William Lyman Underwood (1864 – January 24, 1929) was an American photographer who was also involved in the research of time-temperature canning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1895 to 1896.
Table of Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Wilderness Adventures By William Lyman Underwood with Illustrations from Photographs By the Author
- 1.2 Wild brother; strangest of true stories from the north woods
- 1.3 Wild brother
- 1.4 Familiar Life in Field and Forest; The Animals, Birds, Frogs, and Salamanders
- 1.5 Ways of Nature (Works of John Burroughs, XIV)
- 1.6 Familiar Life in Field and Forest: the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders
- 1.7 Gentlemen Photographers: The Work of Loring Underwood and Wm. Lyman Underwood
- 1.8 La Rustichella Black Truffle Pate - 3.2 Oz.
- 1.9 Works of John Burroughs: Leaf and Tendril, Vol.15
- 1.10 Mythrojan Hand Carved Powder Horn with Leather Strap for Civil War Re-Enactment Black Powder - Mountain Man Reenactment - Beige Color
- 1.11 More interesting reads:
Biography
A original of Boston, Massachusetts, Underwood was the second son of William James Underwood, one of the nine children of William Underwood, the founder of the William Underwood Company.
In late 1895, the William Underwood Company arranged that they had had satisfactory with tin cans that had “swells” in them, causing a great deal of product loss. This was a hardship they had experienced back the company’s founding in 1822. William Lyman settled late that year to visit MIT for suggestion with this problem.
Underwood approached William Thompson Sedgwick, the chair of the biology department at MIT nearly the concerns he had subsequent to the recent product swells and explosion of clams. Sedgwick later summoned his co-conspirator Samuel Cate Prescott and apprised him on the issue. From late 1895 to late 1896, Prescott and Underwood worked on the problem every afternoon, focusing on canned clams. They first discovered that the clams contained some heat-resistant bacterial spores that were adept to survive the processing; then that these spores’ presence depended upon the clams’ living environment; and finally that these spores would be killed if processed at 250˚F (121˚C) for ten minutes in a retort.
These studies prompted the similar research of canned lobster, sardines, peas, tomatoes, corn, and spinach. Prescott and Underwood’s work was first published in late 1896, with further papers appearing from 1897 to 1926. This research, though important to the growth of food technology, was never patented.
During the research process, Underwood provided photomicrographic images of the bacteria that were operating in the research, which were magnified 650 get older in 1896. A sophisticated research article in 1898 showed photography of bacteria magnified 1,000 times.
This research proved beneficial to the William Underwood Company, the canning industry, the food industry, and food technology itself. Underwood retired from the William Underwood Company in 1899 to devote himself totally to bacteriology studies at MIT. He would proceed at MIT without pay. This research and friendship with Prescott would continue until Underwood’s death in 1929.
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Last update 2021-08-06