William Armstrong Fairburn (1876-1947) was an English-born, American author, naval architect, marine engineer, industrial executive and noted for the publication of his 1914, 55-page booklet Human Chemistry, a precursor to the science of human chemistry. [1] Fairburn was the first to discuss the idea of the human catalyst and human entropy. In general, according to Fairburn, regarding a chemically-based philosophy of life and work:


Human chemistry
In his Human Chemistry, Fairburn was the first, aside from German polymath Johann von Goethe and his 1809 Elective Affinities, to outline the view that people are "human chemicals" or human chemical elements, that the manager or foreman of people is a "human chemist", and that the job of the human chemist is to align individuals in their working combinations to achieve the correct "reactions resulting from the combinations of individuals" (human chemical reactions). Interestingly, Fairburn was the first to state that people might be classified by relative energies and entropies; the latter of which, i.e. the conception of "human entropy" or human molecular entropy, refering to measures of entropy of an individual person, is a very advanced concept, even in the modern age.

The central goal of Fairburn’s Human Chemistry was to outline how the laws of science or nature might better guide the executive in the operation of his company in terms of placement and work functions of individual people. Many of his postulates are filled with philosophical ideologies based on satieties or bonding satisfactions in small chemical systems. In regards to a philosophy of work, for instance, modeled on variations in the harmonies of the elements in differing combinations, he states that “the success of the individual resulting from the proper application of his forces and the practical, satisfactory accomplishment of definite things in the work of life, leads to true happiness.”

Background
At about the age of ten, Fairburn's family had immigrated from Huddersfield, England to Bath, Maine. Here, Fairburn was educated in the Bath public schools and during these years became an apprentice mechanic in the local iron works. He acquired his master’s papers at the age of eighteen. In 1896, he entered the University of Glasgow and completed in one year a two-year program in naval architecture and engineering, standing at the head of his class. At the age of twenty-three, he designed the first all-steel freighter in America. By 1900 he became an independent engineering consultant. [2] From 1900 to 1908, Fairburn supervised the construction of cargo vessels and pioneered in applying the diesel to railroads. In these years, he also served as a consultant for the Sterling Company and for Babcock and Wilson, on steam boiler and marine manufacturing problems.

In 1909, Fairburn became head of the Diamond Match company; guiding Diamond’s research chemists into new domestic sources. In particular, Fairburn revolutionized U.S. match manufacturing by using sesquisulphate to produce matches rather than white phosphorus, which had been publicly condemned for leading to poisoning. [3] By 1937, Diamond controlled 90% of America’s match production. Fairburn was president of the firm until his death in 1947.

References
1. Fairburn, William Armstrong. (1914). Human Chemistry. The Nation Valley Press, Inc.
2. Ingham, John N. (1983). Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: Vol. 1, A-G (Fairburn, William Armstrong, pgs. 361-63). Google Books.
3. William A. Fairburn – 20th Century American Business Leaders Database.

External links
● William Armstrong Fairburn (in spanish); William Armstrong Fairburn (Google translation).