McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Carl Arthur Winkler Fonds
Fonds
20 cm of textual records and photographs
Carl Winkler was born at Virden, Manitoba and educated at the University of Manitoba (M.Sc. 1931), McGill (Ph.D. 1933) and Oxford (Ph.D. 1936). After working as a biophysicist for the National Research Council of Canada, he was appointed Assistant Professor of chemistry at McGill in 1939. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1944 and full Professor in 1946. Winkler served as Chairman of the Chemistry Department from 1955 to 1961, Chairman of the Physical Sciences Group from 1956 to 1963 and Vice-Principal (Planning and Development) from 1966 to 1969.
The bulk of these papers are records of research. Drafts of six articles co-authored by Winkler, a number of them on RDX, an explosive, are in some cases accompanied by graphs and correspondence. A file of notes, graphs and reports of research assistants focusses on solution polymerism. There is also a report by Winkler to the Federal Department of Agriculture on bacon (1940), and two draft articles by colleague J.A. Perce. Materials from his student years are also research oriented: his M.Sc. thesis on hydration of bio-colloids, and his Oxford Ph.D. dissertation "The kinetics of gas reactions". Teaching files contain three undergraduate research projects by Winkler's students, and lecture notes for courses in thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. Winkler's writings on non-scientific topics include addresses on the nature of education and the future of the Royal Society of Canada, his obituary of Clifford Purves for the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada (1966), and a diary of a visit to China (1974).
Originals, copies and photographs