William Sage Rapson (14 August 1912 – 25 June 1999) was a New Zealand and South African chemist. His initial career was in
organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...
but he moved into
inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...
with particular emphasis on gold. His research interests ranged from fish oil through
coal liquefaction
Coal liquefaction is a process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals. This process is often known as "Coal to X" or "Carbon to X", where X can be many different hydrocarbon-based products. However, the most c ...
to
X-ray diffraction
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...
.
Early life and education
Rapson was one of seven children raised on a small farm in
Kaihu, New Zealand. He attended
Mount Albert Grammar School
Mount Albert Grammar School, commonly known as MAGS, is a co-educational state secondary school in Mount Albert in Auckland, New Zealand. It teaches students in year levels 9 to 13. , Mount Albert Grammar School is the second largest school in ...
where he was a Rawlings Scholar and later Senior National Scholar. He then went on to
Auckland University College
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
as a Junior University Scholar, Senior University Scholar, Duffus Lubecki Scholar and lastly Sir George Grey Scholar. He attained his master's degree at the age of 20 and in 1933 he became lecturer in chemistry at the University College.
In 1934 he went to Oxford to study organic chemistry with
Robert Robinson. He developed the
Rapson-Robinson synthesis, while completing his thesis in 1935 at the age of 23. He was then appointed lecturer in organic chemistry at the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
(1935–41).
Research
In 1946 he became professor designate of Chemistry after having been a Senior Lecturer. He did pioneering work on fruit and fish resource of the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
region which became the foundation for South Africa's fish oil industry. He also researched
coal liquefaction
Coal liquefaction is a process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals. This process is often known as "Coal to X" or "Carbon to X", where X can be many different hydrocarbon-based products. However, the most c ...
and collaborated with physicists at the University of Cape Town on the development of
X-ray diffraction
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...
.
He was the first director of the National Chemical Research Laboratory of the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa's central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the cit ...
(CSIR) in
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
. His research areas included South African water and mineral resources. In particular, deacidification and
desalination
Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...
methods
for waste dumps and rivers. He identified a type of grass that would grow in the
acid
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
ic sand of gold mine
tailings
In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...
dumps around
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
to assist with preventing the sand from polluting the nearby rivers.
In 1958 he was promoted to vice-president of CSIR. He was then appointed Research Advisor to the
Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines, with the aim of improving production and reducing waste. His research, in collaboration with T. Groenewald was published in the journals ''Gold Bulletin'' and ''Gold Technology''. In 1978 Rapson and Groenewald co-authored the book ''Gold Usage'', the first textbook on gold to be published since ''Die Edelmetalle und Ihre Legierungen''
by E. Raub (1940). Rapson later went on to translate ''Die Edelmetalle und Ihre Legierungen'' into English but that version was only published after his death.
Private life
In 1937 Rapson married Joyce Rachel Abey, who had been permanently disabled in a motorcycle accident prior to them meeting. They had two daughters. She died in 1996. Rapson died in 1999.
Selected works
*
*Rapson, W. S. and Groenewald, T. (1978) ''Gold Usage''. Academic Press. .
Sources
*Austin, Brian (2001) ''Schonland – Scientist and Soldier'', IOPP, Bristol,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapson, William
1912 births
1999 deaths
New Zealand chemists
South African scientists
University of Auckland alumni
People from the Northland Region
New Zealand emigrants to South Africa