William Webster (1855-1910) was an English chemical engineer credited with developments in gas detection, sewage treatment and medical use of

x-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

s. A gifted artist and musician, Webster also helped found the

Blackheath Concert Halls Blackheath Halls is a 600-seat concert hall on Lee Road in Blackheath, London, United Kingdom. It claims to be London's oldest surviving purpose-built cultural venue.http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/blackheath-halls/about-blackheath-halls About Bl ...

and the adjacent

Conservatoire A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

in Blackheath in south-east London during the 1890s.

Career

Webster was the son of William Webster, a successful building contractor who grew wealthy from constructing major civil engineering and building projects in London. The family lived from 1869 in Wyberton House in Lee Terrace, Blackheath. The younger William Webster trained as a chemical engineer. A fellow of the

Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society 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. ...

, he patented a system to detect hydrogenous gases in mines in 1876, and later developed a system for the

electrolytic An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon di ...

purification of sewage (patent application filed on 22 December 1887; US patent awarded on 19 February 1889), trialled in 1888 at the

Crossness Crossness is a location in the London Borough of Bexley, close to the southern bank of the River Thames, to the east of Thamesmead, west of Belvedere and north-west of Erith. The place takes its name from Cross Ness, a specific promontory on the ...

Southern Outfall works which had been built by his father's firm in the 1860s. Webster was also a pioneer in

research and a founder member of the Röntgen Society (since 1927 part of the

British Institute of Radiology The British Institute of Radiology (BIR) is a radiology society and charity based in London, United Kingdom. It is the oldest institute of its kind in the world, forming on 2 April 1897. History The society can be traced back to two separate i ...

), assisting surgeon Thomas Moore in producing radiographs in 1896, after which Moore set up an x-ray unit at the

Miller General Hospital The Miller General Hospital was a hospital in Greenwich, London from 1884 until 1974. It was developed adjacent to an earlier dispensary, and was the first British hospital designed with circular wards, and one of the first to have an X-ray depa ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

High Road. Webster is also believed to be the first person to experience radiation 'sunburn', suffered on his right hand. He wrote a letter on the subject of x-ray photography published in the journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' in 1897. Webster was an accomplished violinist, singer, and artist - his paintings were exhibited in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. In 1881 local residents formed the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music, and Webster founded the company which funded the building of a concert hall, today Blackheath Halls, and its neighbouring schools for art and music, the

Blackheath Conservatoire The Conservatoire (formally The Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and the Arts) is an educational charity in Blackheath, on the border of the London boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham. The Conservatoire of Music and the Arts took on its curren ...

. The Conservatoire of Music opened in 1896 and the School of Art in 1897.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, William Chemical engineering 1855 births 1910 deaths English patrons of the arts British chemical engineers People from Lee, London X-ray pioneers 19th-century British philanthropists