Word: strickman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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After eight years' work in his home laboratory, an obscure New Jersey chemist last week claimed a grand prize in cigarette research: a filter that removes two-thirds of the tar and nicotine that now drifts past conventional filters, yet does not destroy the tobacco taste. Robert L. Strickman, 56, had impressive backing for his discovery. With full fanfare, it was announced by Columbia University's president, Grayson Kirk, and Dr. H. Houston Merritt, dean of Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Reason: Chemist Strickman gave Columbia the rights to the filter -a gift that...
...Strickman remains tight-lipped about exactly how his filter works. Unwilling to jeopardize his pending patent, he merely says the filter consists of a new type of partly crystalline, nontoxic polymer that works by "selective trapping," perhaps based on ion exchange and electrostatic action. He claims it costs little to produce, can be part of the cigarette or used in a cigarette holder...
...Strickman came from Manhattan's Lower East Side, attended or audited courses at New York University and various other schools, was forced to quit during the Depression, and never earned a degree. Still, he carved himself a chemist's career, now holds pending patents on twelve inventions, and is president of Allied Testing and Research Laboratories in Hillsdale, NJ. Strickman began his search for an effective filter after his father, a heavy cigarette smoker, died of lung cancer. He first offered his discovery to several cigarette companies, but "I never got beyond the front door," probably because...