William Cruickshank (born circa 1740 or 1750, died 1810 or 1811) was a Scottish military surgeon and chemist, and professor of chemistry at the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

. William Cruickshank was awarded a diploma by the

Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The ...

on 5 October 1780. In March 1788 he became assistant to

Adair Crawford Adair Crawford Royal Society#Fellows, FRS FRSE (174829 July 1795), a chemist and physician, was a pioneer in the development of calorimetry, calorimetric methods for measuring the specific heat capacity of substances and the heat of chemical rea ...

at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, at a salary of £30 a year. On 24 June 1802, he became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS).

Discoveries and inventions

He identified

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

as a compound containing carbon and

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

in 1800. In 1800 he also used

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

to purify

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

. He also discovered the

chloralkali process The chloralkali process (also chlor-alkali and chlor alkali) is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. It is the technology used to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), which are comm ...

Strontium

Some authors credit Cruickshank with first suspecting an unknown substance in a Scottish mineral, strontianite, found near

Strontian Strontian (; gd, Sròn an t-Sìthein) is the main village in Sunart, an area in western Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, on the A861 road. Prior to 1975 it was part of Argyllshire. It lies on the north shore of Loch Sunart, close to the head of the ...

, in Argyleshire. Other authors name

for the discovery of this new earth, due to the mineral's property of imparting a redding color to a flame.A Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands... by Frederick William Rudler publ. HMSO (1905) page 211(availabl
digitized
by Google) It was later isolated by

Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...

and is now known as

strontium Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is ex ...

Diabetes

Cruickshank worked with John Rollo at Woolwich in the 1790s, and some of his discoveries about

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

were published in Rollo's book on the dietary treatment of the condition. This research led him to isolate

urea Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important r ...

in 1798, though his priority was not recognised at the time. Joseph Schiller, ''Wöhler, l'urée et le vitalisme'', Sudhoffs Archiv Bd. 51, H. 3 (1967), pp. 229-243, at p. 231. Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20775601

Trough battery

Circa 1800, Cruickshank invented the

Trough battery The trough battery was a variant of Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile and was designed by the Scottish professor of chemistry William Cruickshank in 1800. Disadvantage of the pile Volta's battery consisted of brine-soaked pieces of cloth sandwi ...

, an improvement on

Alessandro Volta Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (, ; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist and lay Catholic who was a pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the ...

voltaic pile upright=1.2, Schematic diagram of a copper–zinc voltaic pile. The copper and zinc discs were separated by cardboard or felt spacers soaked in salt water (the electrolyte). Volta's original piles contained an additional zinc disk at the bottom, ...

. The plates were arranged horizontally in a trough, rather than vertically in a column.Electricity by Robert M Ferguson, publ. Chambers (1873) page 169 (availabl
digitized
by Google).

Electrolysis

Shortly after learning of Alessandro Volta's discovery of the Voltaic Pile in 1800, Cruickshank conducted a number of experiments involving

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...

. He connected wires of silver to the poles of a battery and placed them into a solution of distilled water, and later into a variety of other solutions, observing the results. When the wires were placed into the various solutions of lead acetate, copper sulfate and silver nitrate, deposits of pure lead, copper and silver formed, respectively, on one wire. From these experiments he observed that "where metallic solutions are employed instead of water, the same wire which separates the hydrogen revives the metallic calx, and deposits it at the extremity of the wire in its pure metallic state."Elements of Galvanism in Theory and Practice, Vol. 2 by C.H. Wilkinson, publ. M'Millan (1804) pages 52 - 60 (availabl
digitized
by Google). This process of extraction of pure metals from metallic solutions is known today as

electrowinning Electrowinning, also called electroextraction, is the electrodeposition of metals from their ores that have been put in solution via a process commonly referred to as leaching. Electrorefining uses a similar process to remove impurities from a ...

. It is used in the refining of copper and other metals.

Retirement and death

In March 1803, Cruickshank became very ill and it is possible that this was due to exposure to

phosgene Phosgene is the organic chemical compound with the formula COCl2. It is a toxic, colorless gas; in low concentrations, its musty odor resembles that of freshly cut hay or grass. Phosgene is a valued and important industrial building block, espe ...

during his experiments. On 6 July 1804, he retired on a pension of 10

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

a day. He died in 1810 or 1811 and military records state that the death occurred in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

References

External links

Biography at Clarkson University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruickshank, William Scottish chemists 1810 deaths Academics of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Fellows of the Royal Society Year of birth unknown 18th-century British people 18th-century British chemists Battery inventors Year of birth uncertain