William Henry Walenn (7 January 1828 – 20 September 1896) was born in London and was trained as an engineer at the works of Messrs. Cottam, and received part of his education at University College, London, where he studied mathematics under Augustus De Morgan. He became a Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1866, and of the

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 ...

soon after its establishment. He was also a member of the

Physical Society of London The Physical Society of London, England, was a scientific society which was founded in 1874. In 1921, it was renamed the Physical Society, and in 1960 it merged with the Institute of Physics (IOP), the combined organisation eventually adopting the ...

Biography

Walenn's wife, Skene Charlotte (née Barth) was musically trained but did not perform professionally. Nevertheless, her interest led to music professions of several of her children: Herbert Walenn was a cellist and professor at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

; Charles Walenn was a singer; another son was an organist, and Gerald Walenn and a daughter were violinists. Two other children found their way into art professions,"14 Jun 1917 – A Distinguished Musician. Mr. Gerald Walenn in Adelaide"
''The Advertiser'' (Adelaide), 14 June 1917, p. 7, Trove.nla.gov.au, accessed 3 January 2018Kumm. Elisabeth
"Walenn, Charles R (1867–1948)"
TheatreHeritage.org, 28 July 2017, accessed 3 January 2018 and a daughter, Isabella, married the designer Arthur Silver. Walenn was one of the earliest abridgers of specifications to the Patent Office, beginning under the then

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

, Mr. Woodcroft, for whom he compiled the Series of Abridgments relating to "Electricity and Magnetism," "Photography," and other subjects. In 1866, his book, ''Little Experiments for Little Chemists'', was published, and in it was given a new process for depositing brass upon zinc. In 1871, he contributed a paper to the '' Philosophical Magazine'', "On Solutions for Depositing Copper and Brass by means of Electric Force", and about the same time he conducted some experiments for the Government in electro-deposition of copper upon the bottom of an iron ship. Between 1868 and 1880, several mathematical papers of Walenn's, on "Unitates" and methods of checking calculations by means of these, were published in the ''Phil. Mag.'' He died at his residence, 9 Carleton Road, Tufnell Park, on 20 September 1896, after a long illness.

References

* ''Journal of the Chemical Society'', Volume 71, Part 2. Chemical Society (Great Britain), Bureau of Chemical Abstracts (Great Britain). The Society (1897), p. 1206. {{DEFAULTSORT:Walenn, William Henry 1828 births 1896 deaths British chemists Alumni of University College London Fellows of the Chemical Society

Biography

See also

References