Henry Roscoe (chemist) - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Sir Henry Roscoe) British chemist (1833–1915)

Professor the Right Honourable SirHenry Enfield RoscoeFRS

Born	(1833-01-07)7 January 1833 London, England
Died	18 December 1915(1915-12-18) (aged 82) Woodcote, England
Awards	Royal Medal (1873) Dalton Medal (1900) Elliott Cresson Medal (1912)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry

Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe FRS (7 January 1833 – 18 December 1915) was a British chemist. He is particularly noted for early work on vanadium, photochemical studies, and his assistance in creating Oxo (food), in its earlier liquid form.

Life and work

Henry Enfield Roscoe was born in London, the son of Henry Roscoe (1800–1836) and Maria Roscoe, née Fletcher (1798–1885), and grandson of William Roscoe (1753–1831). Stanley Jevons the Australian economist was a cousin.

Roscoe studied at the Liverpool Institute for Boys and University College London. He then went to Heidelberg to work under Robert Bunsen, who became a lifelong friend. He also befriended William Dittmar. In 1857, Roscoe returned to England with Dittmar and was appointed to the chair of chemistry at Owens College, Manchester, with Dittmar as his assistant. In 1858 the state of the college was such that the Manchester Guardian called it "a mortifying failure". In the same year Roscoe was accosted by a tramp near the college who asked him if it was the night asylum; he wrote "I replied that it was not but if he would call again in six months' time he might find lodgings there." Roscoe remained at the college until 1886 by which time the Victoria University had been established. In 1881 he was a founder, and first president, of the Society of Chemical Industry and was also chair of the Manchester Section of the Society. From 1885 to 1895 he was MP for Manchester South. He served on several royal commissions appointed to consider educational questions, in which he was keenly interested, and from 1896 to 1902 was vice-chancellor of the University of London. He was knighted in 1884.

Roscoe's scientific work includes a memorable series of researches carried out with Bunsen between 1855 and 1862, in which they laid the foundations of comparative photochemistry. In 1864 they carried out what is reputed to be the first flashlight photography, using magnesium as a light source. In 1867, Roscoe began an elaborate investigation of vanadium and its compounds, and devised a process for preparing it pure in the metallic state, at the same time showing that the substance which had previously passed for the pure metal was contaminated with oxygen. In so doing he corrected Berzelius's value for the atomic mass. Roscoe was awarded the 1868 Bakerian Lecture for this work. He also carried out researches on niobium, tungsten, uranium, perchloric acid, and the solubility of ammonia.

Roscoe was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1890.

He was the uncle of Beatrix Potter. The mineral Roscoelite was named after him, due to its vanadium content and Roscoe's work on that element.

Roscoe received an honorary doctorate (LL.D) from the University of Glasgow in June 1901. In 1903, he was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society. In November 1909 he was sworn in the Privy Council. He was awarded the Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal in 1912.

He died in Woodcote on 18 December 1915.

Publications

Roscoe's publications include, besides several elementary books on chemistry that had a wide circulation and were translated into many foreign languages, Lectures on Spectrum Analysis (1869); a Treatise on Chemistry (the first edition of which appeared in 1877–1892); A New View of Dalton's Atomic Theory, with Dr Arthur Harden (1896); and an Autobiography (1906). The Treatise on Chemistry, written in collaboration with Carl Schorlemmer (1834–1892), who was appointed his private assistant at Manchester in 1859, official assistant in the laboratory in 1861, and professor of organic chemistry in 1874, was long regarded as a standard work. Roscoe's Lessons in Elementary Chemistry (1866) passed through many editions in the UK and abroad.

Selected works

Roscoe, Henry (1876). Chemistry. New York: Appleton. Henry Enfield Roscoe.
Roscoe, Henry (1878). Spectrum Analysis. London: Macmillan. Henry Enfield Roscoe.
Roscoe, Henry (1882). Kurzes Lehrbuch der Chemie. Braunsschweig: Vieweg.
Roscoe, Henry (1895). John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry. New York: Macmillan. p. 198. charles babbage.
Roscoe, Henry (1906). The Life and Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe. London: Macmillan. The Life & Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe.

Commemoration

The Roscoe Building at the University of Manchester was named after Professor Roscoe. It is a large general-purpose teaching facility used for various levels of teaching in Brunswick Street.

