ric acid to be made at a much lower cost, since it was so widely used (Pafko, "Setting Stage").In the late 1800's, Americans became fascinated with news that was coming over from across the Atlantic. Though it was not the advancements in the chemical engineering field that so interested them, it was the news of a serial killer "Jack the Ripper". It seamed as though the surfacing of chemical engineering would just slip by unnoticed. However, the outline for the chemical engineering profession was laid out and fully recognized and appreciated by a select few (Pafko, "Setting Stage").Lewis Norton, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) first initiated the first four-year bachelor program in chemical engineering. It was called "Course X" (ten). Shortly after, Tulane University and the University of Pennsylvania began their own four-year programs. Chemistry departments began to see that there was a need for a profession that could apply all of the knowledge of chemistry gained throughout the last hundred years to fulfilling the needs of the emerging industries. With this in mind they began to teach their students a combination of mechanical engineering and chemical industry, with the emphasis on engineering, resulting in the category of chemical engineering. MIT gained an independent chemical engineering department in 1920 (Pafko, "Setting Stage").With more and more competition between major manufacturers arising, chemical plants strived for low costing and mass-producing methods was becoming important. Chemical plants needed to be optimized. This called for things such as: continuously operating reactors, recycling and recovery of non-reacted reactants, and cost effective purification of products. With these new advancements chemical engineers were now called for plumbing systems (for which traditional chemists were unprepared) and detailed chemistry knowledge (unbeknownst to mechanical engineers). These new chemi...
