Today’s story of science at play comes from Alan Veith! His career seems to have really taken off, after an early connection with a chemistry set... and some mail order additives. Here he shares the many places that playing with science took him through the years...
From my chemistry set at age 12 (1938) I graduated to more potent chemicals (HCl, H2SO4, NaOH) obtained by U.S. Mail from a supplier in Hagerstown, Maryland— something that I know would not be possible today! But as a young teenager, I had already learned how to handle these chemicals and had no problems.
After service in World War II, I majored in physical chemistry at the University of Kentucky. In 1949 I joined the B.F. Goodrich Company for a career in rubber-industry R&D. I retired in 1991 as a senior research fellow with 35 published scientific papers. I had a parallel secondary career in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) work in rubber technology from 1970 to 2005.
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