Unknown Equilibrist

For every 100 U. S. citizens who have heard of Thomas Alva Edison, it would be hard to find one who has heard of Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903). Some years ago, however, a gathering of British scientists spouting learned chitchat in a cafe voted Gibbs no less than the greatest U. S. scientist ever.

A lifelong bachelor, Gibbs was a quiet, modest man. At Yale, where he did his major work, most of the students not only did not know he was a great man ; they did not even know he existed. His colleagues admired him but found his recondite researches hard to understand. Like Albert Einstein, Josiah Willard Gibbs was not an experimenter but a thinker.

If energy is unevenly distributed in a closed system, it will be passed around until no further energy exchange is possible--that is, the system will reach "thermodynamic equilibrium." Mathematically working out the conditions for equilibrium in mixed substances, Gibbs arrived at certain abstruse but beautifully logical rules of energy exchange. His work thus held the key to the efficient handling of mixed substances in industry. Gibbs had no interest in technology, and technologists took quite a while to uncover, understand and apply his work to their own problems. Now that this has been done, however, the Gibbs rules have enormously facilitated and cheapened a great variety of industrial processes--for example, in metallurgy, refrigeration, fuel and power engineering; in the manufacture of synthetic chemicals, ceramics, glass, fertilizers.

Yale itself was a long time recognizing the greatness of Gibbs. But this year the university is making handsome amends by commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth, and this week in New Haven a Gibbs dinner is being held to sing his praises. The celebrants at Yale reminded the world that although obstreperous strong men are making a lot of current news, it is for ''quiet people" that "history reserves some of its best places. Such a one was Josiah Willard Gibbs. . . ."

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