Wiley, Harvey W. (1844–1930), was an American chemist who was largely responsible for the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and served as the first commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. A Civil War veteran (he served in the Indiana Volunteers), Wiley earned both medical and chemistry degrees and taught Greek and Latin and then chemistry at various Indiana universities before accepting a position as chief chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture. There, he devoted his energies to studying and combating the adulteration of food and beverages. A convivial, charismatic type, Wiley was a whisky drinker and made sure that it, and other spirits, were included in his studies. (Charles A. Crampton and Lucius M. Tolman, who conducted the pioneering 1908 Bureau of Internal Revenue study of whisky aging, were Wiley’s protégés.) Wiley advocated a strict definition of whisky under the Pure Food and Drug Act, limiting the permissible ingredients to spirits and water, aged in oak, and forcing anything else to be called “imitation whisky.” Although he lost that battle and, at least for whisky cut with unaged neutral spirit, “imitation” was replaced by the far softer “blended,” modern “straight” whisky still follows his definition.
Crampton, C. A., and L. M. Tolman. “A Study of the Changes Taking Place in Whiskey Stored in Wood.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, January 1908, 98–136.
Wiley, Harvey W. Beverages and Their Adulteration. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son, 1919.
By: David Wondrich
Dr. H. W. Wiley in 1898.
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Dr. H. W. Wiley in 1898. Source: Getty Images.