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Rachel Lloyd: The Science Behind the Beet · Rooted in the Plains

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: The beats I analyzed were drawn by Mr.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Perkins from French White Imperial Seat.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Rooted in the Plains.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Nicole.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Out here, the wind carries more than just the sounds of the open prairie.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: It carries stories.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: The stories built on community.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: For centuries, sugar was a valuable commodity.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Much of the world's supply came from sugar cane, a crop that needed warm weather and was grown in tropical and subtropical regions.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: For European countries, that meant depending on imported sugar often produced through enslaved labor on colonial plantations.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But what of sugar from a crop grown closer to home?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: In 1747, German chemist Andreas Margroff demonstrated that sugar could be extracted from certain varieties of beets.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: His discovery offered a possibility.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sugar production might not have to depend entirely on sugar cane.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Margroff published his findings, but it was his student, Franz Karl Aschar, who took the next steps towards making beet sugar commercially practical.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Franz Karl worked to increase the sugar content of cultivated beets and, with support from the Prussian government, helped to establish an early beet sugar factory in the beginning of the 19th century.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: The idea had scientific promise.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Turning it into a successful industry, however, would require more than a laboratory discovery.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Around the same time, Europe was caught in the Napoleonic Wars.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: France had long depended on imported cane sugar, but Napoleon's conflict with Britain intensified.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Trade restrictions and the British naval blockade made obtaining sugar from overseas increasingly difficult.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: France needed another source.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the sugar beet, once primarily a subject of scientific experimentation, suddenly became a matter of national interest.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Napoleon's government encouraged farmers to cultivate sugar beets and supported the construction of factories capable of extracting and refining their sugar.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: By 1812, beet sugar production had become part of France's effort to reduce its dependence on imported cane sugar.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when Napoleon's empire collapsed and overseas trade resumed, the industry faced renewed competition from cane sugar.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Many early beet sugar factories closed.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: The idea, however, survived.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Over the following decades, improvements in cultivation and processing helped beet sugar become an established part of European agriculture.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you're probably wondering when did Rooted in the Plains turn into a European history podcast?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I promise we haven't taken the wrong turn.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: But stick with me because this little detour into chemistry, Napoleon, and sugar is going to make a whole lot more sense when we get to Nebraska.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to come up again as we follow the sugar beet industry across the plains.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's bring the story a little closer to home.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Across the Atlantic, Americans were also beginning to experiment with a crop.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Early attempts to establish the beet sugar industry in the United States began in the 1830s.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some ventures showed promise, but turning sugar beets into a successful business wasn't easy.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Growing beets was one challenge.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Extracting enough sugar from them to justify the expense of processing was another.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: By the late 19th century, interest in beet sugar was growing again.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Farmers and researchers alike were looking for new crops to grow out west.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And their attention turned to the Great Plains, including Nebraska.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: By the 1880s, Nebraska was changing.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Railroads connected communities to distant markets, new farms were taking shape across the prairie, and people were looking for ways to make agriculture more profitable.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sugar beets offered an interesting possibility.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: They could grow in a climate much different from the tropical regions where sugarcane flourished.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if farmers could produce beets with enough sugar, there was a chance the factories might follow.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a question that needed answering.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Could farmers in the Great Plains grow sugar beets with enough sugar to make the crop worthwhile?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: In 1888, farmers around Grand Island were experimenting with different varieties of sugar beets.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Among them was Arthur B.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Perkins, who planted a variety known as French White Imperial.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Those beets would eventually find their way into a chemistry laboratory at the University of Nebraska, and that's where our story begins.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The university had established an agricultural experiment station to investigate questions just like this one.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Its researchers would examine crops, test agricultural methods, and share their findings with Nebraska farmers.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: But determining how much sugar a beet contained wasn't something you could simply tell by looking at it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: It required chemistry.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And at the University of Nebraska, there was someone with scientific training to do just that work.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Her name was Rachel Abbey Holloway Lloyd.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Long before she arrived at the University of Nebraska, her life had taken some unexpected and heartbreaking turns.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel married and had two children, but tragedy struck her young family.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Her daughter died, and five years later, she lost both her husband and infant son on the same day, according to their death certificates.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: As the years passed, Rachel began building a career in education.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: A decade later, she was teaching chemistry at the Chestnut Street Female Seminary in Philadelphia.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Two years after that, she began taking summer chemistry courses at Harvard.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: But why chemistry?