Thomas Clark (chemist)
Thomas Clark (1801–1867) was a Scottish chemist.
He became known for the discovery of the
Life
Clark was born in Ayr, the son of a shipmaster and a needleworker. He went to school at the Ayr Academy, and then was placed in the counting-house of Charles Macintosh in Glasgow. After a few years he moved to the St. Rollox chemical works.[1]
In 1836 Clark became lecturer on chemistry at the Glasgow
Works
Clark wrote pharmaceutical papers in the
Clark is best known by his hard water tests and by his process for softening chalk waters. His soap test for hardness, patented in 1841,[2] was quickly taken by the government for waters proposed to be supplied to towns. His other major invention was the process of softening waters rendered hard by the presence of calcium bicarbonate in solution, a process that Thomas Graham took as exemplary applied science. Although the process was favourably reported on to the government in 1851 by Graham, Miller, and Hoffmann, it was opposed by the metropolitan water companies, and was adopted in only a few places.[1]
Clark was also a controversialist and pamphleteer. After he became unable to teach he studied English philology and grammar, and the gospels of the Greek Testament.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 443.
Attribution:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Clark, Thomas (1801-1867)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.