scientific society
A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership may ...
formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation.
History
One of the aims of the Chemical Society was to hold meetings for "the communication and discussion of discoveries and observations, an account of which shall be published by the Society". In 1847, its importance was recognised by a
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...
, which added to its role in the advancement of science, the development of chemical applications in industry. Its members included eminent chemists from overseas including
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann (8 April 18185 May 1892) was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the g ...
, who became its president in 1861. Membership was open to all those interested in chemistry, but fellowship was for long restricted to men.
In 1904, Edith Humphrey, thought to be the first British woman to gain a doctorate in chemistry (at the
University of Zurich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
), was one of nineteen women chemists to petition the Chemical Society for admission of women to fellowship. This was eventually granted in 1919, and Humphrey was subsequently elected to fellowship.
The Chemical Society of London succeeded where a number of previous chemical associations - the
Lunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...
's London branch chemical society of the 1780s, the Animal Chemical Club of 1805, the London Chemical Society of 1824 - failed. One assertion of a cause of success of the Chemical Society of London is that it was, unlike its forerunners, a "fruitful amalgamation of the technological and academic chemist".
Its activities expanded over the years, including eventually becoming a major publisher in the field of chemistry. On 15 May 1980, it amalgamated with the
Royal Institute of Chemistry The Royal Institute of Chemistry was a British scientific organisation. Founded in 1877 as the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland (ICGBI), its role was to focus on qualifications and the professional status of chemists, and its aim ...
, the
Faraday Society The Faraday Society was a British society for the study of physical chemistry, founded in 1903 and named in honour of Michael Faraday. In 1980, it merged with several similar organisations, including the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Che ...
and the
Society for Analytical Chemistry
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
to become the
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...
Arthur Aikin
Arthur Aikin (19 May 177315 April 1854) was an English chemist, mineralogy, mineralogist and scientific writer, and was a founding member of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). He first became its treasurer in 1841, and la ...
William Thomas Brande
William Thomas Brande FRS FRSE (11 January 178811 February 1866) was an English chemist.
Biography
Brande was born in Arlington Street, London, England, the youngest son of six children to Augustus Everard Brande an apothecary, originally fr ...
William Allen Miller
William Allen Miller FRS (17 December 1817 – 30 September 1870) was a British scientist.
Life
Miller was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and educated at Ackworth School and King's College London. He was related to William Allen and first cous ...
: 1855–1857
* Sir
Lyon Playfair
Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair (1 May 1818 – 29 May 1898) was a British scientist and Liberal politician who was Postmaster-General from 1873 to 1874.
Early life
Playfair was born at Chunar, Bengal, the son of George Playfair (1782-1846 ...
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann (8 April 18185 May 1892) was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the g ...
: 1861–1863
*
Alexander William Williamson
Prof Alexander William Williamson FRS FRSE PCS MRIA (1 May 18246 May 1904) was an English chemist. He is best known today for the Williamson ether synthesis.
Life
Williamson was born in 1824 in Wandsworth, London, the second of three childr ...
: 1863–1865
*
William Allen Miller
William Allen Miller FRS (17 December 1817 – 30 September 1870) was a British scientist.
Life
Miller was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and educated at Ackworth School and King's College London. He was related to William Allen and first cous ...
Alexander William Williamson
Prof Alexander William Williamson FRS FRSE PCS MRIA (1 May 18246 May 1904) was an English chemist. He is best known today for the Williamson ether synthesis.
Life
Williamson was born in 1824 in Wandsworth, London, the second of three childr ...
: 1869–1871
* Sir
Edward Frankland
Sir Edward Frankland, (18 January 18259 August 1899) was an English chemist. He was one of the originators of organometallic chemistry and introduced the concept of combining power or valence. An expert in water quality and analysis, he was ...
: 1871–1873
*
William Odling
William Odling, FRS (5 September 1829 in Southwark, London – 17 February 1921 in Oxford) was an English chemist who contributed to the development of the periodic table.
