Читать книгу From Melon Fields to Moon Rocks - Dianna Borsi O'Brien - Страница 12

Back in Columbus for a year, Charles taught as an instructor in Dairy Chemistry while working on doctoral studies. He had been continuing his research while he was in Marshall, sending data to his adviser from time to time, and now he began his studies and research in earnest.

Virginia reluctantly followed him there, taking a job in the office of the Ohio Secretary of State and later with the Ohio Manufacturing Association in downtown Columbus. Charles hoped the move would help take her mind off the losses she’d suffered.

In Columbus, Charles began what would eventually become his life’s work: measuring the chemical makeup of substances. His work continued what he’d begun during his Master’s Degree: research on the chemical activity of ions in milk. He again turned to examining milk, but with a new slant. Using a procedure involving ion-exchange resins, Charles investigated how various chemicals in milk worked, whether certain chemicals were bound or in a free state as ions. He focused on calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphate, and citrate. The point of the work was to discern how much actual nutrition was available in milk. No matter how much calcium or other chemicals are in milk, if it isn’t bioavailable, the body can’t use it.

In short, Charles’s research focused on revealing one of the secrets of milk: its value as a nutritional source for calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphate, and citrate.

Charles said he saw a positive research direction in looking at milk. At the time, Pet Milk of St. Louis was interested in improving the stability of milk and evaporated milk.

Beyond his research, Charles met the other requirements of his studies easily, including the language proficiencies. Sitting in on the French classes at Missouri Valley College paid off: Charles took the exams for French and German on the same day at Ohio State, passing both, a feat he said no one had ever accomplished before.

While in Columbus, Charles set a goal for the future. He recalled the day he was walking across the campus of Ohio State University in 1947 and decided that one day he would earn $10,000 a year.