Of course, that was not true, but Chamber of Commerce people like to brag about their city, and so folks here in Peoria just claimed it as our own. The real beginning of Penicillin started by accident way back in in England by Doctor Alexander Fleming, but hey, you can look him up on your own computer.
Peoria, Illinois had a very active agriculture department here and since it was located in the center of a vast agriculture area, we were picked by the powers that be to research this Air Bourne Bacteria referred to as Penicillium Notatem by Dr. The great man actually visited the lab here and believe me it was a newsworthy subject way back then. Folks in Peoria were proud to hear that such an important project was being carried on right here in patriotic Peoria, Illinois.
That is where Mary Hunt came into the picture. Not only was she part of the research team she used her shopping skills to find the perfect piece of produce to further the research. She was a well-known, somewhat mysterious person as she went in and out of stores all over Peoria, testing fruit, vegetables and meats. Now the folks that encountered her had no idea what she was really doing, except shopping.
At some point, Mary told him it would no longer be necessary to save moldy fruit and vegetables for her, but did not explain why. One assignment was to conduct an interview with someone who had participated in the war effort. I chose my uncle, who had served in Africa in the U. Army Air Forces in a maintenance role. I almost apologetically explained my choice to my professor, thinking I should have interviewed someone who had accomplished something more significant.
He explained that there were no insignificant roles—that every participant was needed to further the end objective, the successful conclusion of the war for America. Likewise, Mary Hunt and her female peers all added significantly to the war work being accomplished at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory.
We may never know the specifics of her work or of the other technicians behind the scenes, but there is no question that all of them were indispensible in the development of the mass production of penicillin. Of course, that information could have been omitted.
I could find nothing showing that she did or did not have the degrees she claimed. In fact, he says that she saved his life when no one else could provide a cure for a childhood illness. He also said she had many loyal patients and that she established an office in Sedona after her move there. Regardless of the mysteries still surrounding Mary and her famous moldy melon, I do believe she was much more than a simple messenger girl.
My parents were close social friends with the Rapers back the played bridge , had dinners together, etc. Conceptual illustration of the role played by laboratory worker Mary Hunt 'Moldy Mary' in the mass production of the antibiotic penicillin. She was given the job of buying mouldy food to be used in the mass production of penicillin.
This antibiotic had been discovered in but mass production methods were not devised until the s. A cantaloupe melon was the source of Penicillium chrysogenum, a species that was enhanced to yield times the amount produced in The mass production of penicillin saved many lives in World War II.
The same strain is still used to manufacture penicillin today, Price says. Price discussed his idea for making P. Some efforts to designate official microbes have faltered: Wisconsin failed to pass legislation honoring Lactococcus lactis in , and Hawaii was unable to choose between Flavobacterium akiainvivens and Aliivibrio fischeri in But the Illinois effort attracted bipartisan support and sailed through both houses of the General Assembly, passing unanimously in May.
The P. This article was originally published with the title "Bacterial Bipartisanship" in Scientific American , 3, 22 September Jim Daley is a freelance journalist from Chicago.
He writes about science and health.
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