A FERTILE GROUND FOR NEW THINKING EMERGING ISSUES

William Pitt Mason Pioneer in Sanitation Engineering

William Pitt Mason ( ) C.E. degree, RPI (1874) M.D., Albany Medical College (1881) Assistant Professor of Chemistry, RPI (1882) Professor of Analytical Chemistry, RPI (1885) Head of Chemistry Department, RPI (1895) LL.D., Lafayette College (1908) Head of *newly formed* Chemical Engineering Department, RPI (1912) Doctor of Science, Union University (1917) Member, APHA, 28 th president of AWWA

W.P. Mason Pioneer in Sanitation Chemistry? Notes on Qualitative Analysis for Students of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1 st ed. (1883, Nims) –Chemical analysis of water Studied bacteriology with Pasteur at Pasteur Institute (1889 and 1893) Examination of Potable Water (1890, Nims & Knight) –Commentary on importance of standardized water examination methods (chemical analyses) –Based on 1889 report of the “water committee” of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), of which Mason was a member –This committee influenced the first publication of Standard Methods in 1905 by the APHA

“Notes on some cases of drinking water and disease” (speech, 1891) –Typhoid outbreaks in the Albany area, due to contamination of Mohawk-Hudson water Report on An Additional Water Supply for the City of Troy Made to the Water Commissioners (1893, 1897) –Investigated alternative water sources for Troy, NY –Ranked “desirability” of water sources on bacterial counts “Chemical and bacteriological examination of potable water” included in 4 th year chemistry class description for Natural Science majors (1896) W.P. Mason Pioneer in Sanitation Chemistry?

Water Supply (Considered Principally from a Sanitary Standpoint), 1 st ed. (1896, J. Wiley & Sons) Examination of Water (Chemical and Bacteriological), 1 st ed. (1899, J. Wiley & Sons) –Preface: “Knowledge of ordinary quantitative analysis is here necessarily assumed…while the items properly lying within the scope of a sanitary examination are dealt with more at length” “Special Course in Water Analysis” offered at RPI (1902) Standard Methods of Water Analysis, 1 st ed. (APHA, 1905) W.P. Mason Pioneer in Sanitation Chemistry?