Who Was Wilbur Scoville?

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Professor Wilber
Lincoln Scoville

Who was Wilbur Scoville? No clue.

So why, of all the thousands of hits you’ll get from typing
“Scoville” into any common search engine, did I never find any of
this? This took more digging than I expected. Answer: Search
engines are companies and companies need money. Free education? Go
buy some hot sauce from these sponsor links instead!! Ok don’t buy;
just click-through.

Ah well, I feel better. Here’s what I’ve tracked down so far. I’m
running into dead ends and need assistance. Share whatever you know.

He was born at the end of the Civil War in Bridgeport, Connecticut on January 22 1865. He died. Really. In 1942. Whoo, 77
years young. Must of been the hot peppers. I don’t know where/how he shuffled off.

He married Cora B. Upham on September 1, 1891 in Wollaston (Quincy, Massachusetts). He had two
children, Amy Augusta, born Aug 21, 1892 and Ruth Upham, born Oct 21, 1897.

Parke Davis was founded in a Detroit drugstore in 1866 and they
built the world’s first pharmacological research labratory in 1902.
And hired many an obsessed scientist to help figure out fun things
like narcotics development.

Way-Back Machine: 1912 is still “the wild, wild west”, New Mexico and Arizona
become the 47th and 48th states respectivly. Common folks gawk
at dem rich people with automobiles, the NY Times just put up a huge
electronic bulletin board in Times Square, and Coca-Cola costs 5¢
but doesn’t “relieve fatigue” like it used to. The Roosevelt/Taft/Wilson
presidential election, and of course – the Titanic sinks April 15 of that year. There was no
television, the cost of a first class postage stamp in 1912 was 2¢ and Wilber developed
a method to measure the heat level of chile peppers.

I don’t know if/where he went to school or when he joined Parke
Davis.

Wilber Scoville worked at Parke Davis during an interesting time, like
when they were marketing many types of refined cocaine and cannabis
extracts. Competitor Bayer’s big product at the time was heroin
cough syrup. (and Merck is producing cocaine by the ton.) Ah,
medicine and science! This has nothing to do with Professor Wilber other
than to say, this was probably the perfect time to subject people to
capsaicin-induced pain and then question them about it.

Wilber was treasuer and secetary for the American Conference of
Pharmaceutical Faculties from 1901 thru 1904.

Wilber Scoville won two awards from the American Pharmaceutical
Association (APhA) – in 1922 he was awarded the Ebert Prize and in
1929 the Remington Honor Medal. Coincidentally the Ebert Prize is
given to “…recognize the author(s) of the best report of original
investigation of a medicinal substance…”

He won APhA’s top award in 1929, he also received an honary Doctor
of Science from Columbia University that same year. I’m assuming it
was for the Art of Compounding and not the S.O.T. but Parke Davis
Co. was spitting out patents and products even faster than the other
4 big drug companies.

“The Art of Compounding” was a hugely popular work, first published
in 1895 and was a pharmacological reference until at least 1960 (8+
editions). He completely re-wrote a Harry Beckwith book in it’s 4th
revision “How To Get Registered: Home Study for Pharmaceutical
Students” in 1909. And, he did another book called “Extracts amp;
Perfumes” containing hundreds of formulations… after all, he
understands the art of compounding. 🙂 (Scholarly type rare book
stores can still locate these originals.)

What makes this quasi-compleat is that I cannot find data to
substantiate the 1912 date, the original research papers, what
building he worked in, his family life, etc… Then again with 1914
bringing large-scale death and destruction worldwide… I’m sure
with a bit more research we could track his parents and immediate
family, but I’m running out of resources. (Brittanica, Groliers,
World Book, etc have no mention of him.)

That’s the point; he’s unknown because it wasn’t important to the
whole world… even for us he didn’t exist but for this one act.
People were more interested in the new inventions of the times –
and war. Categorizing the heat levels of a plant no one eats?
Nobody cared. And the Art of Compounding, well, you’d have to be a
geeky apothecary type to know or care – back then that would
probably be larger than chile geeks.

If you have any additional data (or corrections) please email or
post publically.

———————
REFERENCES:

Library of Congress
Historical Collections of the National Digital Library
National Archives and Records Administration
University of Michigan NOTIS database
The College of Pharmacy at Washington State University
National Library of Medicine
Columbia University Ceremonies Archive
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office
American Pharmaceutical Association
University of Massachusetts Medical School ENDEAVOR
Seven Hundred Years of History and Genealogy, by Homer Worthington Brainard, 1915

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