author
John Emery Bucher
1872–1943
A chemist and Brown University professor, he is remembered in the public domain mainly for a careful scientific study of cadmium that reflects the precision and patience of late 19th-century laboratory work.
1 Audiobook
An examination of some methods employed in determining the atomic weight of Cadmium
by John Emery Bucher
About the author
John Emery Bucher (1872–1943) was an American chemist whose surviving reputation today rests largely on his academic work rather than a broad popular readership. His best-known published work, An Examination of Some Methods Employed in Determining the Atomic Weight of Cadmium, was presented at Johns Hopkins for the Ph.D. and later preserved by Project Gutenberg, giving modern readers a direct look at his methodical approach to chemical research.
Records connected with Brown University show that Bucher went on to teach there and served as an associate professor of organic chemistry. Brown’s archival summary of the chemistry department also credits the arrival of John C. Bucher in 1901 with helping launch research chemistry at the university and notes that Brown awarded its first chemistry Ph.D. in 1903.
He seems to belong to the kind of scholar whose influence was felt most strongly in classrooms, laboratories, and university life. Even from the limited record that is easy to confirm online, he comes across as a careful scientist from an era when chemistry was becoming a more formal research discipline in American universities.