Biographical Memoirs Volume 60 (1991) / Chapter Skim
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19. Henry Stephen Washington
19. Henry Stephen Washington
Pages 366-393
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From page 367... ...
Sherman, editor of the Biographical Memoir series, searched for an author to write an appropriate memoir, realizing that it might be difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone now living who, besides having a vivid memory of seeing and hearing the great man, had also devoted many long hours to arduous study of his works. Yet ~ am one such perhaps the only one who still remains and so accepted the task (despite the special!
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From page 368... ...
Henry Stephens Washington was indeed such a great man. HENRY STEPHENS WASHINGTON was born in Newark, New Jersey, on January 15, IS67, the son of George ant!
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From page 369... ...
9234. IGNEOUS ROCK NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION In ~ 895 he returned to Yale, where he macie rock analyses for Professor L
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From page 370... ...
His part in this project was certainly one of Washington's most significant and enduring contributions to the science of geology: transforming the "coordinates" of an igneous rock composition the list of essential oxide amounts reported in the bulk analysis- into the chemical coordinates now known as the "CIPW norm." The new variables were clearly intended as proxies for mineral compositions. Each has the simplified, "ens!
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From page 371... ...
, and of Washington's monumental Chemical Analyses of Igneous Rocks (USGS Professional Paper 99, 1903) a quarto volume of some 600 pages containing the analyses essential to the CIPW project and discussions of numerous additional analyses as well.
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From page 372... ...
He spent five months in 1905 collecting igneous rocks in the Mediterranean region, and in 1906 the Carnegie Institution publishecl a 199-page volume of his petrologic studies of the Roman comagmatic volcanic region. In other publications his studies coverer!
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From page 373... ...
Day, director of the Geophysical Laboratory-—he visited the active volcanoes of the Mediterranean. The analytical work he did there and throughout the world resulted in papers on igneous rocks from Sardinia, Pantelleria, Brazil, Colorado, India, Rockall, and Stromboli, in which he presented views on several chemical and mineralogical relationships.
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From page 374... ...
From 1920 to 1924, he collectecl from the vast literature accessible in the library of the United States Geological Survey a great number of new igneous rock analyses, whose good quality reflected the two decades in which his 1904 Manual, anct its later editions, had instructed the worId's analysts in proper procedures of rock analysis. In 1917, Chemical Analyses of Igneous Rocks publishe(lfrom ]
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From page 375... ...
With the preparation, in 1930, of the fourth edition of his book on methods of chemical analysis came failing health through the remaining three years of his life, during which he wrote little...." (Merwin, 1952) In the forty-five years 1887 to 1932- of Washington's active professional life, he produced 169 publications (some four each year)
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From page 376... ...
S Washington's long scientific career brought him much acclaim from his scientific peers, whose assessments, excerpted here, can best give an idea of the importance and scope of his work: "When one considers the complexity of the earth's crust, it may be concluded that anything beyond an intelligent guess as to the composition of the crust lies beyond the power of the human mind.
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From page 377... ...
To those of Washington's acquaintances unfamiliar with the more earnest side of his character the amount of patient investigation and even drudgery to which he was willing to devote himself in this work is almost unbelievable." (Fenner, 1934) "With a finely formed head surmounted by a thick mass of wavy white hair, large luminous brown eyes, a Roman nose and full red lips enmeshed in a dense curly white beard, Dr.
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From page 378... ...
Clark, are devotecl to Henry Stephens Washington: "Henry Stephens Washington ( 1867-1934) Harry to a few close friends- used to describe himself as the enemy of every wife in Washington.
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From page 379... ...
Russell. "Although Harry Washington was so well known and so well liked by the Club members, most of them regarded him as a bit of a mystery, for his really intimate friends were few and he was very reserved about his personal affairs.
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From page 380... ...
Biog. 19: 527-8-6 4 Mathews devotes two pages to the history of the CIPW System of igneous rock classification and Washington's participation therein.
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From page 381... ...
Portraits of Washington and Clarke. Reprinted from The Capital Chemist 3~1953~:92.8 1968 Henry Stephens Washington.
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From page 382... ...
USA 2:623-6. 1917 Chemical analyses of igneous rocks, published from 1884 to 1913, inclusive, with a critical discussion of the character and use of analyses: a revision and expansion of Professional Paper 14.
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From page 383... ...
A chemical study of the yellow incrustation on the Vesuvian lava of 1631.
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From page 384... ...
A descriptive petrography of the igneous rocks, vol.
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From page 385... ...
Skinner to Charles Milton, dated August 16, 1988, regarding Milton's historical review of the Oldoinyo Lengai "natrocarbonate lava" and the account of his long association with Hans Eugster. A copy of this essay is now in the possession of the National Academy of Sciences archives.
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From page 386... ...
If such be the case, please tell him that on the occasion of the Hans Eugster Memorial Symposium in Baltimore last year, I compiled a review of the history of the Oldoinyo Lengai Natrocarbonatite Lava in Tanzania; in which, he figures most creditably indeed. Copies will be available, for anyone interested at the International Geological Congress Alkalic Rock and Carbonatite Symposium in Washington this summer; and I shall send him a copy.
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From page 387... ...
B Nolan, former director, U.S.G.S., to whom I owe more than I can ever repay; this was alluded to in a memoir written last year on the occasion of the Johns Hopkins Symposium honoring the memory of a very great geologist, Hans Eugster.
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From page 388... ...
Reading James on Buddington, and Nolan on Gilluly, was a joy: besides it being my good fortune to have known all four personally, the two memoirs convey a warmth of feeling for an honored and beloved friend; they also tell of cherished relationships with students and colleagues; of lifelong happy i2 At the time when Dr. Milton wrote this letter, the Cosmos Club's all-male status was being challenged in the courts.
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From page 389... ...
for me; I shall have returned from a couple of weeks of meetings in Arkansas and California; and will call you to arrange a day and time, perhaps simplest, in the afternoon at your Academy office. However, before I leave Washington, you will have a rough draft of what I would think would be appropriate in a Henry Stephens Washington Memoir written today, a half century after his death.
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From page 390... ...
There is a way, that would both honor his memory, and be a service to geologists of this generation, and of those to come. In my reading of all I could find on Washington's life and work, I learned that Henry Stephens Washington was truly a most memorable, indeed almost super-human being.
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From page 391... ...
On December 27, the Academy received a revised version of the Washington memoir forwarded by Dr. Nancy J
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From page 392... ...
Most important, his mood is vastly improved, and consequently that of everyone involved with him also.... Charles Milton lived well into his 94th year.
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