Eben Norton Horsford

Chemist, born in Livonia (formerly Moscow), New York, USA. He was professor at Harvard (1847–63) and developed one of the first laboratories in America for analytic chemistry. He invented baking powder and founded the Rumford Chemical Co (1856) to produce it. He also made rations composed of grain and meat for the military during the Civil War.

Eben Norton Horsford was an American scientist.

Horsford was appointed Rumford Professor and Lecturer on the Application of Science to the Useful Arts at Harvard in 1847. He taught chemistry and conducted research at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard for 16 years, and published articles in major scientific publications on such topics as phosphates, condensed milk, fermentation, and emergency rations. A generous supporter of higher education for women, Horsford became president of the board of visitors of Wellesley College, and donated money for books, scientific apparatus, and a pension fund to the college. He enjoyed remarkable success through his development of processes for manufacturing baking powder and condensed milk.

A notable memento of Horsford's historical claims exists on Memorial Drive near Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he placed a plaque reading "ON THIS SPOT IN THE YEAR 1000 LIEF ERIKSON BUILT HIS HOUSE IN VINLAND." Horsford, Eben Norton, Washington, 1875. Professor Eben Norton Horsford.