Carl Alfred Jacobson was born in Grantsburg, Wisconsin on January 25, 1876, the son of Carl John and Anna Britta Jacobson. He received in B.S. from Carlton College in 1903, and completed a master's (1907) and Ph.D. (1908) in chemistry at The Johns Hopkins University. He also studied in Scandinavia from 1911 to 1912.
Jacobson returned to Hopkins briefly as a fellow in 1919; in 1920 he began his long association with West Virginia University. His research areas included chlorophylls, alfalfa constituents, silica black and silica fluff. He invented various lab apparatus, a calculating machine, and a new method for determining the solubility of solids at different temperatures. He was granted U.S. patents on processes for treating powdered coal and carburized silica. Although Jacobson published 36 research papers between 1908 and 1930, he is best remembered as the chief editor of The Encyclopedia of Chemical Reactions (6 volumes, 1946-1956).
From the description of Papers, 1889-1947. (Johns Hopkins University). WorldCat record id: 123411338