In the 1860s Odling, like many chemists, was working towards classifying ...
: 1873–1875
* Sir
Frederick Augustus Abel
Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 1st Baronet (17 July 18276 September 1902) was an English chemist who was recognised as the leading British authority on explosives. He is best known for the invention of cordite as a replacement for gunpowder in f ...
: 1875–1877
*
John Hall Gladstone
John Hall Gladstone FRS (7 March 1827 – 6 October 1902) was a British chemist.* He served as President of the Physical Society between 1874 and 1876 and during 1877–1879 was President of the Chemical Society. Apart from chemistry, where ...
Henry Enfield Roscoe
Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe (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 a ...
: 1880–1882
* Sir
Joseph Henry Gilbert
Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert, Fellow of the Royal Society (1 August 1817 – 23 December 1901) was an English chemist, noteworthy for his long career spent improving the methods of practical agriculture. He was a fellow of the Royal Society.
Life
He ...
: 1882–1883
*
William Henry Perkin
Sir William Henry Perkin (12 March 1838 – 14 July 1907) was a British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first commercial synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in tryin ...
: 1883–1885
* : 1885–1887
* Sir
William Crookes
Sir William Crookes (; 17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing t ...
Alexander Crum Brown
Alexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him.
Early life and education
Crum Brown was born at 4 Belle ...
: 1891–1893
*
Henry Edward Armstrong
Henry Edward Armstrong FRS FRSE (Hon) (6 May 1848 – 13 July 1937) was a British chemist. Although Armstrong was active in many areas of scientific research, such as the chemistry of naphthalene derivatives, he is remembered today largely for h ...
James Dewar
Sir James Dewar (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a British chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studied a ...
: 1897–1899
* Sir
Thomas Edward Thorpe
Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe CB, FRS H FRSE LLD (8 December 1845 – 23 February 1925) was a British chemist. From 1894 to 1909 he was Chief Chemist to the British Government, as Director of the Government Laboratory.
Early life and education
Th ...
Raphael Meldola
Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15.
Life
Born in Islington, London, he was descended from Raphael Me ...
: 1905–1907
* Sir
William Ramsay
Sir William Ramsay (; 2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous element ...
: 1907–1909
*
Harold Baily Dixon
Harold Baily Dixon (1852–1930) was a British chemist. He was also an amateur footballer who appeared for Oxford University in the 1873 FA Cup Final.
Early life
Born in Marylebone, London, England, he attended Westminster School from ...
William Jackson Pope
Sir William Jackson Pope (31 March 1870 – 17 October 1939) was an English chemist.
Biography
William Jackson Pope was born on 31 March 1870 in Hoxton to William (a saddler) and Alice (née Hall). His parents were staunch and active Wesl ...
: 1917–1919
*
James Johnston Dobbie
Sir James Johnston Dobbie, FRS FRSE FIC FCS (4 August 1852 – 19 June 1924) was known for the isolation, chemical structure, and physical properties (especially UV and visible spectra) of alkaloids. He isolated hydroxycodeine from opium and syn ...
Jocelyn Field Thorpe
Sir Jocelyn Field Thorpe FRS (1 December 1872 – 10 June 1940) was a British chemist who made major contributions to organic chemistry, including the Thorpe-Ingold effect and three named reactions.
Early life and education
Thorpe was b ...
: 1928–1931
*
George Gerald Henderson
George Gerald Henderson (30 January 1862 – 28 September 1942) was a chemist and professor at the University of Glasgow. He was known for his work on terpenes.
Life
Henderson was born to a Glasgow merchant in 1862. He entered the University o ...
: 1931–1933
* Sir : 1933–1935
*
Nevil Vincent Sidgwick
Nevil Vincent Sidgwick FRS (8 May 1873 – 15 March 1952) was an English theoretical chemist who made significant contributions to the theory of valency and chemical bonding.
