Atherton Seidell
Encyclopedia
Atherton Seidell a founder of the American Documentation Institute
(predecessor of the American Society for Information Science), was a chemist
and who became a strong proponent of the use of microfilm for the management of scientific information. As Peter Hirtle writes, "Through a series of seminal articles in Science
in the 1930s and 1940s, Seidell established a theoretical justification for the use of microfilms as a means of facilitating scientific information exchange."
With M. de Saint Rat, Seidell developed a simple, inexpensive ($2.00 in 1950), monocular microfilm viewing device, known as the "Seidell viewer," that was sold during the 1940s and 1950s.
Seidell's studies of vitamins lead to numerous publications, including the book, Solubilities of Inorganic and Organic Compounds. This text was first announced in a 1907 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society
, with the title, Solubilities of Inorganic and Organic Substances: A Handbook of the Most Reliable Quantitative Solubility Determinations. The text appeared in numerous editions over the course of fifty years, the last with which Seidell was involved being entitled, Solubilities, Inorganic and Metal Organic Compounds: A Compilation of Solubility Data from the Periodical Literature. This edition was co-written in 1958 with William F. Linke, who produced another edition in 1965.
American Documentation Institute
The American Documentation Institute was founded by Watson Davis in 1935 as Documentation Institute which changed its name to the American Documentation Institute in 1937...
(predecessor of the American Society for Information Science), was a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
and who became a strong proponent of the use of microfilm for the management of scientific information. As Peter Hirtle writes, "Through a series of seminal articles in Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
in the 1930s and 1940s, Seidell established a theoretical justification for the use of microfilms as a means of facilitating scientific information exchange."
With M. de Saint Rat, Seidell developed a simple, inexpensive ($2.00 in 1950), monocular microfilm viewing device, known as the "Seidell viewer," that was sold during the 1940s and 1950s.
Seidell's studies of vitamins lead to numerous publications, including the book, Solubilities of Inorganic and Organic Compounds. This text was first announced in a 1907 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society
Journal of the American Chemical Society
The Journal of the American Chemical Society is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the Journal of Analytical and Applied Chemistry and the American Chemical Journal...
, with the title, Solubilities of Inorganic and Organic Substances: A Handbook of the Most Reliable Quantitative Solubility Determinations. The text appeared in numerous editions over the course of fifty years, the last with which Seidell was involved being entitled, Solubilities, Inorganic and Metal Organic Compounds: A Compilation of Solubility Data from the Periodical Literature. This edition was co-written in 1958 with William F. Linke, who produced another edition in 1965.