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: According to her brother-in-law Clement Lloyd, Rachel had deeply personal reasons.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Her husband Franklin had been a chemist, and she believed that following his footsteps was the best way to honor his memory.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Clement later recalled that Rachel felt she had her husband's approval to make chemistry her life's work.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Her pursuit of an advanced education would eventually take her across the Atlantic to Switzerland.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: There at the University of Zurich, Rachel earned her doctorate in chemistry in 1887.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: She was 48 years old.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: She is believed to be the first American woman to earn a PhD in chemistry.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that same year, her journey brought her to Lincoln, Nebraska.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in 1887, the University of Nebraska was still a relatively young institution.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Founded in 1869, the university was growing alongside the state, and its chemistry department was expanding too.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Henry Hudson Nicholson was leading that department.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: He had big plans for chemistry at the university, but building a strong program meant finding people with the knowledge and experience to help it grow.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Rachel Lloyd had both.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholson recruited her to join the faculty, and she arrived in Lincoln during the summer of 1887.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Greep, a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, who has researched Lloyd's life and work, describes their relationship as one of mutual admiration.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholson was a man of big ideas, while Lloyd brought years of experience in teaching and research.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: At a time when women faced significant barriers in higher education, Rachel was taking on a position in a university chemistry department.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: But her work wouldn't be limited to teaching students.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: The University of Nebraska is a land grant institution.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: From its earliest days, part of its mission has been putting scientific knowledge to work for the people of the state.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And agriculture has always been an important part of that mission.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1880s, researchers were studying Nebraska soil, climate, and crops.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to know what farmers could grow and how science might improve agricultural production.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember those sugar beets grown by Mr.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Perkins, the ones from French white Imperial Seed?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: In 1888, Rachel Lloyd analyzed those beets to find out just how much sugar they contained.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because if farmers hoped to build an industry around this crop, they needed more healthy-looking beets, and they needed to know what was inside them.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: In her report to the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, Lloyd described six analyses of beets grown by Mr.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Perkins.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: The average sugar content was 15.8%.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: The highest was 17.5%, and the lowest was 13.6%.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those numbers might not sound too exciting, but they were encouraging.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Those beets had been grown on the Great Plains, and Lloyd's findings suggested the crop deserved a closer look.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But how did she determine how much sugar was inside those beets?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, lucky for us, we happened to have a chemistry professor on hand to explain it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Professor Greep, take it away.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Lloyd used an instrument called a saccharometer to measure the sugar content of beet juice.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, eight of the saccharometers that she actually used are on display in the cabinets on the second floor of the University of Nebraska Hamilton Hall.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: You can also buy modern saccharometers because they are still used to make wine, beer, and ice cream.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: There were two parts to Dr.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Lloyd's procedure.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Prepare the beet juice and then make the measurement.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: First, she would take a diagonal core from the thickest part of the beet, mash it up, and suspend a certain number of grams of the mash in a known volume of water.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Next, she would centrifuge to remove the solids, add some lead acetate to precipitate the fatty acids, centrifuge again, and recover a clear fluid that contained a large concentration of sugar and low concentrations of other cellular components.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: She poured this fluid into a cylinder and then she was ready.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: To make the measurement, the saccharometer is floated in the fluid.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: The saccharometer is an elongated piece of blown glass with three parts.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: The bottom is filled with tar or something else that's heavy so that the saccharometer floats vertically.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: The middle part is fat and contains enough air that the saccharometer has the same density as water.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: This ensures that it will float.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, the top part of the saccharometer is very thin and contains a piece of paper with numbers on it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: These are called bricks numbers.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: One degree bricks corresponds to one gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: When you float a saccharometer in a sucrose containing fluid in a cylinder, it is mostly submerged.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: The amount of that thin end that sticks up above the water is proportional to the sucrose content.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: The saccharometer is calibrated so that you can read the BRICS number from the piece of paper inside the saccharometer that is at the meniscus, the point where the fluid meets the air.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that tells you how much sugar.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Then you have to account for the dilution factors.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Those first results were promising, but that wasn't enough to tell researchers how sugar beets might perform across the state.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nebraska's growing conditions vary considerably from one region to another.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: What worked around Grand Island might not work somewhere else.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So those experiments expanded.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: In the spring of 1889, sugar beet seeds were distributed to farmers in different parts of Nebraska.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: They planted the seeds, attended their crops, and sent samples back for analysis.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: For Rachel Lloyd, that meant more beets to examine.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: A lot more.