Biography
Sidgwick was born in Park Town, Oxford, the elder of two ...
Cyril Norman Hinshelwood
Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (19 June 1897 – 9 October 1967) was a British physical chemist and expert in chemical kinetics. His work in reaction mechanisms earned the 1956 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Education
Born in London, his parents we ...
: 1946–1948
* Sir
Ian Morris Heilbron
Sir Ian Morris Heilbron Distinguished Service Order, DSO Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (6 November 1886 – 14 September 1959) was a Scottish chemist, who pioneered organic chemistry developed for therapeutic and industrial use.
Early life a ...
: 1948–1950
* Sir
Eric Keightley Rideal
Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, (11 April 1890 – 25 September 1974)Rideal, Sir Eric Keight ...
: 1950–1952
* Sir
Christopher Kelk Ingold
Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold (28 October 1893 – 8 December 1970) was a British chemist based in Leeds and London. His groundbreaking work in the 1920s and 1930s on reaction mechanisms and the electronic structure of organic compounds was resp ...
: 1952–1954
* : 1954–1956
* Sir
Edmund Langley Hirst
Sir Edmund Langley Hirst CBE FRS FRSE (21 July 1898 – 29 October 1975), was a British chemist.
Life
Hirst was born in Preston, Lancashire on 21 July 1898 the son of Elizabeth (née Langley) and Rev Sim Hirst (1856-1923) a Baptist minister. He ...
Ronald Sydney Nyholm
Sir Ronald Sydney Nyholm (29 January 1917 – 4 December 1971) was an Australian chemist who was a leading figure in inorganic chemistry in the 1950s and 1960s.
Education
Born on 29 January 1917 as the fourth in a family of six children. Nyhol ...
: 1968–1970
* Lord
George Porter
George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham (6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002) was a British chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967.
Education and early life
Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, in the then West ...
Alfred Spinks
Alfred Spinks (25 February 1917 – 11 February 1982), was a British chemist and biologist.
Biography
Alfred Spinks was the only child of Alfred Robert Spinks, manager of a Littleport brewery, and Ruth (née Harley). He was born in Littlep ...
: 1979–1980
Original members
On 23 February 1841, a meeting was convened to take into consideration the formation of a Chemical Society. The Provisional Committee appointed for carrying that object into effect invited a number of gentlemen engaged in the practice and pursuit of chemistry to become original members. The following 77 communicated their written assent:
*
Arthur Aikin
Arthur Aikin (19 May 177315 April 1854) was an English chemist, mineralogy, mineralogist and scientific writer, and was a founding member of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). He first became its treasurer in 1841, and la ...
*
Thomas Andrews
Thomas Andrews Jr. (7 February 1873 – 15 April 1912) was a British businessman and shipbuilder. He was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland.
He was the nava ...
William Thomas Brande
William Thomas Brande FRS FRSE (11 January 178811 February 1866) was an English chemist.
Biography
Brande was born in Arlington Street, London, England, the youngest son of six children to Augustus Everard Brande an apothecary, originally fr ...
Charles Button
Charles Edward Button (23 August 1838 – 27 December 1920) was a solicitor, Supreme Court judge, Mayor of Hokitika and later Birkenhead, and an independent conservative Member of Parliament in New Zealand. Born in Tasmania, he came to New Zeala ...
Walter Crum
Walter Crum FRS (1796–1867) was a Scottish chemist and businessman. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1844.
Life
He was born in Glasgow, the second son of Alexander Crum of Thornliebank, a merchant there, and of Jane, the eldest da ...
John Frederic Daniell
John Frederic Daniell FRS (12 March 1790 – 13 March 1845) was an English chemist and physicist.
Biography
Daniell was born in London. In 1831 he became the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded King's College London; and in 18 ...
Edmund Davy
Edmund Davy FRS (1785 – 5 November 1857)Christopher F. Lindsey, 'Davy, Edmund (1785–1857)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200 accessed 6 April 2008/ref> was a professor of chemistry at the Royal Cork Inst ...
