽ⁿ⁾

Gomberg became Assistant in Organic Chemistry in 1891, and the 1892-93 Calendar of the University listed his address as 69 South University Avenue to the west of the University where South University Avenue no longer runs, although it was then home to a number of young instructors and to the shop superintendent. Bailar wrote that "During the early days in Ann Arbor, they lived very humbly, almost like Russian peasants."⁽^b^a)

In 1892 he earned the M.S. degree (one of four at Michigan that year), and in 1893 he was promoted to Instructor. In 1894 he was awarded the third D.S. in the history of the University - the second, and last, in Chemistry. (The other Chemistry D.S. was awarded to Frederick G. Novy in 1890⁽ⁿ⁾; the first Chemistry Ph.D.s would be awarded five years later in 1899). Gomberg's thesis "Trimethylxanthin and some of its Derivatives" was an extension of the work of Prescott.

During his four years living at 69 South University Gomberg was teaching a number of laboratory courses in organic analysis and synthesis, often as assistant to Prescott. In the fall of 1895, after receiving his doctorate, he began supervising laboratories with the assistance of Mr. Trowbridge, and he offered his first independent lecture course, "Chemistry 20. Diazo-compounds, in both the fatty and the aromatic series of organic chemistry."

Gomberg was saving money for his 1896-97 postdoctoral research in Munich and Heidelberg, and it would appear that Prescott was readying him and the department for this research leave.

In Heidelberg Gomberg gained a substantial reputation by preparing the long-elusive tetraphenylmethane through carbon-carbon bond formation involving nitrogen elimination from an azo compound. Although the idea for this approach may have blossomed in his time with Thiele in Munich, who had recently described AIBN, it is plausible that he had chosen to study azo compounds with Thiele in part because of his background with Prescott at Michigan.

On his return to teaching in 1897 Gomberg was again assisted in laboratory teaching by Mr. Trowbridge (who had been in charge, assisted by Mr. Davoll, in Gomberg's absence), but he now presented two new lecture courses: "Chemistry 33. Pyridine Derivatives" in the Fall, and "Chemistry 20. The Benzene Derivatives" in the Spring. Even more indicative of his rising reputation he was given charge of a new research course, "Chemistry 18. Original Investigations in Organic Chemistry", to parallel Prescott's "Chemistry 17. Original Investigations in Organic Chemistry". Back from Germany Gomberg and his sister took up residence east of the University at 1505 S. University Avenue, at the corner of Walnut St.(I) The address is now a neighborhood park surrounded by neat, modest homes.	I
In 1899 Gomberg was promoted to Assistant Professor. At the same time he and Sophia moved into a frame house at 1101 East University Avenue.(II) This is where he was living when he wrote the 1900 paper on triphenylmethyl that would ensure his enduring fame. Gomberg's reputation spread rapidly, both locally and internationally. Within two years he was promoted to Junior Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1902, and only two years later to Full Professor. The last promotion was unusually prompt. Frederick G. Novy, Michigan's first D.S. in Chemistry, was appointed Assistant Professor in 1891 and served nine years as Junior Professor from 1893 before he was promoted to Professor.⁽ⁿ⁾	II
Local pride in Gomberg's accomplishments is evident in the 1905 Memorial Tribute to Prescott by the University Senate, ^(p) "The worth of such a clear-headed, big-hearted instructor [Prescott] to the students who are fortunate enough to come under his influence is greater than gold, and it is no wonder that the Chemical Laboratory of this University became the birthplace of such chemists and Wrampelmeier of London, Young of Northwesern, Dennis of Cornell, Senier of Ireland, Hesse of Germany, the late Henry Parsons of New York, and our own Gomberg, whose epoch-making researches on the valence of Carbon have brought to the University great honor from the leading chemists of the world."
Upon his becoming Professor at the age of 38, Gomberg and his sister moved to a much larger home (now divided into apartments) two blocks closer to the University at 841 East University Avenue.(III)	The Gombergs must have been pleased at how they had prospered in the 20 years since coming to America. In 1908 they moved to 725 Oxford Road,(IV) a home so large that it has since served as a fraternity house. In July 2000 it is being remodeled to serve as a residence for nuns, according to a workman, who was surprised to hear that it had been the residence of a bachelor and his sister
.III	IV
Gomberg was most reluctant to leave Ann Arbor. During the First World War, despite the repeated blandishments of James Flack Norris, who wanted him to move to Washington for research on poison gases at the Bureau of Mines, Gomberg preferred to remain in Ann Arbor and to do his bit by working on improved syntheses of mustard gas in his own laboratory. Even in wartime he gave high priority to his teaching responsibilities, as can be seen in the following passage from a May 25, 1918, letter to Norris: "I am still continuing my work on mustard gas, but as one of my two assistants has left me last week, - to enter military service , - the progress is bound to be even slower than previously. The approaching examination period will also rob me of time needed badly for the mustard gas work. I shall probably be through with the University work about the middle of June, and shall wish to give my time wholly to some sort of work on war problems, either in Washington or here."
His accomplishments as a teacher are apparent in the following anecdote in a 1936 letter to Gomberg from Lee Cone Holt: "One third of a century ago a recent graduate of a small California college walked across the campus of the University of Michigan toward the Chemical Laboratory. Within fifty feet of the laboratory door a plumber in overalls approached. Just as the young man passed the plumber the latter dropped his tools and stood with an astonished look on his face. The plumber was a medical student from the same small Pacific Coast college that the young man had more recently left. Only a few words could be exchanged with the busy plumber but those few words had an enormous influence on the life of the new comer. The plumber said, "If you have come here to study chemistry go at once to an instructor named Gomberg. I have just had his lecture course in organic chemistry and he is such a marvelous teacher that I am sure he must also be a wonderful man to work with." Within five minutes the California graduate was in earnest conversation with you. I was that graduate and you know the story from there on as intimately as do I."
Probably by the late 1920s the Gombergs had moved two blocks further east to 712 Onondaga,(V) a charming Tudor home where they lived after his retirement. Gomberg died in 1947 and his sister some years later. They left an estate worth $600,000 as an endowment to the Chemistry Department to support student fellowships.	V
As his colleagues and former students Schoepfle and Bachmann wrote in 1947:⁽^b^a) "All evidences of his attainments were received with modesty that was one of his characteristic traits. He never sought preferment, and all forms of academic advertising were alien to his soul." "A great teacher and scholar, he inspired his students by his methods and ideals, and his colleagues by the vigor and clarity of his mind. To this greatness he added an innate kindliness and unassuming modesty that endeared him to all." He wore this modesty to the end of his days, volunteering incognito as an analyst in the Ann Arbor hospital laboratory during World War II. On his death the Ann Arbor News reported "In accordance with Prof. Gomberg's instructions, no funeral services will be held and the body will be cremated."⁽^aan⁾ For more than fifty years Ann Arbor had no monument at all to Gomberg or to his momentous discovery. On the centennial of his paper "Triphenylmethyl, a Case of Trivalent Carbon" a symposium was held in his memory at Ann Arbor and a plaque was installed designating a National Historic Chemical Landmark.

