Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/246

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REMINGTON
REMY

One of the early inventors of the type- writer placed his crude model in the hands of this firm, and un- der their care the machine became the most suc- cessful instrument in use. In 1886 the Remingtons disposed of their type-writing-machine manufac- turing business, and soon afterward the firm of E. Remington and Sons went into liquidation. Since then Mr. Remington has lived in retirement. Philo Remington was for nearly twenty years president of the village of Ilion, and with his brother has given Syracuse university sums aggre- gating $250,000.


REMINGTON, Stephen, clergyman, b. in Bed- ford, Westchester co.. N. Y., 16 May, 1803 ; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 23 March, 1869. He held revival meetings when sixteen years old, and was admitted to the New York M. E. conference in 1825. While preaching to large congregations in Brooklyn and Albany, N. Y., Boston, Mass., and other cities, he pursued the study of medicine, obtained the degree df M. IX from Harvard in 1845, and practised inci- dentally with success. In 1845, while he was pastor of a church in Lowell, Mass., he withdrew from the Methodist communion and joined the Baptists. He subsequently held pastorates in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Brooklyn. His " Rea- sons for Becoming a Baptist " (1849) was translated into various foreign languages. It was followed by " A Defence of Restricted Communion," which also had a wide circulation.


REMSEN, Ira, chemist, b. in New York city, 10 Feb., 1846. He studied at the College of the city of New York, and was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons of Columbia in 1867. Se- lecting chemistry as his profession, he went to Mu- nich, where he spent a year, and then to Gottingen, where he received the degree of Ph. D. in 1870. Dr. Remsen then went to Tubingen at the invitation of Prof. Rudolph Fittig, and continued as assistant in the laboratory of that university for two years. In 1872 he returned to the United States, and ac- cepted the professorship of chemistry and physics at Williams. At that time there was no chemical laboratory in the college, but in the course of a year facilities were obtained and investigations on the action of ozone on carbon monoxide, on phos- phorus trichloride, and researches on parasulpho- benzoic acid were completed. In 1876 he was called to fill the chair of chemistry in Johns Hop- kins university, then just founded, and since, with facilities that 'are unexcelled in the United States, he has carried on, without interruption, systematic scientific researches. Among these are studies on " The Oxidation of Substitution-Products of Aro- matic Hydrocarbons " that have led to results of special interest ; researches " On the Relations be- tween Oxygen, Ozone, and Active Oxygen " ; an investigation " On the Chemical Action in a Mag- netic Field," in which positive evidence is fur- nished for the first time that in some cases chem- ical action is influenced by magnetism ; and studies " On the Sulphinides," a new class of organic com- pounds, some of which have remarkable proper- ties. One, discovered in his laboratory, has come into prominence under the name of saccharine. It is about 250 times sweeter than ordinary sugar, and is not injurious in its action upon the sys- tem. Another substance, belonging to the same class as saccharine, is fully as sweet, another is intensely bitter, and two others have been inves- tigated, each of which tastes sweet when applied to the tip of the tongue, and bitter at the base of the tongue. The results of other investigations are given in papers "On .-i New ('lass of Coloring Matters known as Sulphon-Fluoresceins," "On the Decomposition of Diazo-Compounds by Alcohol," and " On the Relative Stability of Analogous Halo- gen Substitution-Products." In 1881 he was in- vited by the city council of Boston to look into a peculiar condition of the city water, which was un- fit for use, owing to a disagreeable taste and odor. Dr. Remsen showed that the trouble was due to a large quantity of fresh-water sponge in one of the artificial lakes from which the water was drawn. He has also been intrusted with special researches by the National board of health, among which were " An Investigation of the Organic Matter in the Air" and " On the Contamination of Air in Rooms heated by Hot-Air Furnaces or by Cast- iron Stoves." He is a member of scientific societies at home and abroad, and in 1882 was elected to the National academy of sciences, on whose committees he has served, notably on the one that investigated the glucose industry of the United States (1884), and he was chairman of the committee to consider the practicability of a plan to relieve manufactu- rers from the tax on alcohol by adding to it wood spirits, with the object of making it unfit for use as a beverage. In 1879 he founded the " American Chemical Journal," and he has since edited that periodical, in which his papers have appeared. He has published a translation of Fittig's " Organic Chemistry " (Philadelphia, 1873) ; " The Principles of Theoretical Chemistry" (1877; enlarged ed., 1887), of which English and German editions have appeared ; " Introduction to the Study of the Com- pounds of Carbon, or Organic Chemistry " (1885), of which English, German, and Italian editions have been published " : " Introduction to the Study of Chemistry " (New York, 1886), of which English and German editions were made ; and " The Ele- ments of Chemistry " (1887).


REMY, Jules (ray-me), French traveller, b. in Livry, near Chalons-sur-Marne, France, 2 Sept., 1826. After temporarily occupying the chair of natural history at the College Rollin from 1848 till 1S50, he set out in 1851 on along journey, during which he visited the Canary islands. Brazil, Chili, Bolivia, Peru, and also the Marquesas and Society islands. He devoted three years to the Sandwich islands, where he came near dying from the effects of poison that was administered by a, native fanatic. He succeeded in collecting much material bearing on their history, language, bot- any, and ethnography. King Kamehameha III. became greatly interested in M. Remy, and made fruitless efforts to induce him to remain permanently at Honolulu as a member of the government. After leaving Oceania, he sailed for California, every part of which he explored in company with an English traveller named Brenchley. After spending three months at Salt Lake City, M. Remy returned to San Francisco. He then traversed Mexico, New Grenada, and the plateau of the equatorial Andes as far as Quito. After as<vnding Pichincha and Chimborazo, he again visited Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, and embarked at Panama for the United States, where he travelled extensively. He then returned to France, and busied himself in arranging and publishing the mass of information he had collected. In 1863 he visited central Asia and parts of Thibet and the Himalayas. He has since resided at Livry. Among other works he has published " Analecta Bolivian:!, sen genera et species plantarum in Bolivia creseentium" (2 vols.. Paris. 1846-'7) ; "Monografia de las compuestas de Chile" (Paris, 18411, with atlas); "Ascension du Picliinehn " (Chalons-sur-Marne, K>^i; "Recits d'un vieiix saiivage pour servir a 1'histoire ancienne de Hawaii " (1859) ; " Voyage