Career Milestones
"Bean soup" (1942)
Even as he became a major player in the lucrative human sex hormone
game, Julian continued his work with the soybean. In fact, the soy
protein he developed as a paper coating for Glidden ended up playing
a key role in saving lives during World War II. Glidden had shipped
some of Julian's protein to a Pennsylvania company, which used it to
develop a fire-fighting product called Aero-Foam. During the war,
the United States Navy applied the foam to oil and gas fires on
board aircraft carriers and other ships, effectively saving
thousands of sailors from serious injury or death. Affectionately
nicknamed "bean soup," Aero-Foam, like later foaming agents, worked
by floating on top of a burning liquid, breaking contact between the
flames and the fuel's surface.