0 "MELLOR'S NONSENSE"'

ALEXANDER SILVERMAN University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

MOST American chemists thiik of Joseph William Mellor (1869-1938) as the author of "Complete Treatise on Theoretical and Inorganic Chemistry" (16 vols., 1937) and of the more popular "Modem In- organic Chemistry" which has been used as a college text in the entire English-speaking world. Mellor was a ceramist of note and published over 100 papers in that field. He was honorary secretary of the Ceramic Society from 1905 until he died May 24, 1938. He raised the status of the Society from a purely local one in Stoke-on-Trent, England, to national and inter- national prominence.

"Obituaries of the Royal Society of London" in- clude, in an article on Mellor, the comment "Keen

take notes." That "Chicl" was Joscph 3lellor whose cartoons illuminate the menus, usually t ~ ~ o full-page cartoons per menu and at least -a page of xitty com- ments. Only a few of the cartoons are reproduced: "We embark"; "The Boss putting the Boys to bed" (Mrs. Mellor accompanied the Doctor. He always referred to her as the "Boss" for she managed his husi- ness affairs and the publication of his writings. The names above the beds are those of officers of the Society, the President, William Gardner, past presidents, etc.); "We arrive" (note the Custom's officials portrayed as Indians with tomahawks, and the sign-board allusions to "Dry America").

There are many clever small sketches besides the full-page cartoons. On one menu (ilpril 27) all the courses begin with a "Ii" instead of a "C," as the British pronounce Ceramic "Iieramik." Mellor refers to the KKK as a society for protest,ing the soft C pro- nunciation. One of his concluding paragraphs reads

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sense of analogy; his wit and his lucid expression adorn his many writings." This wit is exemplified to the highest degree in his "Log-Book of the Voyage of the Ceramic Society to New York, April 1929," an auto- graphed bound copy of which, under the title "Mellor's Nonsense," was presented to the writer.

The 36-page volume contains the menus of the Ce- ramic Society from Saturday April 20 through Sunday

Cunard Line. The first menu contains a reference to a "Pictorial Journal" and states "Arrangements have been made for a Chiel (Scotch for child) among us to

From "Sidelights on the life and work of the late J, W. Mellor," presented to the Division of the Fiistory of Chemistry, Chicago, September 6, 1950.

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188 JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION

"I have the blues when I think that we are nearing the The variety of subject matter, the fine details of end of our voyage, and that I shall have to become Mellor's cartoons, the excellent facial portrayals of his serious again as I resume my top-hat." With a final victims,. the feeling of action, the extraordinary sense jibe at our soft-C pronunciation of "Ceramic" he of humor stamp him not only as a wit, but also as an signs off with "Hail Solumbia! THE CHIEL." artist "par excellence."