Kolthoff of Minnesota

1 Cablegram, S.C. Lind to I.M. Kolthoff, 5 Aug. 1927; Cablegram, I.M. Kolthoff to S.C. Lind, 8 Aug. 1927. I.M. The Chemist “Don’t worry, mama, I will restore your chicken soup to its optimal pH.” Such is the gist of a story that Piet (his nickname from childhood, pronounced Pete) Kolthoff liked to tell, and told often. He was fifteen years old and had converted part of the family kitchen into a makeshift chemistry lab. One day I got in the kitchen and found my mother desolate. By mistake Mother had put in the chicken soup . . . several large spoonfuls of sodium carbonate [baking soda] instead of sodium chloride [table salt.] She was just ready to throw everything into the sink when I told her that it was child’s play to transform the carbonate into sodium chloride. Thus, I made my first titration, adding hydrochloric acid until -at a pH of 7 -litmus paper turned violet. This, in my experience, is still the optimum pH of chicken soup.2