Joseph H. Simons was born on 10 May 1897 in Chicago. He studied chemistry at the University of Illinois. After graduation in 1919 he continued chemistry and mathematics at the University of California, where in 1922, he received a master's degree and in 1923 a doctorate.
Career
He returned to the Midwest and became a professor of chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State College, now Pennsylvania State University. In the late 1930s he passed fluorine gas through a carbon arc creating fluorocarbon. Results were published in 1938. In 1940, he was recruited to the Manhattan project by Harold Urey, a physical chemist with expertise in isotope separation, to help with uranium enrichment necessary to build a nuclear bomb. Simons's fluorocarbons turned out to be inert enough to withstand the corrosive effects of uranium hexafluoride and thus could be used as factory parts in the chemical array of sealants, gaskets or pipes, for example. Simons invented a method for the large-scale, industrial production of fluorocarbons. In September 1948, he presented a series of papers at a Fluorocarbon Symposium by the American Chemical Society. On 29 November 1948 he filed an application to patent the electrochemical process of making fluorine-containing carbon compounds with two others from the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, which he received on 22 August 1950. On 4 September 1951 he also received a patent for "Fluorocarbon acids and derivatives". In 1950 he left for the University of Florida, Gainesville, and by 1952, he was affiliated with the 3M sponsored "Fluorine Laboratories, State College, Pennsylvania" and the "Fluorine Research Center" at the University of Florida, Gainesville. It was there in 1954, when the first unclassified technical report on the preparation of Fluorine containing compounds was written for the Office of Naval Research. He retired in 1967.
Personal life
Simons was married to Eleanor May Simons and at the time of his death was survived by a daughter, Dorothy Lanning of Spencerville, Md., and a son, Robert W. Simons, of Gainesville.
Work and legacy
Simons is credited with discovering electrochemical fluorination, and the procedure was named "Simons process" after him.
Simons J. H. and Block L. P. Fluorocarbons. J. Am.Chem. Soc.61, 2962–2966,
Joseph H. Simons. 1972. A Pioneering Trip in Fluorine Chemistry. The Chemist. February 1972.
Joseph H. Simons. 1986. The Seven Ages of Fluorine Chemistry. Address presented 19 July 1973Santa Cruz, CA on receipt of award for "Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry." Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 32: 7-24.
He also published under a pen name Paul P. Plexus:
Paul P. Plexus. 1957. Realism. New York: Vantage Press.
Paul P. Plexus. 1960. A Structure of Science. New York: Philosophical Library.
Paul P. Plexus. 1971. Gebo: Successor to Man. New York: Manyland Books.
