Edward Frankland
Norway | |
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Occupation | Research chemist |
Known for | Pioneer in water analysis Discoverer of the principle of valency in chemistry Organometallic chemistry Organotin chemistry |
Sir Edward Frankland,
Biography
Edward Frankland was born in Catterall, Lancashire and baptised at Churchtown, Lancashire on 20 February 1825.[1] As his baptismal record shows, his birth was illegitimate. His natural father was Edward Chaddock Gorst, the father of John Eldon Gorst.[2] His mother, Margaret "Peggy" Frankland, later married William Helm, a Lancaster cabinet-maker. "His illegitimacy cast a shadow over all his life since he was pledged to silence as to the identity of his natural father, although a handsome annuity was paid to his mother".[3]
From age 3 to 8 Edward lived and was educated in
At age 12, Edward moved to the Lancaster Free Grammar School[4]: 11 (later Lancaster Royal Grammar School), that had also educated scientists William Whewell and Sir Richard Owen. According to Frankland himself, his interest in chemistry was furthered by a case held in the court of
In 1840, Edward was
During the latter part of his six-year apprenticeship, Frankland also attended the Lancaster Mechanics' Institute (later to become
In summer 1847 Frankland visited Germany and met some of Playfair's chemistry contacts there, including Robert Bunsen. In August 1847, Frankland accepted a post as science-master at a boarding school (Queenwood College) in Hampshire, but the following summer he opted to return to Germany to be a full-time student at the University of Marburg. Robert Bunsen was an influential teacher at Marburg at the time, and Bunsen's reputation was one of the main attractions for Frankland. The following year Frankland accepted an invitation to move to Justus von Liebig's laboratory at Giessen. By this stage, Frankland already had his own research agenda and had published some original research in chemistry. [7]
In January 1850, Lyon Playfair revealed his intention to resign from his professorship at Putney College for Civil Engineers in London and arrange to have Frankland become his successor. Hence Frankland abruptly terminated his studies in Germany and returned to take up Playfair's former position in England. A year later Frankland became professor of chemistry at a newly established school now known as the University of Manchester. In 1857, he became lecturer in chemistry at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and, in 1863, professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, London. For two decades Frankland also had a teaching role at the Royal School of Mines in London;[8] and he taught briefly (from 1859 to 1861) at the Royal India Military College at Addiscombe, Surrey.[9]
Edward Frankland was elected a
Edward Frankland became engaged to Sophie Fick, sister of physiologist
His son
Frankland's papers are held at the
Scientific work
From an early age, Frankland engaged in original research with great success. Analytical problems, such as the isolation of certain
The theoretical deductions Frankland drew from considering these bodies were even more interesting and important than the bodies themselves. Perceiving a molecular isonomy between them and the inorganic compounds of the metals from which they may be formed, Frankland saw their true molecular type in the
In applied chemistry Frankland's great work was in connection with water-supply. Appointed a member of the second royal commission on the pollution of rivers in 1868, he was provided by the government with a completely equipped laboratory, in which, for a period of six years, he carried on the inquiries necessary for the purposes of that body, and was thus the means of bringing to light an enormous amount of valuable information respecting the contamination of rivers by sewage, trade-refuse, &c., and the purification of water for domestic use. In 1865, when he succeeded August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the School of Mines, he undertook the duty of making monthly reports to the registrar-general on the character of the water supplied to London, and these he continued down to the end of his life. At one time he was an unsparing critic of its quality, but in later years he became strongly convinced of its general excellence and wholesomeness.[18]
Frankland's analyses were both chemical and bacteriological, and his dissatisfaction with the processes in vogue for the former at the time of his appointment caused him to spend two years in devising new and more accurate methods. In 1859 Frankland passed a night on the very top of Mont Blanc in company with John Tyndall. One of the purposes of the expedition was to discover whether the rate of combustion of a candle varies with the density of the atmosphere in which it is burnt, a question which was answered in the negative. Other observations made by Frankland at the time formed the starting-point of a series of experiments which yielded far-reaching results. He noticed that at the summit the candle gave a very poor light, and was thereby led to investigate the effect produced on luminous flames by varying the pressure of the atmosphere in which they are burning. He found that pressure increases luminosity, so that hydrogen, for example, the flame of which gives no light in normal circumstances, burns with a luminous flame under a pressure of ten or twenty atmospheres, and the inference he drew was that the presence of solid particles is not the only factor that determines the light-giving power of a flame, Further, he showed that the spectrum of a dense ignited gas resembles that of an incandescent liquid or solid, and he traced a gradual change in the spectrum of an incandescent gas under increasing pressure, the sharp lines observable when it is extremely attenuated broadening out to nebulous bands as the pressure rises, till they merge in the continuous spectrum as the gas approaches a density comparable with that of the liquid state. An application of these results to solar physics in conjunction with Sir Norman Lockyer led to the view that at least the external layers of the sun cannot consist of matter in the liquid or solid forms, but must be composed of gases or vapours.[18]