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Lloyd and her colleagues analyzed around 700 tests from beets grown from 30 Nebraska counties.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: What started from just a handful of beets had grown into a statewide research effort.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And with every new sample, researchers were learning a little more about whether Nebraska could support a sugar beet industry.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the research wasn't happening in isolation.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: There was a growing interest in turning these experiments into something much bigger.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: A crop farmers could sell, factories that could process it, and an entirely new industry for Nebraska in the Great Plains.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: The question was no longer simply whether sugar beets could grow here.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was whether Nebraska could turn those beets into sugar on a commercial scale.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Nebraska wasn't going to wait long to find out.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: In 1890, the state's first sugar beet factory opened in Grand Island.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just two years earlier, farmers there had been experimenting with growing the crop.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now there was a factory built to turn those beets into sugar.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: But building a factory was one thing.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping it supplied with enough beets and producing sugar profitably was another.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the university's research continued to matter.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Farmers needed to know how to grow the crop.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Factory operators needed people who understood the science behind producing sugar.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Rachel Lloyd's contributions to Nebraska's emerging sugar industry didn't stop at the laboratory, but they extended into the classroom too.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: At the university, Rachel Lloyd taught chemistry courses, preparing students to put their knowledge to practical use.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And as Nebraska's sugar beet industry was taking shape, the need for people who understood how to turn those beets into sugar was growing.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Professor Greeb shared with me that Lloyd developed a course devoted to sugar production and was teaching it at the university's sugar school in the spring of 1892.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was an opportunity to take what she had learned through her years of research and bring it directly to the students.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: But the sugar beet experiments had expanded.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nebraska had opened its first factory in Grand Island, followed by another in Norfolk in 1891.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, the students and the other faculty members would need to carry that work forward.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: During the summer of 1892, Rachel Lloyd experienced an episode of partial paralysis while traveling.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Her health problems would eventually bring her teaching and research career at Nebraska to an end.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel continued her association with the university for a while, but in June of 1894, she resigned from her position.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: She had been at the university for seven years.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: In that relatively short time, she had helped expand the chemistry department, contributed important research on sugar beets, and taught students who would carry scientific knowledge into their own work.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel Lloyd died on March 7, 1900.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: She was 61 years old.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: But her story didn't end with her death.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: The sugar beet industry she helped investigate was continuing to develop in Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the university where she had taught was growing into an institution with a lasting commitment to agricultural research.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel had been a part of both stories.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: When Rachel Lloyd arrived in Lincoln in 1887, Nebraska's sugar beet industry was still largely an experiment.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Farmers were trying to determine whether a crop could grow here.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Researchers were trying to understand how much sugar those beets might contain.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there was still plenty of questions about whether a crop could support an industry.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: By the time Rachel left the university, Nebraska had opened sugar factories in Grand Island and Norfolk.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, Rachel wasn't the only person involved in bringing sugar beets to Nebraska.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Farmers, researchers, business leaders, and factory workers all played a part.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: But her work helped provide something essential scientific evidence.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Those beads grown by Arthur B.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Perkins from French White Imperial Seed were more than just another crop.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: They were part of an effort to answer a question about Nebraska's agricultural future.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And Rachel Lloyd helped find an answer.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Today, Rachel Abbey Holloway Lloyd is remembered as a pioneering woman in chemistry.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: She earned her doctorate at a time when very few women had an opportunity to pursue advanced scientific education.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: She helped build the chemistry program at the University of Nebraska.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And through her research, she contributed to the beginnings of an industry that would eventually spread across the Great Plains.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the story of sugar beets in Nebraska was only the beginning.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Factories would open, communities would grow around the industry, and thousands of people would find their lives connected to the crop.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's the story for next time.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: For now, though, it began with a question, a few sugar beets, and a chemist who knew how to find what was inside them.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go, I'd like to give a special thank you to Mark Greep, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for sharing his research, expertise, and helping us understand the science behind Rachel Lloyd's work.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And a special thank you to Vanessa Kellen for bringing Rachel Lloyd's words to life in our opening scene.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Her dialogue was drawn from Lloyd's 1888 presentation to the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: While the words are historically documented, the laboratory scene was recreated for this episode.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, thanks for listening to Rooted in the Plains.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to dig a little deeper, check out the show notes.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or for the sources, photos, and timeline, they're all waiting for you at rooted in the plains.com.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if today's episode stuck with you, share it with someone.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's continue to build our community.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.