to produce a metallic species from tetramethylammonium salts. Extending the work of Thomas Johann Seebeck (1770-1831) to organic quaternary amines, instead of simple ammonium salts, they reported what was believed to be the first organic metal. Electrolysis produced of a crystalline solid with a metallic luster which displayed electrical conductivity similar to that of metals. It was believed to be a mercury amalgam with the general formula HgN(CH3)4 until 1986, when Allen J. Bard proposed a more compelling explanation for the results. McCoy was President of the Carnotite Reduction Company in Colorado (1917-1920). The Carnotite Reduction Company processed ore containing carnotite and manufactured radium. McCoy became a vice-president of Lindsay Light & Chemical Company in Chicago in 1919. Lindsay Light manufactured mantles for gas lights using radioactive thorium. McCoy moved to Los Angeles in 1927. There he continued to study rare earths as a guest researcher in the laboratory of B. A. Stagner, and building his own private laboratory at home over his garage. McCoy died on May 7, 1945 in Los Angeles, California. Recognition McCoy received the Willard Gibbs Award in 1937. At that time, he was described by Marie Curie as the "foremost American authority on radioactivity". The Herbert Newby McCoy Award at Purdue University was established in 1964 by Mrs. Ethel M. Terry McCoy in honor of her husband. References External links 1870 births 1945 deaths People from Richmond, Indiana American chemists Purdue University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Utah faculty Rare earth scientists