Frankland and Lockyer were also the discoverers of helium, along with Pierre Jules César Janssen. In 1868, they noticed, in the solar spectrum, a bright yellow line which did not correspond to any substance then known. It was this line which they attributed to the then hypothetical element, helium. This was the first time an element was discovered on an extraterrestrial world before being found on the earth.[18]
Lectures
Frankland gave a variety of lectures at the Royal Institution. In 1862, 1864, and 1866, Frankland was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, speaking on the topics Air and Water; The Chemistry of a Coal and The Chemistry of Gases respectively.[8]: 217
Awards and honours
- Fellow of the Royal Society, 1853[8]: 236
- Royal Medal, 1857, for Researches on the isolation of the radicals of organic compounds.[10]
- Copley Medal, 1894[10]
- Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, 1897[10]
- Blue plaque, from the Royal Society of Chemistry, at Quay Street, Manchester[22]
- National Chemical Landmark Blue plaque from the Royal Society of Chemistry, at Lancaster Royal Grammar School, 2015[23]
- Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, for Frankland's 1852 publication on the discovery of the theory of valence, awarded to the University of Manchester, 2015[19][20][21]
- Blue plaque from English Heritage, at 14 Lancaster Gate, Bayswater, London in June 2019[24]
Bibliography
- Frankland, Edward (1877). Experimental Researches in Pure, Applied and Physical Chemistry. London: J. Van Voorst. (collected papers to 1877)
- Frankland, Edward; Chaloner, George (1875). How to teach chemistry : hints to science teachers and students being the substance of Six Lectures delivered at the Royal College of Chemistry in June 1872. London: J. & A. Churchill.
- Frankland, Edward; Japp, Francis A. (1884). Inorganic chemistry. London: J. & A. Churchill.
- Frankland, Edward (1866). Lecture notes for chemical students : embracing mineral and organic chemistry. London: J. Van Voorst.
- Frankland, Edward (1890). Water analysis for sanitary purposes, with hints for the interpretation of results (2nd ed.). London: Gurney & Jackson.
- Frankland, Edward (1902). West, Margaret Nanny (Frankland); Colenso, Sophie Jeanette (Frankland) (eds.). Sketches from the life of Edward Frankland, born January 18, 1825, died August 9, 1899. London: Spottiswoode & Co., Ltd.
- Ueber die Isolirung des Aethyls. Inaugural-Dissertation, welche mit Genehmigung der philosophischen Facultät zu Marburg zur Erlangung der Doctorwürde einreicht Edward Frankland aus Lancaster. Marburg, 1849. Druck von George Westermann in Braunschweig. [45 pages].
References
- ^ Parish Register of Garstang Parish (St. Helen's Church, Churchtown). Church of England. 1813. p. 146.
- ISBN 0 7146 5180 X.
- ^ a b Russell, Colin A. (2004). "Frankland, Sir Edward (1825–1899)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Frankland, Edward (1902). West, Margaret Nanny (Frankland); Colenso, Sophie Jeanette (Frankland) (eds.). Sketches from the life of Edward Frankland, born January 18, 1825, died August 9, 1899. London: Spottiswoode & Co., Ltd.
- ^ "Lancaster Library Collection, Item DDX 2743/MS5076, Sir Edward Frankland: Indenture of apprenticeship to Stephen Ross of Lancaster, druggist, for 6 years, as a chemist and druggist, the collection of Lancashire Archives". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ ISBN 9780335151752.
- ISBN 978-1178623574. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0521496360. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ Farrington, Anthony (1976). The Records of the East India College, Haileybury, & other institutions. London: H.M.S.O. pp. 119–121.
- ^ a b c d e "Obituary". Journal of the Society of Arts. XLVII (2439): 766. 18 August 1899. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ .
- ^ "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography".
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
- S2CID 177495132.
- ^ "Edward Frankland Papers". University of Manchester Library. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-470-14740-5. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- .
- ^ a b c d e public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Frankland, Sir Edward". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 23–24. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ S2CID 186210604.
- ^ a b "2015 Awardees". American Chemical Society, Division of the History of Chemistry. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences. 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ a b "Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award" (PDF). American Chemical Society, Division of the History of Chemistry. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences. 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ "Sir Edward Frankland & Sir Harry Enfield Roscoe". Manchester History. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ "Lancaster school unveils tribute to scientist". Lancaster Guardian.
- ^ "Sir Edward Frankland Chemical Scientist". English Heritage. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
External links
- Lienhard, John H. "No. 2036: EDWARD FRANKLAND". Engines of our Ingenuity., Audio program and transcript about Frankland
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1901). . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Frankland Papers Collection, University of Manchester Library.