Ferdinand Hurter

Ferdinand Hurter (15 March 1844 – 12 March 1898) was a

Hurter was offered a professorship in Aarau but declined this and, with a few letters of introduction, arrived in Manchester in 1867.^[4] He joined Henry Deacon and Holbrook Gaskell at their alkali manufacturing business, Gaskell, Deacon & Co., in Widnes, Lancashire.^[5] Here he became chief chemist and worked with Deacon to develop a process to convert hydrochloric acid, a waste by-product of the Leblanc process of making alkali, to chlorine which was then used to manufacture bleaching powder.^[1][6] He was a pioneer in applying the principles of physical chemistry and thermodynamics to industrial processes and by 1880 was considered to be a world authority on the manufacture of alkali.^[1][7] He was a strong defender of the Leblanc process against the other methods of manufacturing alkali being developed at the time^[8] although he did research the ammonia-soda process but without any success.^[9] He argued against the production of alkali by the electrolysis of brine because of the enormous amount of electrical power this would require^[10] although he was later to have second thoughts.^[11]

When the Leblanc factories merged in 1890 to form the United Alkali Company, Hurter was placed in charge of developing a research laboratory in Widnes. This was later named after him.^[12] He played a part in the foundation of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1881, becoming its chairman in 1888–1890.^[13] He published 24 papers in English journals alone.^[14] He gave many lectures to try to popularise scientific subjects.^[15] As chief chemist to the United Alkali Company, despite his failing health, he travelled to a number of countries in Europe and also made one visit to the USA.^[16] The Society of Chemical Industry endowed the Hurter Memorial Lecture in his name.^[13]

Personal

In 1871 Hurter married Hannah Garnett of

• Hurter and Driffield
• H&D speed numbers for film speed measurements

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