George Fergusson Wilson

George Fergusson Wilson (25 March 1822 – 28 March 1902) was an English industrial chemist.

Life

Born at Wandsworth Common on 25 March 1822, he was the sixth son in a family of thirteen children of William Wilson, at one time a merchant in Russia and subsequently founder at Battersea of a candle-making firm, E. Price & Son. His mother was Margaret Nimmo Dickson of Kilbucho and Culture in Scotland. He was educated at Wandsworth, and for a short time worked in a solicitor's office.^[1]

Business career

Wilson in 1840 entered his father's business. He took interest in the firm's experimental work, and in 1842 patented, with W. C. Jones, a process by which cheap, malodorous fats could be utilised in the place of

sulphuric acid as a decoloriser and deodoriser of strongly-smelling fats, and their subsequent distillation, when acidified, by the aid of super-heated steam. The invention was profitable, and in the Panic of 1847 the business was sold for £250,000.^[1]

A new concern, called Price's Patent Candles Ltd., with a capital of £500,000, was then formed, with George Wilson and an elder brother James as managing directors. Both researched processes of manufacture. Wilson in 1853 introduced moulded coco-stearin lights (from coconut oil) as "New Patent Night Lights"; and the two brothers made improvements on a French patent which led to the wide adoption by English manufacturers of the company's "oleine" or "cloth oil".’^[2]

In 1854 Wilson made a major discovery, a process of manufacturing pure

glycerine, which was first separated from fats and oils at high temperature, and then purified in an atmosphere of steam. Previously, commercial glycerine had been impure.^[3]

Later life

Wilson retired from his position of managing director in 1863, and in later life lived at

RHS Garden. ^[3]

Wilson died at Weybridge Heath on 28 March 1902.^[3]

Learned societies, works and awards

In 1845 Wilson was made a member of the

British Association at Glasgow a paper on "A New Mode of obtaining Pure Glycerine".^[3]

Elected a fellow of the

Linnean Society.^[3]

The standard author abbreviation G.F.Wilson is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[5]

Family

Wilson married on 13 August 1862 Ellen, eldest daughter of R. W. Barchard, of East Hill, Wandsworth, who survived him with two sons and a daughter. The elder son was Scott Barchard Wilson.^[3]

Notes

^ ^a ^b Fryer 1912, p. 189.
^ Fryer 1912, pp. 189–690.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Fryer 1912, p. 690.
^ Elliott, Brent. "'Experimental gardening: Wisley in the Nineteenth Century' in Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library, volume 11, January 2014" (PDF). Retrieved 26 April 2021.
^ International Plant Names Index. G.F.Wilson.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Fryer, Sydney Ernest (1912). "Wilson, George Fergusson". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 189–690.

Wilson, George Fergusson (DNB12)

[FOOTNOTEFryer1912189-1] Fryer 1912, p. 189.

[FOOTNOTEFryer1912189–690-2] Fryer 1912, pp. 189–690.

[FOOTNOTEFryer1912690-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Fryer 1912, p. 690.

[4] Elliott, Brent. "'Experimental gardening: Wisley in the Nineteenth Century' in Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library, volume 11, January 2014" (PDF). Retrieved 26 April 2021.

[5] International Plant Names Index. G.F.Wilson.

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