A great chemist : Sir William Ramsay.

  • Charles Moureu
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A great chemist : Sir William Ramsay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    say was descended from ancestors well above the average intellectu¬ ally and in scientific pursuits, and he was well aware that he owed to them his calling and his ability as a chemist. Having begun his studies in his native city, Ramsay went to com¬ plete them in Germany, at first at Heidelberg, with Bunsen, and afterwards in Tubingen in the Fittig laboratory, where after some researches on the ammonia compounds of platinum, he studied the toluic acids. Organic chemistry attracted him by the flexibility of its combinations and the ingeniousness of its structural theories. On his return to Glasgow, where he secured a post as assistant, he stud¬ ied specially the pyridic group, doubtless attracted by the problem of the synthesis of the cinchona alkaloids. Let us recall the synthe¬ sis of pyridine itself by the direct union of cyanhydric acid with acetylene, the production of the different pyridinic acids by the oxida¬ tion of the bases of Anderson, the production of the same acids (in collaboration with Dolbie) from quinine, from cinchonine, etc., an important observation which directly related these alkaloids to pyridine. In 1880, at the age of 28, given the title of professor of chemistry at the University of Bristol, Ramsay began, in collaboration with his assistant, S. Young, a series of works on physicochemistry which were not slow in being noticed. They had for an object the revision of the physicochemical properties of a certain number of liquid types, water, alcohols, ethers, hydrocarbons, etc., with a view especially of determining exactly the relation of these properties to the atomic or molecular weights. A vast field was thus explored: the densities of steam, the tensions of steam, thermic constants, dissociation, critical points were studied and many new and interesting observations were made. For the execution of so many delicate researches, all kinds of new apparatus had to be designed and constructed, with the re¬ sult, extremely fortunate for the following of his career, that Ram¬ say became a very adroit blower of glass. Many of these contrivances are to-day in every-day use in laboratories. It was in 1887 that Ramsay was called to the University College at London, to succeed Williamson in that chair of chemistry already renowned, which he was by his efforts to make shine with a great light. For 30 years in fact, Ramsay was to display in this post of honor the most fertile and brilliant activity. His peculiar qualities as an experimenter and his originality stood out in striking relief in a work which he published in 1893 in collaboration with Shields. Following a remarkable series of researches on surface tensions and densities at different temperatures, Ramsay gave to science the first experimental method of determining the molecular weights of sub¬ stances in a liquid state.
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