Call Number:

08

Repository:

Science History Institute Archives

Extent:

1 linear feet (2 boxes)

Preferred Citation:

Papers of Elmer Otto Kraemer, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania..

Date:

1925-1941 (inclusive)

Creator:

Kraemer, Elmer Otto, 1898-1943, Svedberg, Theodor, 1884-1971, Adair, Gilbert Smithson, 1896-1979, Pedersen, Kai Oluf, 1901-1991, and Lansing, William Dwight, 1902-

Form:

Archival materials

Abstract:

These are lectures notes, reprints and page proofs mostly by Elmer O. Kraemer and dealing with colloids and proteins.

Elmer Otto Kraemer was born on February 27, 1898 In Liberty, WI. He attended the University of Wisconsin. In 1921 he studied abroad at Uppsala Sweden with Prof. Theodor Svedberg, a future Nobel laureate. He received his Ph.D. from Wisconsin in 1924. Kraemer was a physical chemist, whose specialties included colloids, cellulose, high polymers and the ultracentrifuge. From 1927 to 1938 he was colloid group leader at Du Pont's Experimental Station and contributed to the development of Nylon. In 1933 he and another Du Pont chemist, William D. Lansing used an Ultracentrifuge to determine the molecular weight of a synthetic polymer. He is credited with moving colloid chemistry from a qualitative to a quantitative science. Kraemer died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 7, 1943 while attending an ACS conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

For a more detailed inventory, please view this record in our library catalog: https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/record=b1064737~S6

The notes appear to be for lectures delivered to fellow Du Pont chemists. They are reasonably comprehensive. The allied materials include page proofs to both English- and German-language books on the ultracentrifuge by Theodor Svedberg and Kai O. Pedersen to which Kraemer contributed. The reprints include articles by Kraemer and others relating to both the ultracentrifuge and proteins (most of the latter are by Gilbert S. Adair).