On March 30, 2012, the Chemists’ Club hosted a networking reception in conjunction with the Chemical Engineering Approaches to Challenges in Energy and Biomedicine conference, at the New York Academy of Sciences in downtown NYC.

Photo coverage of the event is available through this link.

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Membership information can be found in our Membership section, or the application for membership can be downloaded directly from this link.

Not a long-time Member, nor even a chemist, he was amongst the most unusual of members in a Club given to very extraordinary personae. He was, in fact, a banker whose best fortunes were his remarkable parents. He was born in Elberfeld, the third and youngest son of Henry Theodor Böttinger (* 10 July 1848 in Burtonupon- Trent, England; † 9 June 1920 in Charlottenburg) and Adele Bayer, herself, daughter of Frederick Bayer, whose name is legendary. Henry was born in England’s famous brewing city, Burton-on-Trent, because his father was a chemist at Messrs. Allsopp Brewery, where Peter Griess developed the diazotization reaction to test for nitrites and later used for diazo dye syntheses. Griess had been a student of August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry in London. The Brewery now, sadly, is but stale beer.

Henry is credited with major influence in creating Bayer into the major international corporation of today and was awarded a Peerage in 1907, sitting thereafter in the House of Lords of the Preußen Parliament.

Waldemar was not as fortunate as his father as he was, briefly, partner with Baron Eduard von der Heydt in an adventurous Foreign Bank in London in 1913 and which His Britannic Majesty’s Government later confiscated in 1918 without payment.

But, why his interest in joining The Chemists’ Club? Perhaps his Grandfather’s Bayer Aspirin plant in Rensselaer… but, that’s another tale.

Students from colleges and universities around the New York City area attended the Chemists Club 114th Annual Eggnog event, bringing together members of past, present, and future generations of chemists and engineers.

Full photo coverage can be seen in this gallery!

b. 18 April 1868 – d. 21 March 1954
Charter Member and President, Chemists’ Club 1908

For over a half century “Colonel” Marston Bogert was the congenial face and eloquent voice of The Chemists’ Club. By any measure in any age, his academic history was unique. A student at Columbia, he was enrolled in Organic Chemistry when the instructor took ill and the class was told to “educate themselves”. He did, and never went to Germany to complete his chemical training, and so, without formal education in organic chemistry, authored hundreds of papers and remained at Columbia until 1939 when he became Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry in Residence. He was “Doktorvater” to many distinguished researchers including M. Heidelberger and F. D. Snell. In the Great War, he was an officer in the Chemical Corps, whose insignia is a benzene ring and crossed retorts, retiring as Colonel, a title that remained throughout his professional life. Clark University awarded him an LLD in 1909 and Columbia a ScD, h.c., in 1929. He received numerous awards and medals, including the Nichols Medal in 1905. He was charter member of Columbia’s Chapter of Sigma Xi, active in the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry and President of the parent organization in London in 1912, and President of the IUPAC in 1938.

Colonel Bogert presided over so many banquets at The Chemists’ Club that the dining room was renamed The Bogert Room in his honor.

Perhaps most memorable, he was Master of Ceremony presiding over the Perkin Medal Awards for generations. This Award had a unique tradition: at the Inaugural Award in 1906 all wore mauve bow ties. Subsequently, only those who participated in the seminal event wore mauve ties. By 1952, only three men could wear these ties: Bogert, Wallace Cohoe (President The Chemists’ Club, 1945-7, former SCI president) and Marz (former New York City Controller). In 1953, the torch was passed to Cohoe and all guests again wore traditional mauve ties.

Banquet 6 October 1906 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Perkin’s discovery of Mauve. Dinner at Delmonico’s for 400. All guests are wearing mauve bow ties.

High Table: l. Remson, Nichols, Clergy, Perkin, Chandler, Schweitzer

Seated center William Henry Perkin on his left Charles Chandler, on his right a clergyman and on the clergy’s right William Nichols (member, Chemists’ Club and founder of Nichols Medal Award 1903), on the far right (Chandler’s left) is Dr. Hugo Schweitzer who gave a keynote speech. Far left, possibly Ira Remson (member, Chemists’ Club) who also spoke. During his stay in New York, Perkin was guest at Chandler’s home.