Thomas Gill Thomas or Tom Gill may refer to:
* Thomas Gill (1788–1861), British Whig politician and industrialist
* Thomas Gill (architect) (1870–1941), American architect
* Thomas Gill (footballer) (born 1965), Norwegian football goalkeeper
* Thomas G ...
John Joseph Griffin
John Joseph Griffin (1802 – 9 June 1877) was an English chemist and publisher.
Life
Griffin was born in 1802 in Shoreditch, London, the son of a bookseller and publisher. The family moved to Glasgow when he was young. In present-day his famil ...
William Robert Grove
Sir William Robert Grove, FRS FRSE (11 July 1811 – 1 August 1896) was a Welsh judge and physical scientist. He anticipated the general theory of the conservation of energy, and was a pioneer of fuel cell technology. He invented the Grove vo ...
Thomas Charles Hope
Thomas Charles Hope (21 July 1766 – 13 June 1844) was a British physician, chemist and lecturer. He proved the existence of the element strontium, and gave his name to Hope's Experiment, which shows that water reaches its maximum density a ...
George Lowe
George Edward Lowe (born November 10, 1957) is an American voice actor and comedian whose voice roles include Space Ghost on the animated series ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' and its spin-off, ''Cartoon Planet''.Robert Macgregor
*
Charles Macintosh
Charles Macintosh FRS (29 December 1766 – 25 July 1843) was a Scottish chemist and the inventor of the modern waterproof raincoat. The Mackintosh raincoat (the variant spelling is now standard) is named after him.
Biography
Macintosh was ...
David Mushet
David Mushet (2 October 1772 – 7 June 1847) was a Scottish engineer, known for his inventions in the field of metallurgy. Mushet was an early advocate of animal rights.
Early life
Mushet was born on 2 October 1772 in Dalkeith near Edin ...
William Haseldine Pepys
William Haseldine Pepys FGS FRS (23 March 1775 – 17 August 1856) (or William Hasledine Pepys - both versions were used during his lifetime) was an English scientist and founder of learned institutions who contributed significantly to the advan ...
Lyon Playfair
Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair (1 May 1818 – 29 May 1898) was a British scientist and Liberal politician who was Postmaster-General from 1873 to 1874.
Early life
Playfair was born at Chunar, Bengal, the son of George Playfair (1782-1846 ...
*
Robert Porrett
Robert Porrett (1783–1868) was an English amateur chemist and antiquary.
Life
The son of Robert Porrett, ordnance storekeeper at the Tower of London, he was born in London on 22 September 1783. He began work in his father's department as an assi ...
David Boswell Reid
Prof David Boswell Reid MD FRSE FRCPE (1805 – 5 April 1863) was a British physician, chemist and inventor. Through reports on public hygiene and ventilation projects in public buildings, he made a reputation in the field of sanitation. He has ...
Thomas Thomson Thomas Thomson may refer to:
* Tom Thomson (1877–1917), Canadian painter
* Thomas Thomson (apothecary) (died 1572), Scottish apothecary
* Thomas Thomson (advocate) (1768–1852), Scottish lawyer
* Thomas Thomson (botanist) (1817–1878), Scottis ...
*
Robert Dundas Thomson
Dr Robert Dundas Thomson FRSE FRS FRCP FCS (21 September 1810 – 17 August 1864) was a British physician and chemist and a pioneer of public sanitation. He worked as an academic, medical officer of health and author.
Life
He was the son ...
Journal of the Chemical Society
The ''Journal of the Chemical Society'' was a scientific journal established by the Chemical Society in 1849 as the ''Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society''. The first editor was Edmund Ronalds. The journal underwent several renamings, spli ...
Chemical Society Reviews
''Chemical Society Reviews'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, for review articles on topics of current interest in chemistry. Its predecessors were ''Quarterly Reviews, Chemical Society'' ...