References

See the two-volume biography: Roscoe, Henry (1833). The Life of William Roscoe. Vol. 1. London: T. Cadell. and Roscoe, Henry (1833). The Life of William Roscoe. Vol. 2. London: T. Cadell.
"Dittmar, William - Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com.
Yates, Tim (1975) The University of Manchester. Victoria University of Manchester; p. 4
Charlton, H. B. (1951) Portrait of a University: chap. IV College to University: the Roscoe-Ward Epoch. Manchester: University Press
"SCI Presidents".
Manchester Faces & Places (Vol X, No 2 ed.). London & Manchester: JG Hammond & Co Ltd. November 1898. pp. 21–23.
^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Roscoe, Sir Henry Enfield". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 725–726.
"Henry Roscoe (1833–1915): flashlight photography". Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester). 2007. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
"Henry Enfield Roscoe". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 10 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
"Glasgow University Jubilee". The Times. No. 36481. London. 14 June 1901. p. 10. Retrieved 5 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
"APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
"No. 28311". The London Gazette. 23 November 1909. p. 8661.
"Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe". The Guardian. London. 20 December 1915. p. 4. Retrieved 5 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
The University of Manchester: Campus Map. man.ac.uk.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Roscoe
Comments on photograph of Kirchhoff, Bunsen, and Roscoe
Henry Enfield Roscoe (Open University)
Portraits of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Obituary (by Charles A. Keane, The Analyst, 1916, 41, 63 – 700)
Henry Roscoe Papers, John Rylands Library University of Manchester

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Manchester South 1885 – 1895	Succeeded byMarquess of Lorne
Academic offices
Preceded bySir Julian Goldsmid	Vice-Chancellor of University of London 1896–1902	Succeeded byDr Archibald Robertson
Professional and academic associations
Preceded byEdward William Binney	President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 1882–84	Succeeded byWilliam Crawford Williamson
Preceded byRichard Copley Christie	Secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 1860–74	Succeeded byJoseph Baxendell

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

Presidents

18th Century	Peter Mainwaring James Massey Dr Thomas Percival (I)
19th Century	Dr Thomas Percival (II) George Walker Thomas Henry (I) Dr John Hull Thomas Henry (II) John Dalton Dr Edward Holme Eaton Hodgkinson John Moore Sir William Fairbairn, Bt James Prescott Joule (I) Edward William Binney (I) Dr Robert Angus Smith Dr Henry Edward Schunck (I) James Prescott Joule (II) Edward William Binney (II) James Prescott Joule (III) Dr Henry Edward Schunck (II) Edward William Binney (III) James Prescott Joule (IV) Edward William Binney (IV) Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe William Crawford Williamson Robert Dukinfield Darbishire Balfour Stewart Osborne Reynolds Dr Henry Edward Schunck (III) Prof. Sir Arthur Schuster Henry Wilde Dr Henry Edward Schunck (IV) James Cosmo Melvill Prof. Sir Horace Lamb
20th Century	Prof. Sir Horace Lamb Charles Bailey Prof. Sir William Boyd Dawkins Sir William Henry Bailey Prof. Harold Baily Dixon (I) Francis Jones Prof. Frederick Ernest Weiss Francis Nicholson Prof. Sydney John Hickson William Thomson Prof. Sir Grafton Elliot Smith Prof. Sir Henry Alexander Miers Thomas Alfred Coward Prof. Harold Baily Dixon (II) Rev. Aloysius Laurence Cortie Herbert Levinstein Prof. Sir William Lawrence Bragg Charles Edmond Stromeyer Prof. Bernard Mouat Jones John Allan Prof. Reginald William James Robert Henry Clayton Prof. Douglas Rayner Hartree Prof. Herbert John Fleure Prof. Michael Polanyi Prof. Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster Dr Eric John Francis James Horace Hayhurst (I) Prof. Sir Geoffrey Jefferson Sir Peter Percy F. R. Venables Dr F. C. Toy C. E. Young Prof. Henry Solomon Lipson (I) Leonard Cohen Margaret Pilkington Horace Hayhurst (II) Brian Rodgers Dr George N. Burkhardt Dr George James Kynch Dr Edward Noah Abrahart Anthony Edmund Rivers Goulty Prof. Henry Solomon Lipson (II) Harry M. Fairhurst David G. Wilson Dr Lionel J. R. Postle Prof. Sir Netar P. Mallick (I) Dr Brian S. H. Rarity Philip G. Livesey Prof. Donald Stephen Lowell Cardwell Dr Edward Fletcher Cass Prof. Alexander Donnachie Dianne Wilson
21st Century	Iain E. Gillespie Angus G. D. Yeaman Keith D. Buckley Vivienne Blackburn Mary, Lady Mallick David J. Higginson Prof. Kenneth M. Letherman Prof. Sir Netar P. Mallick (II) Dr Diana M. Leitch Dr Susan R. Hilton Ian Cameron

Awards

Honorary Membership
Dalton Medal

Lectures

Publications

Memoirs and Proceedings
Who's Who of Greater Manchester

Category

v t e Dalton Medallists
Recipients	Henry Edward Schunck (1898) Sir Henry Roscoe (1900) Osborne Reynolds (1903) Sir Ernest Rutherford (1919) Sir Joseph 'J. J.' Thomson (1931) Sir Lawrence Bragg (1942) Patrick Blackett (1948) Sir Cyril Hinshelwood (1966) Dorothy Hodgkin (1981) Sir Harold Kroto (1997) Sir Walter Bodmer (2002) Sir Roger Penrose (2005) Sir Bernard Lovell (2009) Lord Rees of Ludlow (2012) Sir Konstantin Novoselov (2016)
Category

Dalton Medallists

Recipients