William Irvine

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1743-1787) was an 18th-century British doctor and chemist who served as assistant to

Joseph Black Joseph Black (16 April 1728 – 6 December 1799) was a Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry at the University of Glas ...

in many of his important experiments. He twice served as President of the

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, is an institute of physicians and surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by Peter Lowe after receiving a royal charter by James VI in 1599, as the Glasgow Faculty, it originally exist ...

: 1775 to 1777 and 1783 to 1785.

Life

Irvine was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in 1743, the son of Michael Irvine, a merchant. He studied at the High School in Glasgow. He entered

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1756 and studied medicine and chemistry under

. Black later chose Irvine to assist him in his experiments on

latent heat Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process — usually a first-order phase transition. Latent heat can be understo ...

. Irvine graduated MD around 1763 and then did further postgraduate studies in London and Paris. In 1766, he returned to Glasgow University to begin lecturing on Materia Medica. In 1770, he succeeded John Robison as professor of chemistry (Robison having replaced Black in 1766). In 1783, Irvine was a co-founder of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. The focus of his work was industrial chemistry, with a special interest in glass production. He caught a severe fever whilst visiting a Glasgow glassworks that he owned, and died as a result, on 9 July 1787.

Family

Irvine was married to Grace Hamilton, by whom he had one son, also William Irvine (1776–1811). His son followed in his footsteps and was also an industrial chemist and a physician. In the Napoleonic Wars, Irvine served as an army physician in both

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

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. In 1806, he was elected a Fellow of the

. His proposers were James Russell, James Hamilton, and

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, William 1743 births 1787 deaths Scottish chemists 18th-century Scottish medical doctors Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Glasgow