Don Caspar Notes

Don Caspar - American, Jewish. 20's/30's. "A doctoral student in biophysics at Yale, close to getting PHD" (Gosling). His advisor is Simon Dewhurst.

He is considering the chemical makeup of coal as a suitable topic for the final stage of his doctoral research.** He is looking to combine an applied and theoretical approach. 

**Coal is defined as a readily combustible rock containing more than 50% by weight of carbon. Coals other constituents include hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, ash, and sulfur. Some of the undesirable chemical constituents include chorine and sodium.

A) Coal originates from vegetal matter and forms from the compression of peat over millions of years (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Formation of Coal

  Source: Coal Exploration, Mine Planning, and Development

B) It is a stratified, organic, biochemical sedimentary rock.
C) Coal is a heterogeneous mixture of plant materials and minerals.
        -Ex. wood, bark, leaves and sap.
D) The calorific value (which is the calories or thermal units contained in one unit of a substance and released when the substance is burned) of coal and lignite varies tremendously; ranging from 15,000 BTUs/lbs to under 6,300 BTUs/lbs.  These values, however, are the extremes.  Most ranks of coal are between these two levels.
E) The organic component of coal consists of chemical compounds from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen. (Figure 2)

Figure 2: Composition of Coal

             Source: www.btinternet.com/~ian.rivett/ imic/combust.htm            

F) With the exception of nitrogen, these elements are also found in the mineral species that occur in coal.
         - Ex. carbonates, sulfides, sulfates and hydrous clay minerals.
         - The ash in coal is made of decomposed residues of silicate,     
          carbonates and sulfides.

  

G) Coal is ranked in six different categories:
 1. Peat - not really a coal; it is undeveloped, soft and spongy. It is 20-25% carbon, and was deposited during the last 100 years by decomposed plant remains.    
 2. Lignite- the first "real" coal.  It has a low heating value and is often found near the earth's surface. Lignite coal loses its moisture when exposed to air.
 3. Subbituminous - lower in carbon content than bituminous coal.  It also loses its moisture when exposed to air.  When exposed to wetness it
 4. Bituminous - has a high carbon content (65-85%), and a low oxygen content (5-15%).  It usually burns with a yellow flame.
 5. Semianthracite - a hard coal but softer than anthracite.  It has a fixed carbon percentage of 80-85%.  It contains more volatile matter than anthracite and also burns more freely.
 6. Anthracite - hard, durable, high density.  It has low volatile matter and is 85-98% fixed carbon.  It ignites slowly and burns with little flame or smoke.
H) Hydrogen and Carbon Composition
1. Low-rank coals typically have relatively low carbon contents and relatively high oxygen contents (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Percent Hydrogen, Percent Carbon

   Source: Coal Exploration, Mine Planning, and Development

2. Lignite, subbituminous, and low rank bituminous coals have hydrogen    contents of 5-6% (Figure 3).
3. High rank bituminous and anthracite coal are 3-4% hydrogen (Figure 3).

When he graduated, (he says) his parents didn't think he'd ever graduate, neither did he. 

He's had a happy home, parents, & childhood.

Told Dr. Franklin she was "remarkable".

Mid-February, when they are close to cracking the secret of life, Watson and Crick invite everyone but Gosling to Cambridge. They are particularly cheerful. Everyone can see that Don is in love with Rosalind at this event.

Rosalind doesn't mind the way Don calls her "Rosy".

Don's fellowship is only scheduled to run a few months past February (May-Juneish)

He says Rosy was not distracted by his being there.

They go to the garden together.
     Hey Rosy, this sure is a lovely garden. Say, I've been thinking and, well, gosh, why not use ISOMORPHOUS REPLACEMENT with the TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS? If you put atoms of lead, or maybe mercury - something heavy - into the virus protein to see what the difference would be between X-RAY patterns. The X-RAY with the atoms would retain the shape of the virus, as opposed to the atoms that would not. That would determine the structure.