Also, present: Walther Nernest, Wilhelm Ostwald, Dr. Wiley (founder of Pure Food laws), and lower center may be Professor Morris Loeb. Lady Perkin and two of their daughters were also to be present but, typical for that period no ladies are seen near the Head Table.

The original building was a longtime home to many scientific and industrial groups such as
the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, local sections of the American Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical Industry, the American Electrochemical Society, the Verein Deutscher Chemiker, and le Société de Chimie Industriell, and was a popular meeting place for countless other societies. To reflect upon the rich history accumulated by the Chemists’ Club building and its inhabitants over the past decade, Dr. Edward Cook presented a montage of photographs and images of our first home.

This review was then juxtaposed against a forward-looking discussion of the state of current and future rechargeable battery technology, presented by Michael Lew of Needham & Company and by Robert L. Kanode of Valence.

The presentation given by Michael Lew and Robert Kanode can be downloaded and viewed here.

Speaker Biographies:

• Edward Werner Cook studied under Joseph Park in fluorine chemistry at the University of Colorado, did military research at FMC in Princeton and was a Research Group Leader with the Oil Shale Corporation in Golden, Colorado. Subsequently, he was a Europeanbased consultant to Hein Koolsbergen, CEO of Tosco Corporation. He was technical consultant on alternative energy to the Alberta Gas Pipeline, Manalta Coal, Ontario, and Saarbergwerke. He was also an ambassador to The Highlands and Islands Development board in Inverness. He currently is restoring Caprilands Herb Farm as an educational resource and national heritage and is fascinated with the kaleidoscopic history of The Chemists’ Club.
• Michael Lew, Senior Analyst, Energy Creation and Energy Efficiency, joined Needham & Company in 2010. Previously, he was a senior analyst at ThinkEquity focused on energy storage and advanced material applications. He began his career on Wall Street at UBS focusing on IT hardware. Prior to that, Michael was a credit analyst and engineer at IBM. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University, an MS in Materials Science from Columbia University, and an MBA from New York University.
• Robert L. Kanode, President and Chief Executive Officer previously served as senior consultant of product and account development for Valence prior to his appointment as president and chief executive officer. His extensive career includes over 15 years of experience in the battery industry including executive, senior management and technical consulting positions with BASF, IBM, United Technology, Varta Batteries AG
  and other technology corporations. He is an award winning leader in the worldwide introduction of new products, implementation of efficient manufacturing and fulfillment systems, and niche market sales expansion.
  Mr. Kanode has served on the board of directors for the Portable Rechargeable Battery Association and is a graduate of the Auburn University School of Engineering.

Hart O. Berg was a longtime foreign member of The Chemists’ Club, having joined about the time of the opening of the Club Building in 1911 and was still a member in 1939 with a Paris address in the fashionable 8th Arrondissement or Élysée section, a fitting complement to his New York Club address: 50-54 East 41st Street.

The Chemists’ Club has always had very eclectic membership and Hart O. Berg is ample evidence of a grand entrepreneur.

A native of Hartford, in 1897 he was Director of External Affairs for Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Liège, Belgium and returned to Hartford to investigate latest techniques of bicycle manufacture as FN had considerable spare capacity and skilled workers. At Colt’s in Hartford he met John Browning and secured European rights for FN to manufacture his newly designed gun, eventually known simply as FN’s le Pistolet Browning. Years later, an FN Browning pistol was used to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, plunging Europe and America into war.

Berg later founded the Berg Automobile Company in Cleveland in 1903 and sold the firm in 1905.

However, Berg’s most notable adventure was with the Wright Brothers. Following dismal response to their invention in America and disbelief in Europe – particularly with the French – Wilber Wright travelled to Europe with one of their aeroplanes and retained Berg as agent. Berg arranged for Wright’s flying exhibitions at Le Mans Aero Club in 1908 with admission tickets personally signed by him and all of Europe was electrified by the performances. Hart’s wife, Edith, was the first woman ever to fly when she went aloft with Wilber. Tying the bottom of her ankle-length skirt for modesty, she inadvertently invented the famous hobbled skirt.

The eventual commercial success of Wrights’ aeroplanes was due to Hart O. Berg’s commercial acumen, in true
Chemists’ Club spirit!

Berg was a Chevalier Légion d’honneur.