A FERTILE GROUND FOR NEW
THINKING
EMERGING ISSUES
1880-1920
William Pitt Mason
Pioneer in Sanitation Engineering
William Pitt Mason
(1853-1938)
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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, 28th president of AWWA
W.P. Mason
Pioneer in Sanitation Chemistry?
• Notes on Qualitative Analysis for Students of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1st 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
W.P. Mason
Pioneer in Sanitation Chemistry?
• “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 4th year chemistry class description
for Natural Science majors (1896)
W.P. Mason
Pioneer in Sanitation Chemistry?
• Water Supply (Considered Principally from a Sanitary
Standpoint), 1st ed. (1896, J. Wiley & Sons)
• Examination of Water (Chemical and Bacteriological), 1st 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, 1st ed. (APHA, 1905)