Adolf Carl Noé

Adolf Carl Noé (born Adolf Carl Noé von Archenegg; October 28, 1873 – April 10, 1939) was an Austrian-born paleobotanist. He is credited for identifying the first coal ball in the United States in 1922,^[1] which renewed interest in them. He also developed a method of peeling coal balls using nitrocellulose.^[2] Many of the paleobotanical materials owned by the University of Chicago's Walker Museum were provided by Noé, where he was also a curator of fossil plants.^[3] He was also a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History, where he assisted with their reconstruction of a Carboniferous forest.^[4]

Education

From 1894 to 1897, Noé attended the University of Graz,^[5] studying paleobotany under Constantin von Ettingshausen.^[6] After Ettinghausen's death, Noé moved to Germany in 1897, having been transferred^[7] to the University of Göttingen. He studied there until 1899, when he moved to the United States. During that year, Noé began his work at the University of Chicago.^[5] He obtained a B. A. in 1900.^[5] In 1901, he moved to California to teach German at Stanford University.^[5] Four years later, in 1905, Noé earned a Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures.^[8]

Near the end of World War I, Noé removed "von Archenegg" from his name to avoid anti-German sentiment.^[4][5] Noé also stopped teaching German classes to research paleobotany, due to overstaffing and the public's disinterest in taking the German courses.^[4]

Paleobotanical work

A coal ball

Noé became a geologist for the Allan and Garcia Coal Commission in the Soviet Union in 1927, ten years after the October Revolution. There, in the Donetz coal basin, Noé did work as a mining geologist.^[9] In 1934, Noé became the Field Museum of Natural History's research associate, and assisted in the construction of a Pennsylvanian coal swamp there.^[1]

Studies on coal balls

Coal balls in North America were found in Iowa coal seams since the 1890s,^[9] although the connection to European coal balls was not made until Noé (whose coal ball was actually found by Gilbert Cady^[1][9][10]) drew the parallel in 1922.^[11] There was some disbelief over Noé's discovery.^[9] For instance, in 1922, Noé was contacted by David White, who strongly believed that coal balls could not be found in North America.^[9] Noé later managed to convince him otherwise by showing him a wheelbarrow full of Illinois coal balls, after which White never spoke to Noé again.^[9]

Death

While translating the final chapter of a publication about coal in his office, Noé suffered a paralytic stroke on 11 March 1939.^[12] He died on the morning of 10 April, five months before his planned retirement date of October 1939.^[8]

Personal life

Noé married Mary Evelyn Cullatin in 1900. They had two daughters, Mary Helen Noé (who later married Nobel laureate Robert S. Mulliken) and Valerie Noé.^[5]

References

Bibliography