- E. R. Squibb
E(dward). R(obinson) Squibb (1819-1900) was a leading American
inventor andmanufacturer ofpharmaceutics who founded E. R. Squibb and Sons, which eventually became part of the modern pharmaceutical giantBristol-Myers Squibb .Squibb was born in
Wilmington ,Delaware , onJuly 4 ,1819 . At age 26 he graduated fromJefferson Medical College inPhiladelphia ,Pennsylvania . He immediately became aship's surgeon in theU.S. Navy , serving during the ongoingMexican-American War . After the war he ran the medical station at theBrooklyn Naval Yards . [Obituary of E. R. Squibb, "American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record" 37 (July-December 1900), 287, located on [http://books.google.com Google Books] .]As a Navy
physician , Squibb became disenchanted with the poor quality of medicines used on American military vessels and, as a result, in 1854 he invented an improved method of distillingether , ananesthetic . He gave away hisdistillation method, rather thanpatent it for profit. [Michael Rhode, "E. R. Squibb, 1854," [http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/2/1/80/1/ "The Scientist"] , 2008.]In 1858 he left the military and started his own pharmaceutics manufacturing business in
Brooklyn . Hislaboratory burned down three times, and in one of these instances an ether explosion left Squibb badly burned.In 1892 Squibb created a partnership with his two sons, Dr. Edward H. Squibb and Charles F. Squibb, the firm being known for generations afterwards as E. R. Squibb and Sons.
Squibb died on
October 25 ,1900 , at his home in Brooklyn, New York, from a rupturedblood vessel .References
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