THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
APRIL,  1905. 
WILLIAM  WEIGHTMAN. 
By  Howard  B.  French. 
By  the  death  of  William  Weightman,  head  of  the  chemical 
manufacturing  firm  of  Powers  &  Weightman,  in  August  last, 
America  lost  one  of  her  most  prominent  industrial  chemists. 
Mr.  Weightman  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Philadelphia  Col- 
lege of  Pharmacy  in  1856,  and  maintained  an  interest  in  the  work  of 
the  institution  until  the  time  of  his  death.  The  last  time  he  visited 
the  College  he  spent  more  than  an  hour  going  over  the  buildings 
with  the  writer,  offering  practical  suggestions  as  to  anticipated 
changes,  and  manifesting  the  deepest  interest  in  the  most  minute 
details  of  construction,  arrangements  and  appliances.  Through  his 
co-operation  the  present  College  House,  with  accommodations  for 
sixty  students,  was  secured  a  short  time  before  his  death. 
William  Weightman  was  born  on  September  20,  1 8 1 3,  in  Waltham, 
Lincolnshire,  England.  At  the  solicitation  of  his  uncle,  John  Farr, 
he  came  to  this  country  in  1829,  and  obtained  employment  with  the 
firm  of  Farr  &  Kunzi,  manufacturing  chemists. 
John  Farr  came  to  Philadelphia  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  cen- 
tury and  was  the  first  to  manufacture'  sulphate  of  quinine  in  the 
United  States,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  was  devoting 
his  attention  to  an  investigation  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids  about  the 
time  that  Pelletier  and  Caventou  announced  the  discovery  of  quinine. 
This  was  in  1820,  and  two  years  previously  Mr.  Farr  had  formed  a 
partnership  with  B.  Kunzi,  which  partnership  continued  until  1836, 
when  Mr.  Kunzi  retired.  Mr.  Farr  then  associated  with  himself 
Thomas  H.  Powers  and  his  nephew,  William  Weightman,  under  the 
firm  name  of  Farr,  ,Powers  &  Weightman.     After  the  decease  of 
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