Erasmus Haworth

[1] He taught at various colleges, and was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Kansas in 1892, where he remained until 1920.

In this position, he was instrumental in finding an ample water supply for Wichita and Newton.

In 1903, he collected a sample of gas from a well drilled in Dexter, Kansas and had it analyzed by colleagues in the university's Department of Chemistry.

[3] The sample was found to contain helium, which was previously believed to be rare on earth.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Haworth repeatedly used his position as state geologist to warn against investing in phony zinc and gold deposits in Trego and Ellis counties, Kansas.