Francis P. Venable
In 1893, a discovery in a Carolina lab changed the world and the campus.
In 1893, a discovery in a Carolina lab changed the world and the campus.
Francis P. Venable arrived at Carolina in 1880. Almost immediately, he set the department on a quest for knowledge. He was the first faculty member to hold a Ph.D. and in 1893 was named to the first endowed chair at Carolina, the Mary Ann Smith Professorship, to “teach both the science of chemistry and its experimental application to the useful arts.” Venable retired in 1930, but two of his students, John Motley Morehead and William Rand Kenan Jr., would go on to profoundly influence the trajectory of 20th- century American industry — as well as the University’s way forward.
In 1893, Francis Venable, James Turner Morehead, John Motley Morehead III and William Rand Kenan Jr. discovered — in a Carolina laboratory — an economical process to create calcium carbide and its byproduct acetylene gas.
Calcium carbide made possible the production of steel required for the armor plating of battleships, the frames of skyscrapers, and the development of high-speed tools and stainless steel. Acetylene is used in a variety of everyday consumer products, including tableted drugs, lotions, antiseptics and toothpastes.
Today, their names adorn buildings and programs across the campus. And their legacy of discovery continues at Carolina.
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This is story number 202 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.
