Mary Engle Pennington

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Mary Engle Pennington 1940

Mary Engle Pennington (born October 8, 1872 in Nashville , Tennessee , † December 27, 1952 in New York City ) was an American chemist and bacteriologist . Among other things, she worked for the later Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for twelve years , set the first hygiene standards and was a pioneer in the field of food refrigeration. She campaigned for an uninterrupted cold chain from the manufacturer to the consumer and was involved in the development of ice boxes , cold stores and railroad refrigerated trucks .

Life

Youth and Studies

Mary Engle Pennington at a young age, about 1890

Mary Engle Pennington was the older daughter of Henry Pennington and Sahra B. Molony. Shortly after Mary was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1872, the Quaker family moved back to their ancestral roots in Philadelphia . After her high school Accounts she studied from 1890 Biology and Chemistry at the Towne Scientific School and bacteriology on hygiene -Laboratorium the University of Pennsylvania , her 1892 only a certificate of competence (certificate of proficiency) exhibited since the University of the degree Bachelor at that Time not forgiving women. But she was admitted as a doctoral candidate and received her PhD in chemistry in 1895 under Edgar Fahs Smith . She then received a two-year fellowship in botany at the university and then a one- year fellowship in physiological chemistry at Yale University .

Work for the City of Philadelphia and the FDA

Upon her return to Philadelphia in 1898, Pennington took the position as director of the Clinical Laboratory at Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania , where she also worked as a teacher. In addition, she ran her own analytical laboratory for regional doctors for several years. Because of her established reputation , Mary Engle Pennington was hired by the Philadelphia City Health Department as director of the bacteriological laboratory in 1904. Among other things, she was responsible for the dairy products sold in the city , campaigned for better hygienic conditions for farmers and sellers, and advocated legal requirements. In 1907 she went to the Bureau of Chemistry, US Department of Agriculture (USDA, since 1927 Food and Drug Administration , FDA), where she worked as a bacteriologist. It was here that the then director of the USDA, Harvey Washington Wiley , became aware of her and made her head of the new Food Research Laboratory in 1908 . Wiley was largely responsible for the Pure Food and Drug Act , which came into force in 1906 , the first of a series of major consumer protection laws passed in the 20th century to regulate and monitor the food and drugs sold in the United States, and which later created the FDA led. Mary Engle Pennington developed tests to identify spoiled food here until 1919 and pioneered the safe transport and storage of fresh food in order to prevent it from spoiling. She focused on reducing bacterial contamination through refrigeration, especially in eggs, poultry and dairy products. She researched the necessary optimal temperatures, advocated an uninterrupted cold chain right up to the consumer, developed special insulated refrigerated vehicles for transport by rail and contributed to improving the design and construction of cold rooms and cabinets. Starting with four employees, the workforce of the laboratory grew to 55 employees under her leadership by 1919.

Advisory Bureau and the National Association of Ice Industries

Dissatisfied with the USDA's collaboration with the Food Research Laboratory and due to a lack of support from its new director, Mary Engle Pennington left the civil service in 1919 and worked for American Balsa , a company that manufactured refrigeration equipment and trolleys , until 1922 . She also founded her own consulting firm in New York City in 1920, which lasted until her death in 1952. In 1923 she accepted the offer of the National Association of Ice Industries (NAII) to head the Household Refrigeration Bureau . Until the early 1930s, she campaigned for the maintenance of the cold chain and on the consumer side and business lobbying for the use of fridges in the household, the precursors of the modern refrigerator and emerging competing product which later increasingly represented an economic loss for the NAII.

Awards

literature

  • Marelene F. and Geoffrey W. Rayner-Canham: Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2005, ISBN 978-0941901277 , pp. 142-144.
  • Barbara Heggie: Ice Woman: Dr. Mary Engle Pennington. In: The New Yorker. September 6, 1941.
  • Lisa Mae Robinson: Regulating What We Eat: Mary Engle Pennington and the Food Research Laboratory. In: Agricultural History. Vol. 64, No. 2, 1990, pp. 143-153.
  • Lisa Mae Robinson: Safeguarded by Your Refrigerator: Mary Engle Pennington's Struggle with the National Association of Ice Industries. In: Sarah Stage, Virginia Bramble Vincenti (Ed.): Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession. Cornell Univ. Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0801481758 , pp. 253-270.
  • Tiffany K. Wayne: American Women of Science Since 1900 (Vol.1: Essays AH). ABC-Clio, 2011, ISBN 978-1598841589 , pp. 757 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lisa Mae Robinson: Regulating What We Eat: Mary Engle Pennington and the Food Research Laboratory. In: Agricultural History. Vol. 64, No. 2, 1990, pp. 143-153, here p. 145.
  2. ^ Mary Engle Pennington: Derivatives of columbium and tantalum. Thesis (Ph. D.), University of Pennsylvania, 1895.
  3. ↑ a b c d Marelene F. and Geoffrey W. Rayner-Canham: Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2005, pp. 142-144.
  4. ^ A b Autumn Stanley: Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. Rutgers Univ. Press, ISBN 978-0813521978 , pp. 50-52.
  5. ^ A b Mary Engle Pennington. ( Memento June 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Chemical Heritage Foundation.
  6. ↑ Autumn Stanley: Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. Rutgers Univ. Press, ISBN 978-0813521978 , p. 68.
  7. ^ Mary Engle Pennington: The "Cold Chain" of Food Safety. ( Memento of July 5, 2017 on the Internet Archive ) US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
  8. ^ Lisa Mae Robinson: Safeguarded by Your Refrigerator: Mary Engle Pennington's Struggle with the National Association of Ice Industries. In: S. Stage, VB Vincenti (Ed.): Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession. Cornell Univ. Press, 1997, pp. 253-270, here p. 258.
  9. ^ Lisa Mae Robinson: Safeguarded by Your Refrigerator: Mary Engle Pennington's Struggle with the National Association of Ice Industries. In: S. Stage, VB Vincenti (Ed.): Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession. Cornell Univ. Press, 1997, pp. 253-270, here pp. 259-268.
  10. ↑ Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal. American Chemical Society (ACS). Retrieved August 1, 2014.
  11. ↑ Mary Engle Pennington. National Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  12. ^ Hall of Fame Members. ( Memento from September 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
personal data
SURNAME Pennington, Mary Engle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist and bacteriologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1952
Place of death New York City