One hundred and two years ago Friday in the basement of Bailey Hall, two KU chemistry professors made a scientific breakthrough that would change the world: the discovery of helium gas.

Since its completion in 1900, Bailey Hall — then called New Chemistry Hall — has been a place of interest to students, teachers, scientists and historians alike. From the early days when its 32 chimneys puffed smoke because of the lab experiments inside, to when employees raised chickens on the top floor during World War II, Bailey Hall has housed numerous academic departments and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the coming years, the state is scheduled to allocate $1.8 million for building repairs to help preserve Bailey Hall’s place in history.

A NEW DISCOVERY

In May 1903, a liquid air machine was installed in the building. The machine cooled air and turned it into liquid by using compression, which would later aid in the discovery of helium. Two hundred miles away in the town of Dexter, about 70 miles southeast of Wichita, a well emitted a strange new gas that wouldn’t burn. A hay bale was lit on fire and placed near the well. Townspeople expected the entire bale to be lit ablaze, but instead they were astonished when the flames were quickly extinguished by the gas coming from the well.

This “Dexter gas” baffled Erasmus Haworth, state geologist and University geology professor for whom Haworth Hall is named. Haworth traveled to Dexter and returned to Lawrence with samples of the gas. Haworth and chemistry professor David McFarland studied the gas and found that it had only 15 percent combustible methane and contained a colorless, odorless residue.

The two reported their findings to the Geological Society of America and continued studying the gas. McFarland and fellow chemistry professor Hamilton Cady continued studying the sample, but that process was delayed because they were busy with other experiments.

Edgar Henry Summerfield Bailey, the building’s namesake, grew up in Middletown, Conn., and came to the University in 1883 as the lone faculty member of the chemistry department.

Caroline Bailey Berneking, Bailey’s 92-year-old granddaughter, recalled her grandfather telling his fellow professors that while his curiosity of the Dexter gas was high, his patience with their lack of progress studying it was wearing thin.

“He told them two to get with it on that sample,” Berneking said.

On Dec. 7, 1905, in the basement of of the hall, McFarland and Cady discovered that the gas contained helium, an element previously thought to exist only on the sun and in rare mineral rock. Bailey then went before the American Chemical Society and made a nationwide announcement.

Helium wasn’t widely produced in the years immediately following the discovery, but it played a decisive role in World War II. The U.S. Navy used helium-filled blimps to guide troops and supplies overseas to battlefields. The blimps used special listening devices that could identify submarines five miles away.

Today, helium is mass-produced, and its many uses include filling balloons and powering blimps, lasers, arc welders and magnetic resonance imaging machines, or MRIs. Helium is also a popular inhalant that results in a Donald Duck-like squeaky voice for its users.

Bailey, a Yale graduate, taught chemistry, blowpipe analysis, pharmacy and other University courses. Berneking said her grandfather had been interested in science even as a child. She described him as gentle and quiet and said she regretted that she didn’t get to know him well. She was just 18 when he died.

“I was too young to get much out of him,” Berneking said.

Berneking attended KU as a piano major and graduated in 1937. She said that as a young girl, she didn’t pay much attention to her grandfather’s work.

“I just kind of floated by that building,” she said.

Five years after Bailey’s death in 1938, New Chemistry Hall was renamed Bailey Hall.

EARLY YEARS

In 1896, Chancellor Francis Snow noted that Chemistry Hall was overcrowded and dangerous. In 1899, the state allocated $55,000 for a new chemistry building. Bailey and architect John Haskell then traveled across the country looking at other chemistry facilities.

Bailey helped design the building, and Haskell led the construction. The limestone came from a rock quarry near the building, which stood on what was then the west edge of campus. The money came from the state legislature, and the idea for the building’s design came from the East Coast.

After its completion, New Chemistry Hall became known on campus as “Bailey’s Barn.”

The roof featured 32 chimneys used to ventilate the labs inside, and it was deemed one of the most modern chemical facilities in the Midwest. But to Bailey, the building wasn’t exactly eye candy.

“The building is plain and massive in construction,” Bailey said in an undated University Archives document. “And while very little was expended for adornment, no expense was spared to secure the best practical conditions for chemical and pharmaceutical work, according to modern methods.”

CHANGING SCENERY

In 1954, the chemistry department and the School of Pharmacy moved to Malott Hall. In 1956, the School of Education relocated to Bailey Hall. The inside of the building was remodeled, and air-conditioning was installed. With no more chemical experiments in the building, the unneeded chimneys were removed.

The original wooden door was replaced by the current glass, bubble-like entryway, giving students a covered place and more room to wait for the bus. Today, a gaggle of students gather inside the glass dome or wait on the sidewalk for the bus each hour.

Rowdy Wichman, Ellis sophomore, was waiting for a bus at Bailey Hall last week. Wichman said that he didn’t know the building was a historical site but that the old buildings on campus added to his college experience.

“You have to get your academics, but it’s neat you get that culture around you,” Wichman said.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

In 2000, the School of Education moved to Joseph R. Pearson Hall, and Bailey Hall became home to several academic departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. That same year, the American Chemical Society named Bailey Hall a National Chemical Landmark.

Getting the hall added to the National Register of Historic Places was not an easy task, however. General criteria for properties to be added to the register list include the building being at least 50 years of age and a place where an important achievement took place.

Berneking said that in the mid-1990s, she met with Warren Corman, University architect and special assistant to the chancellor, and after years of wrangling, Berneking got her wish.

On Oct. 22, 2001, the hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its scientific and educational significance.

“I’m like a bulldog,” she said. “I get my teeth in something, and I’m not gonna let it go.”

In 2005, a microburst swept across campus and caused significant damage to the roof of the building. The tile roof was replaced and a standing-seam metal roof, similar to the original one, was put on.

In the coming years, Bailey Hall is scheduled for more repairs. It doesn’t have central air, and its heating, plumbing and electrical systems need upgrades.

Berneking said that she didn’t make it to campus often but that when she looked at the building that bore her grandfather’s name, she saw it unlike any other. She sees those gentle, quiet eyes from long ago.

“It signifies my family,” she said.

Edited by Tara Smith