E. R. Squibb

Edward Robinson Squibb.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

E. R. Squibb,  (born July 4, 1819Wilmington, Del., U.S.—died Oct. 25, 1900Brooklyn, N.Y.), U.S. chemist and pharmaceutical manufacturer who developed methods of making pure and reliable drugs and founded a company to manufacture them.

During the four years when Squibb served on various ships as a U.S. Navy medical officer, he observed the poor quality of medicines supplied to the Navy. He persuaded the Navy to manufacture their own drugs instead of contracting for them from the lowest bidder. In 1851, he was appointed to Brooklyn Naval Hospital. He set up a laboratory there and built the first still for making anesthetic ether. The ether was heated by steam passing through a coil rather than by open flame, which had been dangerous. Squibb did not patent this process or any of his later discoveries. Instead, he published his design in 1856 in The American Journal of Pharmacy. Between 1852 and 1857, he discovered processes for making chloroform, fluid extracts, bismuth salts, and other preparations.

After Squibb had resigned from the Navy, Dr. Richard S. Satterlee, surgeon general of the U.S. Army, suggested that Squibb start a laboratory of his own to supply the Army with reliable drugs. After borrowing $1,300 from a friend, he set up a laboratory in Brooklyn in 1858. Less than a month later, it burned to the ground in an ether explosion. Squibb saved the records of his experiments but was badly burned in the process.

A year later, his laboratory had been rebuilt and he sent out a circular advertising 38 preparations. By 1883, he was manufacturing 324 products and selling them all over the world.


His inventions include the automatic zero burette and a specific gravity apparatus. In 1892, his two sons joined the firm, which became E.R. Squibb & Sons.