Photographs from the Papers of Howard B. Bishop

Howard B. Bishop attended the Armour Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan and, after a brief involvement in running a photographic studio and working for smaller chemical firms, began working for the General Chemical Company as an analytical chemist in 1902. During this time he patented several important processes and inventions, including a new method for the production of Hydrofluoric Acid and the Electrotitrimeter, a device for measuring percentages of acid. Bishop also co-founded several small consulting and manufacturing businesses, including the Laurel Hill [L.I.] Laboratory Analytical Council, a group designed to study and brainstorm solutions to everyday industrial problems, and the Sterling Products Company of Easton, Pennsylvania. Between 1921 and 1929, Bishop was also President of the John C. Wiarda Chemical Company, a small chemical works in Brooklyn, New York, that specialized, as did Sterling, in chemicals useful to the laundry industry. In 1940, Bishop sold his interest in Sterling and focused instead on social welfare issues. An ardent campaigner against smoking and drinking, Bishop founded the Human Engineering Foundation to propagate his anti-alcohol, anti-nicotine, and anti-caffeine views. While running the foundation, he also managed a small consulting and commercial firm, Service Engineering Company. Bishop died in Summit, New Jersey after a brief illness on February 6, 1961.