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WOLLASTON, WILLIAM HYDE (1766-1828)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 776 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WOLLASTON, See also:WILLIAM See also:HYDE (1766-1828) , See also:English chemist and natural philosopher, was See also:born at See also:East See also:Dereham, See also:Norfolk, on the 6th of See also:April 1766, the second of seventeen See also:children. His See also:father, the Rev. See also:Francis Wollaston (1731-1815), See also:rector of See also:Chislehurst, See also:grandson of the William Wollaston noticed above, was an enthusiastic astronomer. Wollaston was educated at See also:Charterhouse, and afterwards at See also:Caius See also:College, See also:Cambridge, of which he became a See also:fellow. He took the degrees of M.B. (1787) and M.D. (1793), starting to practise See also:medicine in 1789 at See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds, whence he soon removed to See also:London. But he madelittle way, and failed to obtain a vacant physicianship at St See also:George's See also:hospital; the result was that he abandoned medicine and took to See also:original See also:research. He devoted much See also:attention to the affairs of the Royal Society, of which he was elected a fellow in 1793, and made secretary in 18o6. He was elected See also:interim See also:president in See also:June 182o, on the See also:death of See also:Sir See also:Joseph See also:Banks; but he did not care to enter into competition with Sir See also:Humphry See also:Davy, and the latter was elected president at the anniversary See also:meeting in See also:November 1820. Wollaston became a member of the See also:Geological Society of London in 1812, and served frequently on the See also:Council and for some See also:time as a See also:vice-president. Beyond appearing at the meetings of learned See also:societies he took little See also:part in public affairs; he lived alone, conducting his investigations in a deliberate and exhaustive manner, but in the most rigid seclusion, no See also:person being admitted to his laboratory on any pretext.

Towards the See also:

close of 1828 he See also:felt the approach of a fatal malady—a See also:tumour in the See also:brain—and devoted his last days to a careful revisal of his unpublished researches and See also:industrial processes, dictating several papers on these subjects, which were afterwards published in the Philosophical Transactions. He died in London on the 22nd of See also:December 1828. Most of Wollaston's original See also:work' deals more or less directly with chemical subjects, but diverges on all sides into See also:optics, See also:acoustics, See also:mineralogy, See also:astronomy, See also:physiology, See also:botany and even See also:art. In See also:chemistry he made a speciality of the See also:platinum metals. Platinum itself he discovered how to work on a See also:practical See also:scale, and he is said to have made a See also:fortune from the See also:secret, which, however, he disclosed in a See also:posthumous See also:paper (1829); and he was the first to detect the metals See also:palladium (1804) and See also:rhodium (18os) in crude platinum. In regard to palladium his conduct was open to See also:criticism. He anonymously offered a quantity of the See also:metal for See also:sale at an See also:instrument-maker s See also:shop, issuing an See also:advertisement in which some of its See also:main properties were described. See also:Richard Chevenix (1774–1830), a chemist, having bought some of the substance, decided after experiment that it was not a See also:simple See also:body as claimed, but an alloy of See also:mercury with platinum, and in 1803 presented a paper to the Royal Society setting forth this view. As secretary, Wollaston saw this paper when it was sent in, and is said to have tried to persuade the author to withdraw it. But having failed, he allowed the paper, and also a second by Chevenix of the same See also:tenor in 1805, to be read without avowing that it was he himself who had originally detected the metal, although he had an excellent opportunity of stating the fact in 1804 when he discussed the substance in the paper which announced the See also:discovery of rhodium. In 1809 he proved the elementary See also:character of See also:columbium (niobium) and See also:titanium. In optics he was the first, in 18o2, to observe the dark lines in the See also:solar spectrum.

Of the seven lines he saw, he regarded the five most prominent as the natural boundaries or dividing lines of the pure simple See also:

colours of the prismatic spectrum, which he supposed to have four See also:primary divisions. He described the reflecting See also:goniometer in 1809 and the See also:camera lucida in 1812, provided microscopists with the " Wollaston doublet," and applied concavo-See also:convex lenses to the purposes of the oculist. His cryophorus was described in 1813, in a paper " On a method of freezing at a distance." In 1821, after H. C. Oersted (1777-1851) had shown that a magnetic See also:needle is deflected by an electric current, he attempted, in the laboratory of the Royal Institution in the presence of Humphry Davy, to convert that deflection into a continuous rotation, and also to obtain the reciprocal effect of a current rotating See also:round a magnet. He failed in both respects, and when See also:Michael See also:Faraday, who overheard a portion of his conversation with Davy on the subject, was subsequently more successful, he was inclined to assert the merit of priority, to which Faraday did not admit his claim. Among his other papers may be mentioned those dealing with the formation of See also:fairy rings (1807), a synoptic scale of chemical equivalents (1814), sounds in-audible to See also:ordinary ears (1820), the physiology of See also:vision (1824), the apparent direction of the eyes in a portrait (1824) and the comparison of the See also:light of the See also:sun with that of the See also:moon and fixed stars (1829). In geological circles Wollaston is famous for the See also:medal which bears his name, and which (together with a donation fund) is annually awarded by the council of the Geological Society of London, being the result of the See also:interest on £See also:i000 bequeathed by Wollaston for " promoting researches concerning the See also:mineral structure of the See also:earth." The first See also:award was made in 1831. The medal is the highest See also:honour bestowed by the society: it ,vas originally made of palladium, but is now made of See also:gold. An appreciative See also:essay on Wollaston will be found in George See also:Wilson's Religio Chemici (1862).

End of Article: WOLLASTON, WILLIAM HYDE (1766-1828)

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