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ABEL, SIR FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, BART

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 39 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABEL, See also:SIR See also:FREDERICK See also:AUGUSTUS, See also:BART . (1827-1902), See also:English chemist, was See also:born in See also:London on the 17th of See also:July 1827. After studying See also:chemistry for six years under A. W. von See also:Hofmann at the Royal See also:College of Chemistry (established in London in 1845), he became See also:professor of chemistry at the Royal Military See also:Academy in 1851, and three years later was appointed chemist to the See also:War See also:Department and chemical See also:referee to the See also:government. During his See also:tenure of this See also:office, which lasted until 1888, he carried out a large amount of See also:work in connexion with the chemistry of See also:explosives. One of the most important of his investigations had to do with the manufacture of See also:gun-See also:cotton, and he See also:developed a See also:process, consisting essentially of reducing the nitrated cotton to See also:fine pulp, which enabled it to be prepared with practically no danger and at the same See also:time yielded the product in a See also:form that increased its usefulness. This work to an important extent prepared the way for the " smokeless powders " 'which came into See also:general use towards the end of the 19th See also:century; See also:cordite, the particular form adopted by the See also:British government in 1891, was invented jointly by him and Professor See also:James See also:Dewar. Our knowledge of the See also:explosion of See also:ordinary See also:black See also:powder was also greatly added to by him, and in See also:conjunction with Sir See also:Andrew See also:Noble he carried out one of the most See also:complete inquiries on See also:record into its behaviour when fired. The invention of the apparatus, legalized in 1879, for the determination of the flash-point of See also:petroleum, was another piece of work which See also:fell to him by virtue of his See also:official position. His first See also:instrument, the open-test apparatus, was prescribed by the See also:act of 1868, but, being found to possess certain defects, it was superseded in 1879 by the Abel See also:close-test instrument (see PETROLEUM). In See also:electricity Abel studied the construction of See also:electrical fuses and other applications of electricity to warlike purposes, and his work on problems of See also:steel manufacture won him in 1897 the See also:Bessemer See also:medal of the See also:Iron and Steel See also:Institute, of which from 1891 to 1893 he was See also:president. He was president of the Institution of Electrical See also:Engineers (then the Society of See also:Telegraph Engineers) in 1877.

He became a member of the Royal Society in 186o, and received a royal medal in 1887. He took an important See also:

part in the work of the Inventions See also:Exhibition (London) in 1885, and in 1887 became organizing secretary and first director of the Imperial Institute, a position he held till his See also:death, which occurred in London on the 6th of See also:September 1902. He was knighted in 1891, and created a See also:baronet in 1893. Among his books were—Handbook of Chemistry (with C. L. Bloxam), See also:Modern See also:History of See also:Gunpowder (1866), Gun-cotton (1866), On Explosive Agents (1872), Researches in Explosives (1875), and Electricity applied to Explosive Purposes (1884). He also wrote several important articles in the ninth edition of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica.

End of Article: ABEL, SIR FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, BART

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