NATIONAL HISTORIC
CHEMICAL LANDMARK

THE DISCOVERY OF
ORGANIC FREE
RADICALS

University of Michigan
1900

In 1900, Moses Gomberg, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, confirmed the existence of a stable, trivalent organic free radical; triphenylmethyl. In so doing, he challenged the then prevailing belief that carbon could have only four chemical bonds. Gomberg's discovery made a major contribution to theoretical organic chemistry and fostered a field of research that continues to grow and expand. Today, organic free radicals are widely used in plastics and rubber manufacture, as well as medicine, agriculture and biochemistry.

American Chemical Society_________ June 25, 2000

I am grateful to Professors N. A. Porter, Christoph Rüchardt, and P. A. S. Smith
and to Ms. Camilla MacKay of the Michigan Graduate Research Library for help in compiling this page.
For permission to use the historical photos and to quote from Gomberg's correspondence
I am grateful to the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

Notes

(a) Most of the information about Gomberg's academic career and addresses is drawn from volumes of the "Calendar of the University of Michigan" and Annual Reports of the President to the Board of Regents.

(aan) "Prof. Gomberg, Dintinguished Chemist, Dies." Ann Arbor News, Feb. 12, 1947, p. 1.

(b) For other Gomberg biographies from which some of this material is drawn see:

a. C.S. Schoepfle and W. E. Bachmann. "Moses Gomberg, 1866-1947." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1948, 69, 2921-2915.
b. J. C. Bailar, Jr. "Moses Gomberg." Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science 1970, 41, 141-173.

c. A. J. Ihde. "The History of Free Radicals and Moses Gomberg's Contributions." Pure and Applied Chemistry 1967, 30, 1-16.

d. J. M. McBride. "The Hexaphenylethane Riddle." Tetrahedron 1974, 30, 2009-2022.

e. C. Walling. "Moses Gomberg." Proceedings of the R. A. Welch Foundation Conferences on Chemical Research. XX. American Chemistry-Bicentennial, 1977, 72-84.

(n) E. R. Long, "Frederick George Novy." Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science, 33, 326-350. When in 1882, four years before Gomberg, Novy began university studies at Michigan at the age of 18, his family, who had immigrated to Chicago from Bohemia in 1864, moved to Ann Arbor, suggesting at least the possibility that other family members may have accompanied Gomberg. Although Novy's home listing in the Calendar was changed from Chicago to Ann Arbor in 1883, Gomberg's was kept as Elizabetgrad, Russia, until he graduated in 1890. Novy stayed in Ann Arbor, like Gomberg, until his death 75 years later.

(p) "Albert Benjamin Prescott In Memoriam" Privately Printed, Ann Arbor, 1906.

(s) Miss Gomberg's first name is given as Sophia on her high school diploma and on documents in Germany, but she is called Sonia in Bailar's Biographical Memoir of Gomberg (bb) and in the Ann Arbor News report of Gomberg's death.

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